Key clinical point: Asciminib is a safe and effective drug in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) without treatment alternatives in common clinical practice.
Major finding: After a median of 8.8 months on asciminib, the cumulative response rates of complete hematologic response, complete cytogenetic response, and major molecular response were 100%, 66%, and 41%, respectively. Improvement in baseline response and maintenance of baseline response were observed in 55% and 90% of patients, respectively. At last evaluation, 87% of patients remained on asciminib treatment with none discontinuing because of treatment-emergent adverse events.
Study details: Findings are from a retrospective analysis of 31 BCR-ABL1-positive patients with CML treated with asciminib. Patients were heavily treated and switched to asciminib because of intolerance (n=22) or resistance (n=9) to prior tyrosine kinase inhibitors. All patients were treated under the managed-access program by Novartis.
Disclosures: No information on funding was available. Four of the authors including the lead author reported being on advisory committees, receiving funds, and/or speaker honoraria from various pharmaceutical companies. The remaining authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Garcia-Gutiérrez V et al. Blood Cancer J. 2021 Feb 9. doi: 10.1038/s41408-021-00420-8.