promising combination of drugs New research suggests it may help leukemia patients who don’t respond to traditional treatments.
A team from Oregon Health & Science University made the discovery by analyzing samples from more than 300 patients. acute myeloid leukemiaor AML.
Data shows that more than 20,000 Americans are diagnosed with AML each year, making it one of the most common leukemias. It is also one of the most aggressive.
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Researchers combined venetoclax, a drug commonly used to treat leukemia, with palbociclib, which is used to treat leukemia. breast cancer. This resulted in significantly more potent and sustained leukemia-fighting activity than venetoclax alone.
This finding was confirmed in human tissue samples and a mouse model harboring human leukemia cells.
“The data show that this drug therapy may be particularly effective for patients whose tumors exhibit features that cause resistance to current standard treatments. Frontline treatments” Jeffrey Tyner, professor of cell biology, developmental biology, and cancer biology at Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine and Knight Cancer Institute, told FOX News Digital.
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Tyner, a member of the research team, noted that initial trials looked at a wide range of drug combinations and did not start with a particular “favorite.”
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Of all the combinations tested, including current standard treatment regimens, the combination of leukemia and breast cancer drugs showed the most promising results.
“That’s what really motivated us.” dig deeper We now understand why this works so well and why it appears to be able to overcome the resistance seen with current treatments,” Melissa Stewart, research assistant professor at OHSU and lead author of the study, said in a press release.
The study found that AML cells exposed to venetoclax alone were able to adapt by increasing protein production. However, adding palbociclib blocked this adaptation and prevented cancer cell viability.
“In this model, venetoclax alone did not extend survival at all, as expected based on the data below. genetics“But with this combination, the majority of mice lived 11 to 12 months,” Stewart said. In fact, one mouse was still alive at the end of the study. ”
According to Tyner, this study helps explain the biological reasons behind the better results of this new drug combination and sets the stage for clinical trials. real patient.
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The drug, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2019, is often used in combination with another cancer drug, azacytidine. Even in this duo, resistance to treatment remained nearly universal.
“Unfortunately, eventually almost everyone will develop drug resistance,” Tyner said in a press release.
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“Although this regimen has improved initial response rates and quality of life, the five-year survival rate for AML is still only about 25% to 40%. We have a lot of work to do,” he added.
This data strongly suggests that this new drug should be tested in clinical trials, but the research team says they do not yet have data on clinical activity in AML patients, except for a few reported cases.
“So the biggest limitation is also the next step we want to take, which is to test this new drug combination in clinical trials,” Tyner said.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the manufacturer of Venetoclax for comment.
