Antibodies targeting CD269 and GPRC5D have shown unprecedented clinical efficacy in the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM), but many patients still develop progressive disease. It was hypothesized that dual-targeting T-cell immunotherapies might improve the efficacy by addressing the difficulty of heterogenous target expression and preventing resistance development due to antigen escape.
Apollo Therapeutics Ltd. has developed APL-4098, a small-molecule general control nonderepressible 2 (GCN2) inhibitor for the potential treatment of AML.
Astrazeneca plc has provided data for their CD22-targeting antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) AZD-4512 under development for the treatment of B-cell malignancies, which still have significant rates of disease resistance and relapse, as well as treatment-related toxicities.
Amphista Therapeutics Ltd. has developed and presented data for AMX-883, a novel orally bioavailable bromodomain-containing protein 9 (BRD9) degradation inducer for acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
treatment.
Novartis AG’s monoclonal antibody, ianalumab (VAY-736), when added to standard-of-care eltrombopag, extended disease control of primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) by 45%, according to data presented Dec. 9 during a late-breaker abstract session at the 67th American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.
ENL-YEATS is an epigenetic reader that sustains transcriptional programs essential for AML, whereas FLT3 mutations, present in approximately 30% of patients, drive malignant proliferation. Dual inhibition of ENL-YEATS and FLT3 may therefore more effectively disrupt complementary drivers of leukemogenesis than FLT3 targeting alone.
Exicure Inc.’s buyout early this year of GPCR Therapeutics Inc. is paying off in a big way with data from the finished phase II trial testing burixafor (GPC-100). The agent is used with propranolol and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor to mobilize hematopoietic progenitor cells in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) undergoing autologous hematopoietic cell transplant.
Impressive results of a potential second-line combination treatment for multiple myeloma from the Majestec-3 trial of teclistamab plus daratumumab raised eyebrows at the American Society of Hematology’s 67th annual meeting, with the combination showing an 83.4% rate of progression-free survival at three years vs. 29.7% for standard of care.
Targeted therapies and immunotherapies continue to show better results than chemotherapy in investigator-initiated and company-sponsored cancer trials, and newer options demonstrate improvements over older ones, supporting potential shifts in how patients are treated.
While several targeted therapies are approved for acute myeloid leukemia, a 2023 U.K. study found that median survival following diagnosis was only about seven months, highlighting the need not only for new therapies, but for a faster regulatory strategy. At the American Society of Hematology’s 67th annual meeting in Orlando Dec. 6, researcher Jesse Tettero presented data supporting the use of a measurable residual disease (MRD) surrogate endpoint in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) research.