Drug Treatment

Velcade for Graft Versus Host DIsease – pro

Koreth found that Velcade was beneficial in GVHD; but his was a phase II trial and other phase II trials are ongoing. He found that i the 45 patients who were treated in the study; 89% of patients were treated with a one-locus and 11% of patients were treated with a two-loci mismatch. With a median follow-up of 3 years, the 180-day cumulative incidence of grade 2 to 4 acute GVHD was 22%, and the 1-year cumulative incidence of chronic GVHD was 29%.

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Topical cidofovir in immunocompromised patients – pro

VISTIDE (cidofovir) is indicated for the treatment of CMV retinitis in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The FDA says: "THE SAFETY AND EFFICACY OF VISTIDE (cidofovir) HAVE NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED FOR TREATMENT OF OTHER CMV INFECTIONS (SUCH AS PNEUMONITIS OR GASTROENTERITIS), CONGENITAL OR NEONATAL CMV DISEASE, OR CMV DISEASE IN NON-HIV-INFECTED INDIVIDUALS." It is a nephrotoxoc drug and cannot be administered to people with kidney

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Promacta for AML or MDS – pro

Thrombocytopenia is a frequent symptom in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Eltrombopag is a small molecule thrombopoietin receptor agonist that might be a new option to treat thrombocytopenia in these diseases, provided that it can be shown does not stimulate malignant hematopoiesis. Unfortunately, there is no significant literature to support Promacta in the setting of ongoing treatment for AML or in

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Vidaza Maintenance in AML – pro

The issue is the status of maintenance with any single agent drug. The most recent phase II study concluded: "5-azacytidine treatment is safe, feasible and may be of benefit in a subset of patients". The Scottish Medicines Consortium does not recommend azacitidine (Vidaza®) for use within NHS Scotland for the treatment of adults who are not eligible for haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT) with intermediate-2 and high-risk myelodysplastic

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Dacogen Maintenance in AML – pro

Dacogen (decitabine) is a new drug, a DNA methyltransferase inhibitors (DMTI), that approved by the FDA for use in all French- American British (FAB) categories for MDS. This drug is now FDA approved for MDS. For acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), less is known. A 2007 review, looked at 33 patients with the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria of AML that were treated with decitabine alone (23 patients) or in combination with valproic acid (10

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Decitabine for acute myelogenous leukemia – pro

Dacogen (decitabine) is a new drug, a DNA methyltransferase inhibitors (DMTI) that approved by the FDA for use in all French- American British (FAB) categories for MDS. The response rates for Dacogen were 30% (9% CR, 8% PR, 13% HI). Median TTP was prolonged from 7.8 months to 12.1 months compared to supportive care (p=0.1). Higher response rates have been reported in a single institution trial using lower doses of Dacogen. This drug is now FDA approved

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