Outcomes of patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes/neoplasms treated with hypomethylating agents + venetoclax-an analysis from the International Consortium for MDS (icMDS) VALIDATE database

Monotherapy with hypomethylating agents (HMA) remains the standard of care for patients with higher-risk myelodysplastic neoplasms (HR-MDS). Recently, the randomized phase III VERONA study evaluating azacitidine azacitidine: It works by reducing the amount of methylation in the body. Methylation is a process that acts like a switch to turn off or “silence” genes in certain cells. When these genes (called tumor suppressor genes) are turned off, MDS cells and cancer cells can grow freely. Azacitidine is approved by the U… plus venetoclax venetoclax: Venetoclax is used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic leukemia in adults. Venetoclax is used alone or in combination with other cancer medicines to treat these conditions. (VEN) versus azacitidine plus placebo placebo: A placebo is an inactive pill, liquid, or powder that has no treatment value. in newly diagnosed HR-MDS showed no difference in overall survival (OS) between the two arms. However, whether the addition of VEN to HMA improves outcomes among subsets of patients with HR-MDS remains debated. We analyzed 1907 patients with HR-MDS from 31 centers in 9 countries who were treated with HMA monotherapy or HMA/VEN in the frontline setting (HMA monotherapy: n = 1773; HMA/VEN: n = 134). Responses were assessed centrally by two investigators using the IWG 2023 response criteria. Addition of VEN improved composite complete remission (cCR) rates (48.8% vs. 27.7%; p < 0.001) but not CR rates (17.1% vs. 11.7%; p = 0.16). In multivariable logistic regression analysis, cCR remained favorable for HMA/VEN vs. HMA monotherapy (Odds Ratio [OR]: 2.49; 95% CI: 1.56-3.96; p < 0.001). However, we did not observe a statistically significant difference in OS for HMA/VEN vs. HMA monotherapy (Hazard Ratio [HR]: 0.83; 95% CI: 0.64-1.07; p = 0.15). In subgroup analyses, patients with TP53 wild-type disease (HR: 0.47; 95% CI: 0.29-0.74; p = 0.002) had a significant improvement in OS and those with ≥10% bone marrow bone marrow: The soft, spongy tissue inside most bones. Blood cells are formed in the bone marrow. blasts blasts: See Blast Cells. (HR: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.53-1.01; p = 0.06) had a trend towards OS benefit with HMA/VEN.