Could This Anti‑Inflammatory Help Myelofibrosis Patients? | Andrew Kuykendall, MD

Hi, my name is Andrew Kirkendall from Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, and just got done presenting here at ASH 2025 the results of part one of a phase two study we did with Canna-Kenyamab in patients with myelofibrosis. This was actually a trial that was run through the MPN Research Consortium, which is a group of hospitals and research centers that really focus and specialize in the treatment of patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms. So this is actually a labor of love. This is a trial that we designed and ran through this consortium based upon preclinical data that was very exciting about the role that IL-1-beta inhibition may have in stopping the disease progression of myelofibrosis as well as helping with some of the symptoms and inflammatory complications that come with that disease. And so this was a study where patients received an IL-1-beta inhibitor called Canna-Kenyamab, which is heavily studied before in other non-malignant conditions and is shown to be safe and anti-inflammatory. Patients received this on day one of 21 day cycles and got about six or eight doses. And so we really assessed the ability of this drug to help with spleen related symptoms, disease related symptoms, as well as anemia after eight cycles. And what we found was with a single agent Canna-Kenyamab in a really highly pre-treated population this was able to be associated with significant symptom benefit in about 50% of patients. Unfortunately we saw that spleen growth tended to actually occur while on this drug. So we saw that the spleens were growing, which is really the opposite of what we want to occur. But we also knew from the pre-clinical data this was likely to happen because IL-1-beta inhibition has very little impact on spleen. So we've actually amended the study now based upon the promising data we saw in terms of symptom improvement, as well as anemia, stabilization, maybe some mild improvement there to now move on to a part two of the study, which is going to enroll patients who are on a stable dose of a JAK inhibitor. So that'll do the bulk of the work for the spleen volume reduction. And then we'll add on Canna-Kenyamab. And so that portion of the study is ongoing. So again, really an interesting look, early look at single agent data of Canna-Kenyamab in patients with myelofibrosis and then also kind of teasing the part two portion of the study, which is ongoing and enrolling. makes a difference. And we're deeply grateful for your support.