New findings set to be presented by Seattle Children’s Research Institute at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting on Dec. 8 show that in a global clinical trial for children with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer, adding a monoclonal antibody called blinatumomab, in addition to standard chemotherapy as part of a treatment regimen, significantly improves three-year disease-free survival in newly diagnosed children with the condition. The trial was co-led by investigators at Seattle Children’s and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto through the Children’s Oncology Group consortium, currently led by Dr. Doug Hawkins, a senior hematologist oncologist at Seattle Children’s.
Patients in the study who received blinatumomab were 61% less likely to relapse than those in the trial who did not receive the drug, demonstrating a major breakthrough and a potential new treatment standard for children diagnosed with the condition.
“The results show something striking: Not only was blinatumomab showing a signal of efficacy, it was also really a home run,” said Dr. Rachel Rau, the study’s co-lead author, who is a board-certified pediatric hematologist-oncologist at Seattle Children’s with a lab-based research program in the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders Research at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. “Results showed a stunning improvement in the rate of three-year disease-free survival of patients from around 87% to around 96%.”
