Global clinical trial results can help save many kids from cancer relapse

New York (The Uttam Hindu): A global clinical trial, co-led by an Indian-origin researcher, has shown improved survival rates for common childhood leukemia, according to a new study. B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) is the most common cancer in children. A Children’s Oncology Group clinical trial led by scientists at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and Seattle Children’s Hospital has found promising results. The trial included over 200 sites across four countries. The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed a striking 61 per cent reduction in the risk of B-ALL relapse or death for those who received both chemotherapy and blinatumomab (an immunotherapy used for children with relapsed B-ALL). “These breakthrough data showing a significant improvement in disease-free survival are set to bring a tremendous clinical benefit to nearly all children with newly diagnosed B-ALL,” says study co-lead Dr. Sumit Gupta, Oncologist and Associate Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences program at SickKids. “This is changing the standard of care for children with B-ALL around the world,” Gupta added. Unlike chemotherapy, immunotherapies like blinatumomab use the body’s own immune system to fight cancer by teaching the immune system to target cancer cells. For children with an average risk of relapse, the study showed that after three years, the disease-free survival rate increased to 97.5 per cent, compared to 90 per cent with chemotherapy alone.

For children with a higher risk of relapse, receiving blinatumomab in addition to chemotherapy increased the disease-free survival rate from 85 per cent to over 94 per cent. “These findings underscore the progress made with blinatumomab in preventing relapse and support its role as a critical addition to current therapeutic strategies,” says study co-lead Dr Rachel Rau, paediatric hematologist-oncologist at Seattle Children's Hospital. The findings included 1,440 children from Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand. “This new combination treatment is set to become the new standard of care for these patients, potentially saving many lives and reducing the fear and health impacts associated with relapse,” said Gupta, who is also an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto.