How long should maintenance therapy be given? That's an open question. So in the FDA label of at least CC486, also known as Onyurag, there is no end date. I think it comes down to three things. The tolerability of the drug for the patient, meaning if the patient is having severe side effects you're not going to keep them on it that long because their quality of life is going to be severely decreased. And then it comes down to the anxiety of the physician and the anxiety of the patient. So the worry that if you stop something, even though it's not at all rational, the worry that if you stop something that you're going to relapse right away. But I think that brings up the point that what we really need is we need clinical trials that help us understand when can you stop a maintenance therapy. Does maintenance therapy need to continue indefinitely? Or do we say two years we're going to stop maintenance therapy and then we're going to observe patients and see what happens.
HealthTree • October 24, 2022