Breast cancer drug boosts leukemia treatment: Unexpected duo shows promise in overcoming resistance

Medical Xpress / Oregon Health & Science University / Cell Reports Medicine ^ | Dec. 29, 2025 | Melissa Stewart, Ph.D. et al

[ConservativeMind]

A research team has discovered a promising new drug combination that may help people with acute myeloid leukemia overcome resistance to one of the most common frontline therapies.

Researchers analyzed more than 300 acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, patient samples and found that pairing venetoclax, a standard AML drug, with palbociclib, a cell-cycle inhibitor currently approved for breast cancer, produced significantly stronger and more durable anti-leukemia activity than venetoclax alone. The findings were confirmed in human tissue samples, as well as in mouse models carrying human leukemia cells.

Since the drug was approved by the FDA in 2019, venetoclax combined with azacitidine has rapidly become a go-to treatment for many people with AML. But resistance remains a nearly universal problem.

The study found that AML cells exposed to venetoclax alone try to adapt by increasing protein production, a shift that helps them survive. Adding palbociclib, a drug approved for breast cancer, blocked this adaptation by regulating protein-production machinery inside the cell.

The research team tested the combination using mouse models implanted with human AML cells carrying mutations known to cause venetoclax resistance.

"In this model, venetoclax alone didn't extend survival at all—just as we'd expect based on the genetics," Stewart said. "But with the combination, the majority of mice lived 11 to 12 months. In fact, one mouse was still alive when the study ended."

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TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS:

[ConservativeMind]

The drugs (palbociclib, venetoclax, and azacitidine) are available today, but haven’t been used together, before.

They help beat down AML.

[ConservativeMind]

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[Governor Dinwiddie]

Amazing. Great news.