Azacitidine prolongs overall survival and reduces infections and hospitalisations in patients with WHO-defined acute myeloid leukaemia compared with conventional care regimens: An update

Abstract

Azacitidine (AZA), as demonstrated in the phase III trial (AZA-001), is the first MDS treatment to significantly prolong overall survival (OS) in higher risk MDS pts ((2007) Blood 110 817). Approximately, one-third of the patients (pts) enrolled in AZA-001 were FAB RAEB-T (≥20-30% blasts) and now meet the WHO criteria for acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) ((1999) Blood 17 3835). Considering the poor prognosis (median survival <1 year) and the poor response to chemotherapy in these pts, this sub-group analysis evaluated the effects of AZA versus conventional care regimens (CCR) on OS and on response rates in pts with WHO AML.

The efficacy of current prognostic models in predicting outcome of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes at the time of hypomethylating agent failure

“…Aziz Nazha, 1 Rami S. Komrokji, 2 Guillermo Garcia-Manero, 3 John Barnard, 4 Gail J. Roboz, 5 David P. Steensma, 6 Amy E. DeZern, 7 Katrina Zell, 4 Cassie Zimmerman, …”

“…Though treatment with AZA and DAC may improve overall survival (OS), [5][6][7] patients who fail HMAs have poor outcomes, with an OS of 4.3-5.6 months. 8,9 Furthermore, higher-risk MDS patients who are relapsed or refractory to HMAs are a newlydefined patient population being enrolled in trials of novel drugs, with regulatory implications.…”

200 Clinical Outcomes of Aml Patients Treated With Azacitidine in Portugal: A Retrospective Multicenter Study

“…In this setting it had proven to be well tolerated including by those more elderly [25]. Based on this experience, several groups have tested the efficacy and safety of AZA in elderly patients with AML with promising results [16,17,19,26].…”

Challenges in Treating Older Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia

“…5-azacitidine was approved in 2004 for the treatment of all subtypes of MDS (75 mg/m 2 given subcutaneously for 7 consecutive days at a 21 days interval) [57, 58]. Recently, the efficacy of azacitidine was compared to conventional care regimens (CCR: best supportive care, low dose cytarabin or standard induction chemotherapy) in a phase III study in 358 patients with higher risk MDS (median age = 69 years) [59]. Interestingly, almost one third of the patients (113 of 358) met the WHO criteria for AML (median bone marrow blasts 23%).…”