A pioneering clinical trial is testing the effectiveness in leukemia of a small molecule that shuts down MDM2, a protein that can disable the well-known tumor suppressor called p53.
Michael Andreeff, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Medicine and chief of Molecular Hematology and Therapy in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, presented preliminary results of this ongoing Phase I study at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology. The clinical trial is under way at MD Anderson and five other sites in the United States and United Kingdom.
“The first-in-class drug has shown clinical activity in some patients and been well-tolerated”, Andreeff said.
