The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the domestic use of a new tablet touted as capable of melting away certain blood cancer cells.

With that, the drug Venetoclax can now be prescribed outside clinical trials for certain chronic lymphocytic leukemia sufferers. It is now also being considered for use by European medication regulators.

Drug Tested Since 1988

The development of the drug stems from research conducted by scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute nearly three decades ago that found that the BCL-2 protein was key to cancer cell survival.

According to Professor Andrew Roberts, a clinical haematologist and WEHI's head of clinical translation, the first-in-human clinical trials of the drug conducted in Melbourne saw a positive response in four out of every five of 116 patients tested.

"Most of the patients had failed to be controlled by all the other treatments we had available," he added. "This was a last line option for them."

After enduring six rounds of chemotherapy and still being saddled with lumps in his lymph nodes and under his arms, 68-year-old Vic Blackwood was seemingly out of options and spending up to 20 hours a day in bed.

"They said if we don't do anything, you've got three weeks to live," he said.

Now, two years after he started the Venetoclax treatments at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the lumps are gone and there are no obvious signs of cancer.

"The change in me has been more dramatic than in anyone else," he said. "I can do anything now. It saved my life."

Certain Patients Approved for Usage

The FDA approval is for use in patients diagnosed with the chromosomal abnormality 17p deletion, with the added stipulation being they have tried at least one other form of treatment. Other clinical experiments are now also underway in Melbourne where the drug is being tested in sequence with other anticancer drugs in hopes of improving overall survival rates.

Venetoclax participants orally took the drug every day for a five-week period, beginning with 20 mg and increasing to 400 mg over time.

"These patients now have a new, targeted therapy that inhibits a protein involved in keeping tumor cells alive," FDA director of the Office of Hematology and Oncology Richard Pazdur said of the patients now prescribed with the drugs.

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