Rami Komrokji, MD:CPX-351, or liposomal cytarabine and daunorubicin, is a liposomal form of chemotherapy that, in preclinical studies, shows maximum efficacy or killing of the leukemia cells. This drug had been developed in phase I and phase II clinical studies. We observed that patients who had therapy-related AML or AML secondary from MDS had a potential survival benefit in the phase II setting. There was a phase III design with this medication that randomized patients who either had therapy-related AML or AML from antecedent MDS or AML with dysplastic changes or karyotypes similar to MDS. Those patients were randomized to standard chemotherapy, what we call 3 + 7, versus CPX-351. The primary endpoint was overall survival.
The study, in terms of efficacy, showed that there was an overall survival advantage in the patients who were treated with CPX-351. The response rates were higher with CPX-351. More patients were able to be bridged to allogeneic stem cell transplant. In terms of safety, the 30-day and 60-day mortality with CPX-351 was less than with intensive chemotherapy. This led to the approval of CPX-351 in patients we described, and that’s what we currently use it in patients with therapy-related AML.
What was presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting was a subset analysis of those patients who had the therapy-related AML. There were about 30 patients in each group who had therapy-related AML. This really demonstrated the same overall results in all of the groupsthere was benefit with CPX-351 in terms of efficacy when compared with 3 + 7 chemotherapy.
Transcript edited for clarity.
Case: A 67-Year-Old Man with Therapy-Related AML