The IDH1 and IDH2 metabolic enzymes are mutated in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), prompting the pharmaceutical development of specific mutant IDH enzyme inhibitors; ivosidenib and enasidenib, respectively. From the 2018 Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO 2018) Annual Meeting in Houston, TX, Amir Fathi, MD, MPH, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, highlights findings from clinical trials that used ivosidenib and enasidenib in a relapsed and refractory setting involving patients with AML. Dr Fathi reports a good overall median survival in Phase I and Phase II data, with these drugs providing a twenty percent rate of complete remission, even in those with complete or refractory disease. Although IDH inhibitors are not yet approved by the FDA, there are a series of selective FLT3 inhibitors that are currently undergoing advanced clinical trial studies, which Dr Fathi suggests could soon be used in the relapsed and refractory settings as monotherapy.
The promising role of IDH inhibitors in AML
