A precision medicine initiative called myeloMATCH is planning to bring targeted therapies to patients from across the U.S. who have acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndrome, two types of blood cancer that can be difficult to treat.
Myeloid Malignancies Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (myeloMATCH) is being run as an umbrella trial, which is where multiple therapies are assessed for one type of disease.
There are more than 100 clinics and hospitals participating in the initiative across the country and it is the largest such treatment effort to target these cancers to date.
AML is the most common type of leukemia seen in adults, but unfortunately only has a five-year survival rate of around 30 percent. Patients with AML have a rapid build up of abnormal blood cells produced by the bone marrow. First line treatment is normally chemotherapy, with stem cell transplantation considered if initial treatment fails.
Myelodysplastic syndrome is a group of cancers in which immature blood cells do not mature properly in the bone marrow, resulting in abnormal blood cells. Prognosis for people with this condition is variable, with around 30 percent going on to develop treatment-resistant AML.
Both types of blood cancer are characterized by heterogeneity and variable mutations making them good candidates for precision cancer treatments.
MyeloMATCH began at the University of Kansas Cancer Center and member institutions of the Masonic Cancer Alliance during the summer. People are eligible to join the study if they are aged 18 years or older and have suspected AML or myelodysplastic syndrome.
At enrollment, participants are tested for a range of different blood and bone marrow biomarkers. They will then be matched to a sub study that is suitable for the genetics of their specific cancer. This kind of testing can be a bottleneck for cancer patients and sometimes takes weeks. However, myeloMATCH plans to do all such tests within 72 hours of enrollment.
The initiative hopes to give as many patients as possible access to targeted treatment for their condition, but if no specific sub studies exist at the time of enrollment patients will be offered standard care and kept on a database in case new trials suitable for their cancer are started.
It is early days, but the myeloMATCH study hopes to improve treatment outcomes for people with these difficult-to-treat cancers and increase the number of people achieving minimal residual disease.
“It took a long time to get here, and it’s really exciting to see that this is a national priority for the U.S. leukemia community,” said Tara Lin, MD, director of the adult leukemia program and the site principal investigator for myeloMATCH at The University of Kansas Cancer Center, in a press statement.
“The purpose of myeloMATCH is to become an entire pipeline of trials. The long-term, big picture goal would be that every person with a new diagnosis could enroll, get rapid diagnostic screening and get assigned to a treatment, and that the myeloMATCH platform could carry them through their whole treatment trajectory.”
