What the trial was testing
The trial enrolled 150 patients with leukemia. The study was sponsored by M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and tracked outcomes across the full group of patients who matched the trial's eligibility profile.
It was initial testing (phase 2). Trials at this stage are designed to produce evidence regulators and physicians can act on — not just observations to follow up later.
What the results showed
95% of patients with strong early response remained event-free at 3 years, versus 61% with weaker response.
Blood · 2013 · NCT00254423
These findings — that patients with strong early response had much better survival than those with weaker response — were published in the Blood and represent the headline result of the study.
Researchers tracked outcomes across 150 patients enrolled in the trial. The result was consistent enough across the group that the team felt confident reporting it.
What this means for patients
For patients with leukemia, this result changes the calculus on what to ask their care team about. Whether it changes day-to-day care depends on factors like disease subtype, prior treatments, and where the patient is in their care journey.
What you can do now
If you're newly diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, how your blood cancer responds in the first 3 months strongly predicts how well you'll do long-term. Talk to your doctor about checking your response early — it helps guide whether your current treatment is working best for you.
Eligibility for the treatments mentioned above depends on specific test results and clinical history. Bring this summary, the trial name, and your most recent labs or pathology report to your next visit.
Open leukemia trials
Tagraxofusp and Low-Intensity Chemotherapy for CD123-Positive Relapsed or Refractory AML
To determine the efficacy of the combination of tagraxofusp, cladribine, and cytarabine.
Evaluation of Acute and Chronic Nephrotoxicity in Acute Lymphatic Leukemia Patients Using Ultrasound Localization Microscopy
With increasing survival rates in pediatric oncology, reports of long-term side effects persisting decades after treatment are also rising. Clinically evident nephropathies occur in about 5.5% of survivors more than five years after therapy. Chemotherapeutic agents such as ifosfamide, cisplatin, and carboplatin, as well as kidney-directed treatments like radiation, surgery, or stem cell transplantation, increase this risk. Acute kidney injury has also been described in association with cyclophosphamide and high-dose methotrexate, which are used in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Studies show a high prevalence of albuminuria (around 14.5% of childhood cancer survivors), an early marker of kidney damage, while standard parameters like creatinine often become abnormal only at later stages. Leukemia survivors suffer from vascular late effects caused by persistent endothelial damage triggered by cancer therapies such as anthracyclines, cyclophosphamide, and asparaginase, which increase inflammation and thrombosis risk. These vascular changes may also contribute to kidney injury. ULM is a high-resolution ultrasound technique that uses microbubbles to visualize the microvasculature and resolve dynamic blood flow changes with a resolution beyond the diffraction limit. ULM is independent of kidney or liver function, has been applied in various organs, and was recently used for the first time to visualize glomeruli-the smallest functional units of the kidney-in humans. This method enables early detection of glomerular injury as a consequence of vascular damage, even before albuminuria appears, potentially allowing earlier adaptation of follow-up and initiation of treatment. This pilot project focuses on survivors of ALL, as they are the largest and best studied pediatric cancer patient group also regarding late effects and, therefore, a sufficient number of individuals can be expected for his monocentric approach. Vascular functional impairment of the kidney could be detected at an early stage and the follow-up structures and measures such as the early use of nephroprotective drugs could be adapted.