Omacetaxine An Exciting Advance In Chronic Leukemia Care

Chronic diseases pose specific treatment challenges for oncology nurses, explained Stephanie Jackson DNP, MSN, RN, AOCNS, BMTCN.

“One of the challenges of chronic leukemias, is you see those first-, second-, and third-line resistencies to TKIs, [and] then what do you do? If they’re not eligible for clinical trial or transplant, what do you do for those patients that still have a lot more survival.” she said.

Jackson, unit director at UCLA Health, spoke with Oncology Nursing News® about which recent advances in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treatment options she is most excited about.

“For CML they have a new subcutaneous injection, it’s called omacetaxine (Synribo). It causes apoptosis against the Bcr-Abl [fusion protein] and is given twice a day. So that’s 1 of the new ones that’s emerging. So that’s pretty exciting for patients that have been resistant to 2 or more TKIs.Even in the chronic leukemias which we know are often watch and wait, and symptom management. It's exciting to see the emerging therapies that are coming in the chronic disease because we are seeing patients living longer,” she said.