Drug Trx for Hematologic Malig Flashcards
What governs the design of chemo regimens?
toxicity
What are the two components of combination chemo?
- induction therapy (high dose, very toxic)
2. consolidation therapy (lower dose, less toxic; ensures eradication)
What is the criteria for selection of combination of chemo drugs?
- MUST show activity against tumor type
- Drugs should have the same mechanism of action
- Drugs should have different patterns of dose-limiting toxicity
What is a neoadjuvant?
drug regiment administered before or during surgery/radiotherapy
What is an adjuvant?
drug regiment administered after surgery/radiotherapy
How does drug dosage relate to the stage of leukemia treatment?
- Induction: high dose combination chemo
- Consolidation: repetition of induction drugs (given when in remission)
- Maintenance: lower dose (long term while in remission)
What are the benefits of combo therapy?
More effective than single agent because:
- increased maximum cell kill
- heterogenous cell populations killed
- less resistance to treatment
What is metronomic dosing?
continuous, low-dose therapy designed to AVOID enhancing tumor growth (which alternative dosing regimens do)
What is the benefit of metronomic dosing?
may avoid the pro-proliferative aspect of drug response
T/F: Metronomic dosing is a better regimen because all tumor types are responsive.
F: neither all tumor types nor all patients respond; however it’s looking pretty good for a bunch of cancers
What is hormesis?
adaptive response of tumor cells to moderate amounts of intermittent stress (i.e. anti-tumor treatments)
What effects does metronomic chemo have on tumor cells and their microenvironment?
- inhibit tumor angiogenesis
- stimulate an anti-cancer immune response
- drug-driven dependency/deprivation effect
- collectively, induces tumor dormancy
How do Darwinian principles apply to cancer cells and drugs?
In the presence of chemo “drug pressure”, cells are selected on the basis of their survival/fitness (i.e. anti-apoptosis or drug resistance), and produces new phenotypes
What is the long term goal of metronomic treatment, in terms of drug pressure?
- maintain a certain degree of cancer sensitivity to treatment
- induce life-long control via clonal heterogeneity
What is adaptive/evasive resistance?
ability of a tumor to overcome a therapeutic blockade and continue to grow by inducing/accentuating mechanisms that:
- enable neovascularization despite drug (resistance)
- find another way to grow new vessels, such as recruit pro-angiogen cells from BM (indifference)
- invade a neighboring tissue (and use their vessels)
What is intrinsic non-responsiveness?
absence of ANY beneficial effect of an anti-angiogenic therapy (drug does not shrink tumor or improve quality of life)
What effect does metronomic treatment have on angiogenesis (non-cytotoxic concentration)?
anti-angiogenic by:
- inhibits endothelial cell proliferation/migration
- decreases mobilization and viability of endothelial progenitor cells
- increases Thrombospondin-1 expression
How does metronomic treatment effect the anti-cancer immune response (3)?
- decrease Treg cells
- promote dentritic cells to mature
- restore NK and cytotoxic T cells
Common side effects of metronomic treatment:
- nausea/vomiting
- anemia, neutropenia, leucopenia, lymphopenia
- some toxicity when combined with bevacizumab
- treatment-related secondary malignancies
(also mentions “unusual problems”, like subdural hematoma)
Why are there risks associated with giving metronomic treatment to young children?
angiogenesis is important for their growth and development
What is the common AML drug-regimen?
- cytarabine/ARA-C
- daunorubicin
- thioguanine/6-TG
How did Gemtuzomab [mylotarg] treat AML?
CD33 = almost exclusively on myeloid cells
drug was a CD33-antibody linked to calicheamicin, which enters cell to cleave dsDNA at specific sequences
What therapies are typically used post-remission in AML?
- short-term, dose-intensive cytarabine/ARA-C
- chemoradiation
- bone marrow rescue (used with either 1 or 2; may be from HLA-match or alogenic)
What drives proliferation of acute promyelocytic leukemia?
PML/RARA fusion gene
What drugs are used to treat acute promyelocytic leukemia? By what mechanism?
ATRA: overcomes repressive signaling (induces differentiation, then apoptosis once mature)
Arsenic Trioxide: degrades PML-RAR-alpha fusion protein
T/F: Most patients with APL achieve a complete remission with ATRA.
T (but not “curative”)
What drugs are used to treat childhood acute promyelocytic leukemia?
ATRA + anthracycline +/or cytarabine