Asciminib shows promise in hard-to-treat chronic myeloid leukemia

Asciminib has shown promise as a thirdline treatment for patients with recurrent chronic leukemia (CML), whose two previous courses of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have failed. The Phase III trial, called ASCEMBL, discovered that the experimental drug was nearly twice as effective as standard-of-care treatment for CML. The drug works by targeting the myristoyl pocket on the BCR-ABL1 protein, which is a different biological mechanism compared to existing TKIs. “The ASCEMBL data show that, with ABL-specific inhibition, asciminib has a reduced rate of side effects that lead to discontinuation or dose adjustment compared to the TKI drug bosutinib, while improving...