Dr. Patnaik on Activity of SL-401 in Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia

Mrinal Patnaik, MBBS, hematologist, Mayo Clinic, discusses the encouraging results seen in a phase II trial evaluating the activity of SL-401 in patients with advanced, high-risk myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), including chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML).

SL-401 is a novel targeted therapy directed to the interleukin-3 receptor (CD123), a target overexpressed by many hematologic malignancies. CD123 has been shown to be expressed on MPN cells as well as microenvironmental immune cells, specifically plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), in the bone marrows of some patients with MPN including CMML.

Initial dosing of SL-401 appears to be well tolerated thus far in patients with MPN and CMML, with no unexpected toxicities observed.

The hope, says Patnaik, is that these researchers can improve patients' blood counts, reduce transfusion dependency, improve symptoms, and also produce improvement in terms of both overall and complete responses.