Tailor-made therapy, here is the way to beat blood cancers

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Scientific research in the field of blood cancer diseases advances in great strides: treatments without chemotherapy, targeted therapies, oral drugs and drug combinations that are increasingly effective, better tolerated and that ensure greater survival. this is confirmed by the experts who will take part in the Leukemia 2021 congress, dedicated to these pathologies.

More and more effective treatments

Among the most recent innovations of the last two to three years under the magnifying glass of the experts are the drugs aimed at malignant mutations of the acute myeloid leukemia, with Italy in the forefront, also thanks to the action of AIL (Italian Association of Leukemia, Lymphomas and Myelomas).

“AIL, in addition to dealing with assistance and services for patients suffering from blood cancer, has always supported scientific research thanks to which in recent decades we have witnessed an extraordinary advancement in the treatment of all haematological diseases – explains Sergio Amadori, President National AIL. In particular, our Association supports the GIMEMA Group, which has been at the forefront for years in the production of clinical studies, many of which represented a turning point in the treatment of some forms of blood cancers. A great success concerns a particular form of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) called Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia, a fulminant leukemia until a few years ago and for which after the identification of the molecular anomaly, GIMEMA has contributed to the development of a specific therapy used on the front line and today the international standard goal for this disease “.

Another success achieved by the cooperation of the GIMEMA Group with other international research centers concerns Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) Ph +, (Filadelfia Positive) or Acute Lymphoid. A recently published GIMEMA study in which patients with Ph + ALL were treated with a chemo-free program based on the use of cortisones and a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, dasatinib, demonstrated that the dasatinib-corticosteroid combination is capable of allow the achievement of complete remission of the disease in over 95% of cases with a very significant quality of induced remissions. With respect to this leukemic form we have a further, important advance with the engineered monoclonal antibody blinatumomab which has a specific action against ALL blasts.

After the initial induction phase with dasatinib and corticosteroids, in which complete remission is achieved in approximately 90% of patients, a minimum of two to a maximum of five courses of blinatumomab are given, which has the task of reducing the amount of leukemia cells left in the body. “This GIMEMA protocol, without chemotherapy and with blinatumomab, it is giving such brilliant results that it has become a standard of care for patients with this Ph + form of leukemia ”.

AIL’s commitment

These are just examples. Thanks to immunotherapy, the advent of CAR-T and tools such as bispecific antibodies, the challenge to the different types of leukemia and lymphomas and to myeloma is leading to increasingly significant results. In this framework, AIL, in addition to dealing with assistance to haematological patients, supports scientific research whose progress has led in the last twenty years to an extraordinary advancement in therapies for haematological neoplasms, for which the percentages of curability and cure are more than tripled compared to thirty years ago.

For some years now the so-called “precision medicine” has been established which, through the knowledge of the pathogenetic mechanisms of blood cancers, allows treatments to be personalized with precision therapies. Over the years, AIL has supported hundreds of research projects by raising funds invested to finance the development of new therapies that have revolutionized Hematology. The Association has built together with volunteers, researchers and clinicians a better future for the sick. Today, patients suffering from leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma can increasingly count on a disease-free tomorrow and know they can return to a life that is as normal as possible.