Guillermo Garcia-Manero, MD, on the Phase II ASTREON Trial

Dr. Garcia-Manero, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, discussed the phase II ASTREON trial on myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) at the 2024 ASCO^® Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.

“This is the preliminary update on the phase II trial of oral azacitidine, or CC-486, for patients with lower-risk MDS,” Dr. Garcia-Manero said. Oral azacitidine or CC-486 is already approved as a maintenance therapy in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) that cannot receive consolidation therapy.

Dr. Garcia-Manero and colleagues previously evaluated oral azacitidine for lower-risk MDS in an original phase III trial. “We saw significant activity, but at the expense of some toxicity probably related to the dose schedule that we were using,” he noted.

“Here what we have done is designed a new trial called the ASTREON trial where we use a lower dose of oral azacitidine or CC-486,” Dr. Garcia-Manero said, “and what we are seeing is very significant hematological responses like those we have seen with hypomethylating agents in patients with lower-risk MDS.”

Dr. Garcia-Manero closed that he was looking forward to the full data report of the trial and to what the next step will be for oral azacitidine.