Mitoxantran drug may help treat leukemia in kids--study

ALL is a common type of childhood leukemia that accounts up to 79 percent of all leukemia diagnosed children. Nearly 380 children get this cancer of white blood cells, annually. The cancer finishes off the body’s ability to fight with common infections.

According to the study, Mitoxantran resulted in improved survival rate in kids who had a relapse with this type of leukemia. The three-year survival percentage saw a 70 percent increase.

The study was jointly initiated by a team of investigators from the Cancer Research UK Children’s Cancer Group, School of Cancer and Enabling Sciences, and The University of Manchester.

Professor Vaskar Saha from the Cancer Research UK Children’s Cancer Group, who led the study said, “Mitoxantrone has only been infrequently used in therapeutic trials in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A perception that optimization has been reached with available drugs has shifted focus towards newer drugs and targeted therapy.

“Our results suggest that, while we wait for targeted therapies to become a reality, conventional cytotoxics still have a role in treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia,” the study authors noted.

Study Details
For the ALL R3 trial, 216 children, in the age bracket of 1 to 18 years, having relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia were enrolled by the researchers.

The open-label randomized trial was conducted across 22 centers in the UK and Ireland, and nine in Australia and New Zealand.

The study subjects were divided into two groups and while one was given mitoxantrone drug, the other received idarubicin, the standard drug used for treating ALL.

On analysis, it was found that the 3-year progression-free survival rate was 35.9 percent in the idarubicin group and 64.6 percent in the mitoxantrone group.

Also, the overall survival rate for 3 years was also considerably better in the group that received the new drug.

Mitoxantrone versus idarubicin
The study authors said, “The results from this trial clearly show that, compared with idarubicin, mitoxantrone significantly improves the outcome of children with relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia.”

It may be noted that idarubicin is an expensive drug that not many can afford, while mitoxantrone is a cheap and readily-available drug. Also, mitoxantrone had less severe toxic side effects than idarubicin.

Martin Schrappe, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein in Germany said, “The difference in the effectiveness of the drugs translated into a clear survival advantage of more than 20%, which is one of the largest improvements ever achieved by a single modification of treatment.”