Could a new leukemia drug work better and cause fewer side effects than current treatments?

Starting treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) can be tough. Many people don't get their disease under control well enough, or they have side effects that make life difficult. The goal is to find a treatment that works well and is easy to live with for the long term. In a major trial, a new drug called asciminib was compared to the standard first-line treatments. After about two years, significantly more people taking asciminib achieved a deep level of disease control called a major molecular response, compared to those on the standard drugs. This was true whether asciminib was compared to all standard drugs together, or just to the older drug imatinib. The side effect profile also looked better. Fewer people on asciminib needed to reduce their dose or temporarily stop treatment compared to those on newer, 'second-generation' standard drugs. People were also less likely to have to stop asciminib completely because of side effects compared to those second-generation drugs. With this longer follow-up, asciminib continued to show a better balance of benefits and risks than the current standard treatments for newly diagnosed CML.