Dr. McCloskey Discusses IDH Inhibitors in AML

James K. McCloskey II, MD, medical oncologist, Division of Leukemia and the Adult Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplantation Program, John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses IDH inhibitors in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (AML).

Over the last 6 months, there have been several drugs that have come to market in a field that had previously not seen a drug approved in decades, explains McCloskey. The use of IDH inhibitors in IDH-mutated patients with AML continues to excite physicians, McCloskey adds.

A quarter of patients with AML will have a mutation with IDH1/2. Currently, there are 2 drugs to target these mutations. For IDH2-mutated AML, the drug enasidenib (AG-221) has recently come to market. There is phase II data demonstrating that 89% of patients with relapsed/refractory IDH2-mutated AML had stable disease by day 90 with enasidenib. These patients could survive for a period of time with stable disease and might later have a response, explains McCloskey.

In those patients, one quarter went on to have a response and therefore had an improvement in the risk of death from AML. Stable disease might be a more important endpoint for molecular therapy than it is when using chemotherapy agents, says McCloskey.