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Myelodysplastic syndrome

Rethinking clinical trial endpoints in myelodysplastic syndromes

Leukemia volume 33, pages 570–575 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a heterogeneous collection of clonal, hematopoietic disorders primarily affecting an older population, making successful drug development a complicated process. A sole focus on response rate in clinical trials is likely not clinically meaningful if not accompanied by substantive response duration, improvement in quality of life, and ideally prolongation of survival. The process of receiving a new therapy should not be more burdensome than the MDS sequela it is intended to ameliorate. We review challenges in drug development in MDS with respect to aligning trial endpoints for lower and higher risk patients with treatment goals meaningful to patients.

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  1. Leukemia Programs, Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Cleveland, OH, and Boston, MA, USA

    Mikkael A. Sekeres & David P. Steensma

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Correspondence to Mikkael A. Sekeres.

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Conflict of interest

M.A.S. serves on Advisory Boards for Celgene, Takeda, and Syros and on a DSMB for Opsona. D.P.S. consults for Novartis and Otsuka; serves on DSMBs for Onconova, Janssen, and Takeda; and his institution receives research funding from Celgene and H3Bioscience.

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Sekeres, M.A., Steensma, D.P. Rethinking clinical trial endpoints in myelodysplastic syndromes. Leukemia 33, 570–575 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-018-0367-7

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