Project Term
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Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN
United States
Project Summary
Our proposal aims to expand upon a novel, successful strategy to treat chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. It involves use of a novel oral medication (can be taken as a pill) called onvansertib to selectively kill cancer cells and spare normal ones. The goal is to add an arm to study combination of this effective medication with decitabine which is already an approved medication for this cancer.
Lay Abstract
Our study aims to expand upon an already successful early phase clinical trial assessing the safety and effectiveness of an oral, novel medication called onvansertib in treatment of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. Our initial pilot study was limited to the use of this drug as a single agent in a specific subtype of CMML, that is, proliferative CMML. Despite this, we were able to demonstrate that this drug (onvansertib) was effective in approximately 40% patients. This data was accepted and will be presented at the American Society of Hematology meeting in Orlando, FL in December 2025. Further, we have done extensive work in pre-clinical models and showed that combining onvansertib with decitabine leads to responses across all CMML subtypes (myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative). Since decitabine is an FDA-approved upfront therapy in CMML, our goal is to add a phase 2 arm and study the combination of decitabine with onvansertib in CMML patients at all stages (diagnosis and those who have either relapsed or refractory to first line of treatment). The combination is expected to demonstrate synergy, which means, the combination of both drugs is expected to yield significantly better results than either of them as a single drug.
Program