Health Rounds: New combination treatments promising for blood cancers

Syndax Pharmaceuticals

10/12/2024 20:36

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    By Nancy Lapid
       Dec 10 (Reuters) - Hello Health Rounds Readers! Today we
cover a trio of studies on combination therapies presented at
one of the year's most important meetings on blood disorders and
cancers, the American Society of Hematology meeting in San
Diego. We also feature an early trial testing a new imaging
technique that could one day improve treatment of ovarian and
possibly other cancers.    
        
  
    Triple-drug therapies show promise for blood cancers
    Novel triple-drug therapies are showing promise for 
patients with various kinds of leukemia, researchers reported at
the American Society of Hematology meeting.
    One trial involved 33 adults and children with relapsed or
refractory advanced acute myeloid leukemia with mutations of the
KMT2A or NUP98 genes.
    Nearly half of the patients achieved either a complete
remission or a complete remission in bone marrow with a partial
recovery of blood cell counts after treatment with a combination
of Revuforj from Syndax Pharmaceuticals  SNDX.O , AbbVie’s
 ABBV.N  Venclexta and Inqovi from Astex Pharmaceuticals, which
is a combination of the chemotherapy decitabine and
cedazuridine. The treatment led to an 82% overall response rate.
    Revuforj, known chemically as revumenib, is the first
so-called menin inhibitor to win U.S. approval. By blocking the
interaction between menin and other proteins, revumenib turns
leukemia cells back into normal blood cells.
    “This is a major step forward for treating acute leukemias
with these genetic rearrangements,” study leader Dr. Ghayas Issa
said in a statement.
    In a separate trial involving 56 patients with acute myeloid
leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes and myeloproliferative
neoplasms, the combination of Servier’s Tibsovo, Venclexta and
Bristol Myers Squibb’s  BMY.N  Onureg achieved an overall
response rate of 94% and a complete remission rate of 93%,
researchers said. 
    The three-year overall survival rate was 70.5%, and patients
who went on to receive a stem cell transplant had a three-year
overall survival rate of 94.7%.
    “This triplet regimen is safe, well tolerated and provided
impressive response rates for those enrolled in the trial,” said
Dr. Jennifer Marvin-Peek, who presented the study at the ASH
meeting. “The results we are seeing really position this triplet
regimen as a potential standard-of-care option.”
    In another trial of patients with previously untreated
chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a triplet regimen of Eli Lilly’s
 LLY.N  Jaypirca, Gazyva from Roche  ROG.S , and Venclexta
achieved high rates of undetectable measurable residual disease.
    After 13 cycles, the undetectable MRD rate was 98% in bone
marrow and 100% in blood among 41 evaluable patients. With more
sensitive tests, MRD rates were 80% and 85% in bone marrow and
blood, respectively.
    “We were extremely impressed by the results of this
frontline triplet regimen for our patients, as we observed some
of the highest depths of remission we have ever seen in patients
with CLL,” study leader Dr. Nitin Jain said in a statement.
    “Today, we have several patients who are no longer on the
therapy and are monitored by regular blood MRD testing.”
    All three researchers cited are from the MD Anderson Cancer
Center in Houston.
    
    New imaging technique could improve ovarian cancer treatment
        An MRI-based imaging technique that distinguishes
between two different subtypes of ovarian tumors in test tube
experiments with cancer cells may eventually help doctors
customize patients’ treatments, researchers say.
    The technique, called hyperpolarised carbon-13 imaging,
would predict how well patients’ tumors will respond to
treatment and also let doctors see whether treatments are
working within 48 hours, according to a report published in
Oncogene.
    Different forms of ovarian cancer respond differently to
drugs. With current tests, patients typically wait for weeks or
months to find out whether their cancer is responding to
treatment. The rapid feedback provided by this new technique
would help oncologists adjust patients’ treatments within days,
the researchers said.
    Ovarian cancer patients often have multiple tumors, and it
is not possible to biopsy all of them, the researchers noted.
MRI, which is non-invasive, would allow for analysis of all of
the tumors.
    When they compared the hyperpolarised imaging technique with
results from positron emission tomography scans, they found that
the PET scans did not detect the metabolic differences between
different tumor subtypes and so could not identify the type of
tumor.
    “One of the questions cancer patients ask most often is
whether their treatment is working. If oncologists can speed
their patients onto the best treatment, then it’s clearly of
benefit,” study leader Kevin Brindle in the University of
Cambridge said in a statement. 
    His team is hoping to test the technique in ovarian cancer
patients within the next few years.
    Brindle has also been studying ways to use hyperpolarised
carbon-13 imaging to investigate breast, prostate and brain
tumors.



 (Reporting by Nancy Lapid; editing by Bill Berkrot)
 ((Nancy.Lapid@thomsonreuters.com))