Mauro on the Future of CML Treatment

Michael J. Mauro, MD, director of the chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) program in the leukemia service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, provides a summary of a presentation at the 2024 Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO) Annual Meeting on the recent advancements in CML treatment and applying clinical evidence to cases that are advanced.

Mauro highlights the increasing availability of effective tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and the ongoing need for research to optimize treatment strategies. According to Mauro, one of the main goals in the CML space is to identify therapies that can lead to more patients achieving a cure or long-term remission.

Transcription:

0:09 | At SOHO 2024, I am part of a satellite symposium with my colleagues, Elias Jabbour, MD, and Jorge Cortes, MD. I believe the overarching theme is challenging cases in CML. I think it is appropriate now [as] in 2024, we are likely to see new frontline approvals. We have a full pallet of CML TKIs approved. We have some changes from branded drug to generic drug availability, and we have a continuing agenda to look at long term safety, optimum response, treatment, cessation. Many questions still, [and] even though we have a great list of therapies for CML, we still have work to do, especially for our patients. So, we are going to talk about an overview of the newer drugs and the developments that we have seen, and then go through cases to hopefully illustrate some of the progress we have made.

1:03 | With newer drugs showing better efficacy in the frontline, I think the holy grail in CML will be, do they bring more patients to a cure? That would be the most exciting thing for me, because I am focused on, again, high yield, low-risk therapy. I think some really offer that option, and if we then can see that with better responses and tolerability in the frontline, that converts to more patients reaching a potential treatment-free remission opportunity, or a more successful treatment for remission endeavor, that would be fantastic. That would be the icing and the sprinkles and the cherry on top of the cake.