SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, March 14, 2018 (Gephardt Daily) — The Huntsman Cancer Institute announced Thursday that it has been selected to participate in the Beat AML Master Trial, a major clinical trial sponsored by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Huntsman is the only facility in the Mountain West offering the trial to patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a form of blood cancer.
AML begins in the bone marrow and, in most cases, progresses rapidly if not treated. According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2018, more than 21,000 people will be diagnosed with AML in the United States and approximately 10,650 will die from the disease.
Overseeing the Utah trial will be Dr. Michael Deininger, chief of Hematology and Hematologic Malignancies at the University of Utah and senior director of trans-disciplinary research at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, and his HCI collaborators, Drs. Paul Shami and Tibor Kovocsovics.
“By design, this trial will speed up the process of finding better AML treatments through the development of multiple, tailored therapies based on the individual genetic makeup of each patient’s leukemia,” Deininger said.
Although several new drugs were approved for AML in 2017, most current treatments for AML are based on principles developed 40 years ago. The clinical trial intends to provide significant improvements to the standard care for this disease based on the use of molecular screening for treatment selection.
The key innovation of the Beat AML study is to obtain a comprehensive genetic screening within seven days or less, and then select each patient’s therapy based on her or his individual profile.
In the past this was possible only for one or two genetic features, limiting targeted therapies to a minority of the patients. With the Beat AML trial, personalized therapy will become a reality for most patients.n
“HCI’s participation in this trial acknowledges our extremely well-organized collaboration, deep expertise in leukemia biology and treatment, and our proven track record of translating research into new clinical trials for patients,” Deininger said.
The Beat AML trial hopes to recruit 500 patients nationwide and includes participation from eight academic medical institutions, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center; pharmaceutical companies; and a genomics provider.
Interested patients can find study information, including general eligibility criteria, here.
