Researchers leading the SWOG S1712 clinical trial have found that adding ruxolitinib to standard tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment for patients with chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CP-CML) significantly increased the percentage of patients who had a molecular response deep enough to warrant discontinuing treatment. CML is often treated with a class of drugs known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors. But leukemic stem cells can hide from TKIs in a patient's bone marrow. Preclinical data suggested that a drug called ruxolitinib can alter the bone marrow microenvironment to sensitize these stem cells to TKIs. In clinical trial S1712, they randomized 75 eligible...
