Investigational drug Shows Survival Benefit For Some Leukemia Patients in Phase 3 study
An investigational drug taken while undergoing chemotherapy demonstrated superior overall survival compared to chemotherapy alone in adult patients with a common, highly aggressive subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
The large international phase 3 study, co-led by Duke Cancer Institute researcher Harry P. Erba, M.D., Ph.D., demonstrated that the drug quizartinib plus chemotherapy resulted in a median overall survival of 31.9 months. The median survival time was more than twice that of study patients randomly assigned to standard chemotherapy and placebo (15.1 months).
The findings are presented at the European Hematology Association meeting in Vienna, Austria on June 11.
AML is one of the most common forms of leukemia in adults, representing about one-third of all cases. The five-year survival rate of AML is about 29%. Patients in the study had a subtype of AML known as FLT3-ITD positive, which typically has worse outcomes.
"We focused on patients with AML in this high-risk group and saw a significant survival benefit with the addition of a very potent and highly targeted therapy to the standard treatment," Erba said.
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