According to a UNM HSC press release, a new drug tested at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center is showing potential to help patients with advanced mastocytosis, and possibly many other types of cancer.
The drug, called midstaurin, extended the lives of those with advanced mastocytosis an average of 28 months longer than patients receiving the current treatment, according to the press release.
“This is the first drug that’s shown to be effective in this very rare disease,” Tracy George, chief of UNM’s Division of Hematopathology and vice chair for clinical affairs in the Department of Pathology, is quoted as saying in the press release.
According to the release, the Food and Drug Administration has approved only one drug — called imatinib — to treat advanced mastocytosis, which blocks the action of a cellular protein called a tyrosine kinase receptor.
Most people with advanced mastocytosis have a mutation in a gene called D816V KIT and do not respond to imatinib, according to the release.
After some research on midostaurin, George and a colleague, Jason Gotlib, began a small clinical trial to test the new treatment in people with advanced mastocystosis, according to the release.
Their efforts expanded into an international clinical trial after Gotlib and George shared their preliminary results at a conference, which showed that people with advanced mastocytosis on the clinical trial lived an average of 28 months longer.
The clinical trial has only spurred more research and scientists around the world are now studying how midostaurin affects mast cells and how to combine it with other drugs to create an even more potent treatment, according to the press release.
Matthew Reisen is the news editor at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @MrMojoReisen.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
