All-Oral Treatment of Newly Diagnosed Acute Myeloid Leukemia
47% of the patients in this study had complete response (CR) on all oral regimen of decitabine–cedazuridine 5 days every 28 days plus venetoclax 400mg daily.
Ziftomenib—a potent, highly selective, oral menin inhibitor—was well tolerated and demonstrated encouraging clinical activity as monotherapy for relapsed/refractory NPM1-mutated (NPM1-m) and KMT2A-rearranged AML in the KOMET-001 phase I trial.
In the registration-enabling phase II part of KOMET-001, patients with relapsed/refractory NPM1-m AML received ziftomenib 600 mg once daily. The primary end point was the rate of complete remission with full hematologic recovery (CR)/CR with partial hematologic recovery (CRh).
From January 26, 2023, to May 13, 2024, 92 patients (median age, 69 years [range, 33-84]) were treated. The primary end point was met, with a CR/CRh rate of 22% (95% CI, 14 to 32; P = .0058); 61% were negative for measurable residual disease. Overall response rate was 33% (95% CI, 23 to 43), with a median duration of 4.6 months (95% CI, 2.8 to 7.4). Prespecified subgroup analyses showed comparable CR/CRh regardless of previous therapy, including venetoclax, or type of comutations. Median overall survival was 6.6 months (95% CI, 3.6 to 8.6). Common grade ≥3 treatment-emergent adverse events were febrile neutropenia (26%), anemia (20%), and thrombocytopenia (20%). Differentiation syndrome occurred in 25% of patients (15% grade 3; no grade 4-5) and was manageable with protocol-defined mitigation. Three patients (3%) discontinued treatment because of ziftomenib-related adverse events.
Ziftomenib demonstrated significant clinical benefit and deep responses in patients with heavily pretreated, relapsed/refractory NPM1-m AML. Ziftomenib was well tolerated with a safety profile consistent with previous studies, including manageable differentiation syndrome, lack of clinically significant QTc prolongation, and low rates of myelosuppression.
47% of the patients in this study had complete response (CR) on all oral regimen of decitabine–cedazuridine 5 days every 28 days plus venetoclax 400mg daily.
This is an impressive advance in allo transplant, Orca-T cutting moderate–severe cGVHD dramatically (≈13% vs 44%) and nearly doubling cGVHD-free survival at 1 year (78% vs 38%) while also lowering NRM and serious infections is hard to ignore. Overall survival (OS) isn’t statistically different yet, but the combination of better disease control, less toxicity, and preserved immune reconstitution makes this feel like a meaningful step toward safer, more “engineered” transplants rather than just better immunosuppression.
This is starting to look like a real frontline disruptor in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), asciminib showing a pretty striking ~22% absolute improvement in MMR at 96 weeks vs investigator-selected TKIs (and nearly 30% over imatinib) with a cleaner tolerability profile makes a strong case for moving beyond ATP-competitive tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) upfront. The efficacy signal is consistent across depths of response and durability looks excellent, with fewer discontinuations, overall survival (OS) will take time, but this feels very competitive as a new standard option.
CLL17 shows that fixed‑duration venetoclax–obinutuzumab or venetoclax–ibrutinib is noninferior to continuous ibrutinib upfront, with 3‑year PFS ≈80% across all arms. The big difference is depth of response, undetectable MRD was 73% with venetoclax–obinutuzumab, 47% with venetoclax–ibrutinib, and 0% with ibrutinib. Toxicities tracked with mechanism (more cytopenias/infusion reactions with ven‑obinutuzumab, more cardiac events with ibrutinib). Overall, this strongly supports time‑limited therapy as a frontline standard for many chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients.
Pirtobrutinib demonstrated superiority over bendamustine rituximab in IRC assessed progression free survival (PFS) in treatment naïve CLL/SLL, with a 24 month PFS rate of 93.4% versus 70.7%. Overall survival trends favored pirtobrutinib, despite the study design allowing for crossover. Who would have thought this was coming????