A kinder leukaemia drug switches off the cancer signal in just one week

For about one in four people with chronic myeloid leukaemia, a blood cancer, the standard drugs eventually stop working or become hard to live with. A study led by Adelaide University and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute has now shown, directly inside patients' blood cells, that a newer drug called asciminib turns down the cancer-driving protein far more strongly than the older medicines. Within just one week it achieved substantially stronger suppression, and importantly, none of the patients in the study had the poor responses sometimes seen with existing treatments. Associate Professor Chung Hoow Kok called it a huge step forward in the search for better frontline options — especially for the patients who had run out of good ones.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation