Leukemia Insights - Spring 2012
Nelarabine was developed based on the success of cytarabine and fludarabine, the most important agents in the therapy of AML and CLL, respectively. Studies predicted that nelarabine might be most effective in T-cell malignancies. Nelarabine is currently administered as a short daily or every-other-day infusion. The dose-limiting toxicity was acute neurotoxicity. Recent studies have tried different dosing schedules of nelarabine including short versus long infusions11. Neurologic toxicity was least common with slow infusion.
Based on this, we currently have a Phase I trial in which nelarabine is administered as a five-day continuous infusion via central catheter for patients with relapsed-refractory disease. The goal is to minimize neurotoxicity.