ARIAD Launches CMLRisks.com To Expand Awareness Of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Resistance And Intolerance

Online educational resource for medical professionals highlights need for careful monitoring of CML patients and the impact of treatment failure

ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. recently announced the launch of CMLrisks.com, a new online resource intended to build broader awareness of the risk of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treatment failure. The site highlights the need for improved adherence to CML guidelines for monitoring patients for response, and aggregates research and analyses addressing the potential benefits of careful monitoring for treatment failure and the prognostic significance that may be associated with achieving deeper response early in treatment. 

Additional content reinforces the value of mutation testing as a standard practice in monitoring patients with CML, including its importance for identifying the risk of treatment resistance. The site also outlines the need for healthcare professionals to monitor patients for adherence to TKI therapy, as non-adherence may be associated with lower probability of response.

“Treatment failure affects a substantial proportion of CML patients treated with TKIs due to resistance or intolerance,” said Timothy P. Clackson, Ph.D., president of research and development and chief scientific officer of ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. “ARIAD is committed to helping medical professionals better understand key factors that may be associated with CML disease progression and treatment failure that can put patients at risk. This new website outlines steps to identify CML treatment failure at an early stage and highlights research that supports careful patient monitoring to help reduce the risks of disease progression.”

CMLrisks.com provides an overview of CML along with data demonstrating the advantages of continually monitoring patients during treatment. In a retrospective study of 410 newly-diagnosed chronic phase (CP)-CML patients in community practice in the United States,69 percent of patients treated with TKIs did not receive any cytogenetic monitoring by 12 months and 27 percent of patients treated with TKIs did not receive any molecular monitoring by 18 months. Additionally, one-in-five newly-diagnosed CP-CML patients who start first-line TKI therapy will develop a BCR-ABL1 mutation, a common cause of TKI resistance.

Visitors to CMLrisks.com can review information related to CML, patient monitoring, mutation testing, treatment intolerance, and adherence to therapy, as well as resource links and other educational tools for both patients and medical professionals.

About ARIAD
ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc., headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is an orphan oncology company focused on transforming the lives of cancer patients with breakthrough medicines.  ARIAD is working on new medicines to advance the treatment of various forms of chronic and acute leukemia, lung cancer and other difficult-to-treat orphan cancers.  ARIAD utilizes computational and structural approaches to design small-molecule drugs that overcome resistance to existing cancer medicines.  For more information, visit http://www.ariad.com.