BerGenBio Presents Results For Its Work On Multiple Cancer Indications in AML Patients

BerGenBio is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical laboratory that has developed unique, selective AXL kinase inhibitors to detect multiple types of cancer for elderly acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. The company has provided an update from its second phase of studying bemcentinib (BGB324 which is a selective and unique oral AXL inhibitor along with low-dose cytarabine (LDAC). The results are presented through a poster at the 61st Annual American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting, happening right now in Orlando, Florida.

These results would be presented in session namely “Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Novel Therapy, excluding Transplantation (Poster III)” between 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM at Orange County Convention Center, Hall B, today.

Click here to read clinical trial study. 

BerGenBio is a biopharmaceutical company that studies the clinical stage of transformative drugs targeting AXL. This could be a novel therapy for almost all aggressive diseases that include immune-evasive and resilient cancers. For now, the bemcentinib is under study for being a highly selective AXL inhibitor in phase two of the clinical development program in oncology. This program is focused on developing single-agent as well as combination therapy to treat lung cancer and leukemia.

Bemcentinib (previously called BGB324), is the potential inhibitor that is under study in the second phase of this clinical development program. Right now, it is under an investigation for multiple solid and hematological tumors, along with other emerging cancer therapies such as immunotherapy, chemotherapy and other targeted therapies.

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The bemcentinib-LDAC combination was safe and well-tolerated in elderly AML patients and showed promising efficacy among both newly diagnosed and relapsed/refractory AML patients. The overall response rate and duration surpass historical benchmarks and compare favorably to other LDAC combinations.

Pretreatment sAXL holds as a predictive biomarker in AML patients treated with the combination, and a new novel blood-based predictive biomarker is identified and associated with clinical benefit in AML and Lung cancer patients receiving bemcentinib.

AXL kinase is a receptor inside human cell membranes and works as a mediator for different mechanisms such as disease progression.

When cancer progresses, it mediates by suppressing the natural immunity of a person that otherwise responds to cancer tumors and attacks them. When immunity is no longer hindering, it gets easier for cancer to spread. Therefore, AXL inhibitors play a key role in cancer progression and in any cancer therapy, targeting AXL inhibitor may be a good line of action. Not just cancer, these AXL inhibitors mediate other chronic diseases too.

However, for now, they are only studied for controlling cancer spread.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a chronic type of blood cancer. It is the most common type of leukemia in adults that progresses rapidly and if untreated, leads to death. In acute myeloid leukemia, the patient suffers from abnormally functioning bone marrow which causes so many complications.

Some of these complications are anemia, certain infections, and internal bleeding.

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Every year, more than 20,000 patients in the US alone are diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Many of them are left untreated and it adds up to disease linked mortality rate. On the other side, successful treatment means intensive therapy or a bone marrow transplant which is still not a common practice due to many factors contributing to it.

Consequently, successful treatment requires a combination of typical and innovative therapies especially those which cant undergo any intensive surgery or bone marrow transplant. This study trial is now in phase two which is analyzing bemcentinib in combination with cytarabine (part B2) and decitabine (part B3) in AML patients. These patients are otherwise unfit for intensive chemotherapy. So far there are only 28 patients to be enrolled at test centers located in the US, Norway, Germany, and Italy.