CDK9 INHIBITORS: a promising combination partner in the treatment of hematological malignancies
Daniel Morillo, Gala Vega, Víctor Moreno
Abstract
// Daniel Morillo 1 , Gala Vega 1 and Victor Moreno 2 1 Division of Hematology, START Madrid-FJD, Hospital Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain 2 Division of Oncology, START Madrid-FJD, Hospital Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain Correspondence to: Victor Moreno, email: [email protected] Keywords: cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK); CDK9; hematological malignancies Received: April 18, 2023     Accepted: June 21, 2023     Published: August 07, 2023 Copyright: © 2023 Morillo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. ABSTRACT Most hematological malignancies are characterized by overexpression of certain cancer promoting genes, such as MYC, MCL1 and cyclin D1. Preclinical studies in animal models have shown that CDK9 inhibitors supress the transcription of these anti-apoptotic and pro-survival proteins, and suggest their potential synergism with other drugs. In its first in-human trial, enitociclib demonstrated clinical activity in a small cohort of patients with high grade B lymphoma with MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 rearrangements, inducing complete responses in 2 of 7 subjects (29%) in monotherapy. These data suggest CDK9 inhibitors could play a role in the treatment of hematological diseases and could be a great ally when combined with other therapeutic approaches.