Dr. Pemmaraju on the Trial of SL-401 in Blastic Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cell Neoplasms

Naveen Pemmaraju, MD, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the trial of SL-401 in blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasms (BPDCL).

SL-401 is a novel agent under investigation for patients with BPDCL. This agent targets CD123, which is highly expressed in this patient population. This is the first ever multicenter study of a targeted agent dedicated to patients with BPCDL, Pemmaraju says. In the first stage, it was a typical dose-escalation, stage 2 was an expansion phase, and stage 3 focused only on frontline patients.

The findings were quite encouraging, Pemmaraju says. There was an overall response rate (ORR) of 90% in the frontline setting, and 69% ORR in the relapsed/refractory setting. Importantly, Pemmaraju notes that 45% of patients in the frontline setting were able to go onto allogeneic stem cell transplant. Many of these patients were over the age of 60, and otherwise would not be considered candidates for transplant.