Celgene Corp.'s acute myeloid leukemia drug CC-486 helped improve the survival of patients with the difficult-to-treat cancer who had undergone a certain type of therapy during a phase 3 clinical trial.
CC-486 was studied as a maintenance therapy to be used in patients newly diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, who had been successfully treated with incomplete blood count recovery plus a type of chemotherapy. This is the standard of care in this type of blood cancer; however, Celgene said in a Sept. 12 press release that AML for most patients is incurable, with less than 30% of patients surviving longer than five years.
AML is a cancer of the white blood cells that starts in the bone marrow.
Celgene reported that the phase 3 trial, QUAZAR AML-001, met its main goal of improving overall survival of patients, plus its secondary goal of survival without relapse. The trial enrolled 472 patients, comparing CC-486 against placebo.
Further results from the trial will be issued at a future medical meeting. Celgene expects to submit the drug for regulatory approval in the first half of 2020.
