Dr. Talley on Clinical Trials for Patients With Chronic Leukemias

Robert L. Talley, MD, hematologist/medical oncologist, Centerpoint Medical Center, Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute, discusses clinical trials for patients with chronic leukemias.

The ENESTop protocol examined the long-term follow-up of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Updated results from the phase II, open-label study that evaluated treatment-free remission (TFR) after discontinuation of second-line nilotinib (Tasigna) showed that TFR continued after discontinuation of second-line nilotinib. Talley said that the updated results show good continual responses from the TKIs with a low incidence of side effects.

The other abstract looked at moxetumomab pasudotox for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed/refractory hairy cell leukemia (HCL), explains Talley. Moxetumomab is an anti-CD22 recombinant. The ongoing international study has shown a substantial response rate as well as minimal residual disease negativity through immunohistochemistry.

In April, the agent received a priority review designation by the FDA. The application followed the results of the phase III 1053 study, which met its primary endpoint of durable complete responses in adult patients with relapsed/refractory HCL.