Dr. Wei Overviews the Current Place of Venetoclax Within AML Management

In this episode of “Blood Cancer Talks,” hosts Rajshekhar Chakraborty, MD; Edward Cliff, MD; and Ashwin Kishtagari, MD; spoke with Andrew Wei, MBBS, PhD, Co-Lead of the acute myeloid leukemia program at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

Dr. Wei described the current place of venetoclax within management of AML and the clinical trial findings which have informed its use. In the discussion he focused on combination of the agent with azacitidine, terming this regimen a “super leukemia killer” while stressing its dramatic clinical differences from azacitidine monotherapy.

“We have to really set our brains to thinking this is a completely new regimen, with new safety parameters, new risks, and completely new way of management,” Dr. Wei remarked.

Dr. Wei discussed the range of clinical considerations physicians must account for when using the venetoclax plus azacitidine regimen. Some of the risks include bone marrow burnout, tumor lysis syndrome, and other serious complications.

He also described current capabilities gained from molecular studies to predict patients’ response to the regimen and the utility of measurable residual disease (MRD) relapse versus clinical relapse in treatment decision-making.

This podcast originally appeared on Blood Cancer Talks.