Adnkronos Rome, November 17 (Adnkronos Salute) – "Quizartinib enriches our therapeutic arsenal and fills the gap we had until now in the maintenance phase." These were the words of Adriano Venditti, Director of Hematology at the Fondazione Policlinico Tor Vergata in Rome, speaking at the media briefing organized in Milan by Daiichi Sankyo Italia on the occasion of the recent approval of the reimbursement of quizartinib, a new treatment option for newly diagnosed Flt3-Itd-positive AML (acute myeloid leukemia).
"Quizartinib has the characteristic of interfering with a well-known mutation in acute myeloid leukemia, the Flt3 mutation, which appears in approximately 25% of cases," Venditti continues. "Patients with this mutation, who are able to tolerate intensive chemotherapy, can receive the combination with quizartinib, which is administered during the induction phase, in the consolidation cycles, and in the maintenance phase, for which it is approved, for a duration of 36 cycles (i.e., 3 years) both in patients who complete their treatment course without undergoing a stem cell transplant and in patients who, on the contrary, receive a transplant."
In the phase 3 Quantum-First study, which analyzed the effect of the drug in combination with standard cytarabine-anthracycline-based induction chemotherapy and standard cytarabine-based consolidation chemotherapy, followed by maintenance therapy with quizartinib monotherapy, "it yielded important results, which then led to approval," Venditti remarks, referring to the 22% reduction in mortality risk observed in the trial compared to standard chemotherapy alone.