Amgen blood platelet booster helps patients who need chemotherapy
Ahead of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting, researchers reported that Amgen’s Nplate, a drug commonly used to treat low platelets in autoimmune diseases, has shown significant efficacy in preventing a common and serious side effect of powerful cancer chemotherapy.
In a pivotal study, 165 patients with one of three types of cancer—colorectal, gastroesophageal, or pancreatic—participated. All of the patients were treated with toxic anticancer drugs that, after just one session, caused them to develop chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia, a condition in which the number of blood platelets is abnormally low.
In the trial, participants received either weekly subcutaneous injections of the drug Enplatin, chemically known as romiplostim, or a placebo. Enplatin helps increase the production of blood platelets by stimulating the bone marrow.
The researchers found that 84 percent of patients in the Enplatin group did not need to have their subsequent chemotherapy doses reduced despite their platelet counts dropping, compared with only 36 percent of patients in the placebo group.
