Dr. Cortes on the Results of Quizartinib in Relapsed/Refractory AML

Jorge E. Cortes, MD, professor and deputy chair, Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the results of quizartinib in patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

The phase III randomized controlled QUANTUM-R trial evaluated the safety and efficacy of the FLT3 inhibitor quizartinib in patients with relapsed/refractory FLT3-ITD—mutant AML. The first report from this trial was presented at the 2018 European Hematology Association Congress, showing that single-agent quizartinib significantly prolonged overall survival (OS). The median OS for patients treated with quizartinib was 27 weeks (95% CI, 23.1-31.3), and 20.4 weeks (95% CI, 17.3-23.7) for patients treated with salvage chemotherapy. Cortes says that the OS hazard ratio of quizartinib was relative to salvage chemotherapy at 0.76 (95% CI, 0.58-0.98; P = .0177).

Additionally, the percentage of patients that are alive at 1 year is 26% in the quizartinib arm, and 20% in the control arm of salvage chemotherapy. Cortes says that with a statistically significant median OS, this trial is very positive for patients with FLT3-ITD—mutant AML.