“My laboratory, almost ten years ago, discovered that this drug, Ventecolax, may enhance the activity against leukemia cells,” says Dr. Raoul Tibes, Director, Clinical Leukemia Program, NYU Langone Health. “It’s a BCL2 inhibitor.”
The reason? Ventecolax, he explains, inhibits a specific protein within the cells (known as BCL2) that works to protect leukemia cells.
Read More“The therapy is very well tolerated,” he adds. “and we often can give it as an outpatient, and the responses are lasting much longer than what we have seen with the current standard therapy, which is Decitabine or Azacitidine by itself.”
This is an important breakthrough in the treatment of AML. “I think it will find a quick adoption in clinical practice pretty rapidly,” Dr. Tibes says.
Dr. Tibes would choose this combination drug therapy himself, if needed. “And if I am a leukemia patient today, or my brother which I rarely say I would ask for that combination.”
Combination drug therapy with Ventecolax is just one weapon in the fight against leukemia. “It doesn't mean this combination will replace chemotherapy or allogeneic (donor) stem cell transplantation,” he says.
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