Dr. Kambhampati on Venetoclax in Patients With Myeloid Malignancies

Suman Kambhampati, MD, co-medical director, Blood Cancer Program, Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute, discusses the impact of single-agent venetoclax (Venclexta) in patients with myeloid malignancies.

What is unique about venetoclax is its ability to overcome a key rate-limiting molecular vent in myeloid malignancies. Though that is common in many malignancies, there is a particular lack of chemotherapy efficacy in myeloid malignancies due to the TP53 mutation. Venetoclax can work downstream of P53 and lead to the restoration of chemotherapy responsiveness; that's the “Holy grail,” of cancer therapy, he says.

It's shown success in patients with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia who traditionally were treated with non-intensive chemotherapy approaches. Previously, there wasn’t a big difference in a patients’ overall survival (OS), but now there’s a remarkable prolongation of their OS by venetoclax. The treatment is not trivial, and there are significant side effects that need to be monitored, but it’s a step forward in the field of myeloid malignancies, he concludes.