Professor Adam Mead is leading PROMise, a new clinical trial offering a novel treatment option for patients with a type of blood cancer called myelofibrosis.
Each year in the UK, over 300 patients are diagnosed with myelofibrosis, a blood cancer associated with debilitating symptoms including extreme fatigue, pain, weakness and shortness of breath. Around 10-20% of patients go on to develop acute myeloid leukaemia, with median survival from the time of diagnosis just 2 years for patients with high-risk disease.
Stem cell transplant are the only cure for myelofibrosis, but this is only suitable for a small minority of younger patients who don't have other conditions as well. Instead, the standard NHS care for the illness is treatment with a drug called ruxolitnib, but many patients do not respond to this treatment.
Professor Mead said "The PROMise study is a really exciting study that has just opened in the UK and will be opening across 15 centres. This is introducing a new treatment called PLX2853, in combination with ruxolitininb, for patients with MF (myelofibrosis)."
The impact on patients for this combination of treatments, I hope, will be improvement of their symptoms, improvement of their quality of life, without causing them side effects.
- Professor Adam Mead
The PROMise trial has been launched by Trials Acceleration Programme (TAP), funded by the blood cancer charity Cure Leukaemia. The trial is co-ordinated via the TAP hub at the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit (CRCTU) and sponsored by the University of Birmingham, and it opened recently at University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff and Nottingham University Hospital. Along with 13 other NHS centres, University Hospital of Wales and Nottingham University Hospital will recruit patients with myelofibrosis over the next two years, providing them with the opportunity to take part in a trial that offers a promising alternative to the current standard of care.
Read more about the trial on the Cure Leukaemia website.