Among patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), treatment with a Venclexta (venetoclax)-based regimen was shown to have survival benefits as well as a manageable safety profile, researchers have found.
The real-world study by the Turkish Hematology Network Group, findings from which were published in Medicina, analyzed clinical and laboratory data of adult patients with AML or MDS who were treated with Venclexta between January 2019 and January 2022, with survival calculations based on the period of 2019 to December 2023, with 161 patients with AML and 40 patients with MDS included in the research.
Most patients — 77.6% of those with AML and 75% of those with MDS — had received treatment before Venclexta. In addition, researchers reported that Venclexta had been administered in combination with azacitidine for most patients, including 84.5% of those with AML and 67.5% of those with MDS.
Glossary:
Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML): a type of cancer in which the bone marrow makes a large number of abnormal blood cells, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS): a group of cancers in which immature blood cells in the bone marrow do not mature or become healthy blood cells, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Venclexta (venetoclax): a drug approved for the treatment of AML and MDS, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Real-world study: a study conducted outside of a clinical trial setting.
Azacitidine: sold under the brand names Onureg and Vidaza, it is a drug approved to treat AML and MDS, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Overall survival: the time a patient lives, regardless of disease status.
Complete remission: the disappearance of all signs of cancer in response to treatment.
Relapse-free survival: the time after treatment that a patient lives without signs or symptoms of cancer.
Researchers reported that the overall two-year overall survival rate was 46%, and the median overall survival time was 18.73 months. For patients with AML, the two-year overall survival rate was 44.1%, while it was 52.7% among patients with MDS.
Among patients with AML, complete remission with incomplete blood count recovery occurred in 31.5% of patients, while 22.6% of patients achieved complete remission, with those rates being 37.5% and 25% among patients with MDS. Remission was achieved by 57.1% of patients with AML and 60% of patients with MDS.
The two-year relapse-free survival rate was 75.5% among patients with AML and 90.9% for patients with MDS, researchers noted.
Regarding side effects, 26.7% of patients with AML and 15% of patients with MDS experienced side effects that were severe (grade 3) or life threatening (grade 4) leading to treatment discontinuation, while side effects that required dose modification occurred among 47.2% of patients with AML and 37.5% of patients with MDS.
“[Venclexta] exhibits a low toxic profile, a low relapse rate and very rare adverse events leading to treatment discontinuation,” researchers concluded in their findings. “These results suggest that [Venclexta] treatment may offer significant clinical responses in both disease groups [of patients with ALM and MDS]. Overall, this study highlights the potential of [Venclexta] to achieve higher overall survival rates when used in combination therapies.”
Reference:
“Multicentral Retrospective Analysis of Venetoclax-Based Treatments in AML and MDS: A Real-World Study by the Turkish Hematology Network Group” by Dr. Ibrahim Halil Acar, et al., Medicina
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