More than 90% of children with rare leukemia survive without progression for two years with new drugs

• by EVOMT
• 2017-06-22

This drug can help some children overcome rare leukemia

Researchers report that the cancer drug dasatinib shows new hope for treating chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in children caused by the gene BCR-ABL (also known as the Philadelphia chromosome).

Research Senior Author Dr Dr. Lia Gore said, "Although this molecular driver, BCR-ABL, is present in both adults and children, the performance of children is different, and pediatric patients tend to be more aggressive. She is co chair of the Blood Malignant Tumor Program at the University of Colorado Cancer Center.".

Gore said in a university news report, "We understand that children's patients around the world who are treated at Colorado Children's Hospital have good disease control, low toxicity, and can truly return to normal activities and daily life."

Gore added, "One of our long-term treatment patients is currently in college, and due to her illness, she decided to go to nursing school."

Chronic myeloid leukemia accounts for 5% of all childhood leukemias, with approximately 150 cases occurring annually in the United States.

Most cancers, including CML, are more common in adults, making it difficult to meet sufficient pediatric cancer patients in clinical trials. She said that this latest trial is the largest prospective trial conducted in 80 medical centers in 18 countries for pediatric patients with CML.

Of the 113 pediatric patients in the second phase of the clinical trial, 75% of those who had failed treatment or were unable to tolerate the old drug Gleevec survived without progression 48 months after starting treatment with dasatinib (Sprycel).

"More than 90% of newly diagnosed and previously untreated patients have a progression free survival period of 48 months of treatment," the study authors said.

The study was presented Monday at the annual meeting of the Clinical Oncology Society in Chicago, USA.

Dasatinib

Dashatinib is an oral anticancer drug developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and approved in Europe in 2006 for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia and Ph+acute lymphocytic leukemia. In May 2009, dasatinib was approved by the FDA for the treatment of various stages of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), chronic myeloid leukemia that is resistant or intolerable to treatment regimens including imatinib mesylate, and Philadelphia chromosome positive (Ph+) acute lymphocytic leukemia (Ph+ALL). In 2010, the FDA approved its expanded indication for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome positive chronic myeloid leukemia (Ph+CP-CML).

In July 2016, Bristol-Myers leukemia drug dasatinib (trade name Sprycel) made new progress in expanding its indications. Research has shown that this drug has the potential to treat ovarian cancer.

At the asco conference in 2017, researchers reported that the cancer drug dasatinib showed new hope for treating chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in children caused by the gene BCR-ABL (also known as the Philadelphia chromosome).