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According to researchers, 80% of patients with previously untreated or relapsed/refractory advanced-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)—including both accelerated or myeloid blast phases of the disease—or Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML) achieved a bone marrow remission when treated with a novel combination of decitabine, venetoclax and ponatinib. Findings from the Phase II clinical trial represent an important step forward for patients with advanced-phase CML, who tend to have poor outcomes. "Over the last decade, there have been very few studies that evaluated a regimen to treat this rare disease and identify a potential standard-of-care treatment," said Nicholas Short, M.D. "It...

Selenium-enriched diets may help ward off myeloid leukemia, and a new study led by researchers has described the mechanism by which this occurs. The findings eventually could help lead to drug therapies that target some types of leukemia—including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the researchers said. Penn State scientists previously found that supplementing the diets of mice with selenium—a trace mineral naturally found in varying amounts in many foods—stimulated the production of compounds known as cyclopentenone prostaglandins, which appeared to kill or suppress leukemia stem cells. Their latest study shows that these prostaglandins, called CyPGs, bind to and activate a gene,...

An immunotherapy harnessing the immune system's "natural killer" cells has proven effective in treating acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in some adults whose cancers return. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown, in a small clinical trial, that the same natural killer cells also can help some children and young adults with recurrent AML and few other treatment options. Results from the phase 1 trial, which included eight patients ages 1 to 30 years, are published online in the journal Blood. "All of the patients enrolled in this study had very aggressive AML," said first...