SUMMARY: The American Cancer Society has estimated that in 2021, 20,240 new cases of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) were diagnosed in the United States and 11,400 patients died of the disease. AML is one of the most common types of leukemia in adults and can be considered as a group of molecularly heterogeneous diseases with different clinical behavior and outcomes. A significant percentage of patients with newly diagnosed AML are not candidates for intensive chemotherapy or have disease that is refractory to standard chemotherapy. Even with the best available therapies, the 5 year Overall Survival (OS) in patients 65 years of age or older is less than 5%. Cytogenetic analysis has been part of routine evaluation when caring for patients with AML. By predicting resistance to therapy, tumor cytogenetics will stratify patients based on risk, and help manage them accordingly. Even though cytotoxic chemotherapy may lead to long term remission and cure in a minority of patients with favorable cytogenetics, patients with high risk features such as unfavorable cytogenetics, molecular abnormalities, prior myelodysplasia and advanced age, have poor outcomes with conventional chemotherapy alone. More importantly, with the understanding of molecular pathology of AML, personalized and targeted therapies are becoming an important part of the AML treatment armamentarium.
Cytotoxic chemotherapy for AML often consists of induction therapy to achieve remission, followed by consolidation therapy. However, standard induction chemotherapy achieves Complete Remission in only 40-60% of AML patients older than 60 years of age, and majority of these patients will eventually relapse. This had been attributed to clonal evolution and epigenetic reprogramming, leading to aberrant DNA methylation, and persistence of leukemia-initiating cells.
Longer duration of first remission is associated with better survival outcomes. Postremission maintenance therapies to prevent early AML relapse has been an area of active research with little progress made until now. Patients with AML who are under age 55 with high-risk cytogenetics, in first clinical remission,are considered for allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT), as this has shown to offer survival advantage over conventional chemotherapy. This therapeutic option however is not feasible for many elderly patients.
Oral Azacitidine (ONUREG®) is a hypomethylating agent that has a distinct pharmacokinetic as well as pharmacodynamic profile from the parenteral Azacitidine preparation, and can be administered in extended dosing schedules (for 14-21 days per 28-day treatment cycle) to sustain therapeutic activity.
ONUREG® is the first and only FDA-approved therapy indicated for continued treatment of adult patients with AML who achieved first Complete Remission (CR) or Complete Remission with incomplete blood count recovery (CRi) following intensive induction chemotherapy, and are not able to complete intensive curative therapy.
This FDA approval was based on an International, double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase III QUAZAR AML-001 trial, in which ONUREG® was evaluated as maintenance therapy in patients with AML, who were in first remission after intensive chemotherapy. Eligible patients were 55 years of age or older, were in complete remission with or without complete blood count recovery, and were not candidates for Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation. Patients (N=472) were randomly assigned to receive ONUREG® 300 mg orally (N=238) or placebo (N=234), once daily for 14 days of a 28-day cycle. The median age was 68 years. The Primary end point was Overall Survival (OS). Secondary end points included Relapse Free Survival (RFS) and Health-Related Quality of Life.
At the time of the primary analysis in 2019, with a median follow up of 41.2 months, maintenance treatment with ONUREG® significantly prolonged median OS, when compared to placebo (24.7 months versus 14.8 months; P<0.001). The median RFS was also significantly longer with ONUREG® than with placebo (10.2 months versus 4.8 months; P<0.001). These survival benefits were demonstrated in most treatment subgroups. Further, with a median follow up of 51.7 months, the median OS remained unchanged, and the median OS with oral ONUREG® was 24.7 months versus 14.8 months with placebo (HR=0.69; P=0.0008). The 3-year OS rates in the experimental and control arms were 37.4% and 27.9%, respectively and at 5 years were 26.2% and 19.2%, respectively. Overall Quality of life was preserved while on treatment with ONUREG®. The most common adverse reactions associated with ONUREG® treatment were nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, constipation, fatigue/asthenia, febrile neutropenia and pneumonia.
The authors concluded that maintenance treatment with ONUREG® was associated with significantly longer Overall and Relapse Free Survival when compared to placebo, among elderly patients with AML, who were in remission after chemotherapy. This survival benefit was maintained with one additional year of follow up. The researchers added that these updated data suggests that maintenance therapy with ONUREG® provides a sustained, long term Overall Survival benefit in elderly patients with AML in first remission.
Long-Term Overall Survival (OS) with Oral Azacitidine (Oral-AZA) in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in First Remission after Intensive Chemotherapy (IC): Updated Results from the Phase 3 QUAZAR AML-001 Trial. Wei AH, Döhner H, Sayar H, et al. Blood. 2021;138(suppl 1):871. doi:10.1182/blood-2021-147501.
