Blood cancer

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has expanded the use of Bristol Myers Squibb’s Reblozyl (luspatercept-aamt) to include first-line treatment of anaemia in adults with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). The approval is for the treatment of anaemia without previous erythropoiesis stimulating agent use (ESA-naïve) in adult patients with very low- to intermediate-risk MDS who may […]

The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has adopted a positive opinion recommending the marketing authorisation of JZP458 (a recombinant Erwinia asparaginase or crisantaspase). It has been recommended for use as a component of a multi-agent chemotherapeutic regimen for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and lymphoblastic lymphoma […]

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended additional uses for two CAR-T therapies from Gilead Sciences/Kite, as part of the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel: axi-cel) has been recommended by NICE for the treatment of eligible adult patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and high-grade B-cell […]

Tisch Cancer Center scientists have developed unique models of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), creating a transformative resource to study this cancer and eventually its drug response and drug resistance. The research was presented at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research and simultaneously published in Blood Cancer Discovery, a journal of the […]

Scientists from Oxford University and the University of Birmingham have made the first bone marrow ‘organoids’ that include all the key components of human marrow.   The technology allows for the screening of multiple anti-cancer drugs at the same time, as well as testing personalised treatments for individual cancer patients.    The study, published in the journal […]

Pleco Therapeutics BV has raised €17.3 million in its Series A financing round, which will be used to complete the development of its Plecoid Product, PTX-061, to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The investments include €3.6 million committed by Oost NL and a select number of private investors, […]

SAGA Diagnostics, a cancer liquid biopsy and genomic testing company focused on precision oncology and non-invasive ultrasensitive monitoring of cancer patients, has entered into an assay development agreement with Astra Zeneca to develop SAGAsafe dPCR assays towards undisclosed methylated targets for analyses of tissue samples and liquid biopsies.   James Hadfield, Director Epigenomics, Oncology Translational Medicine, Oncology R&D, AstraZeneca, said: “We […]

Researchers have discovered a potential advancement in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), which they hope will one day offer an improved option for treating patients with this form of blood cancer. The study– published in Science Translational Medicine and led by the University of Glasgow in collaboration with LifeArc – has discovered a […]