Complete remission without hematopoietic recovery (CRi) means we don’t see leukemia in the bone marrow (<5% blasts) but their blood counts (white blood cells, platelets) are not back to normal due to the chemo side effects. The patient essentially no longer has leukemia so we call it a win. It does not necessarily mean that patients will have to have a bone marrow (stem cell) transplant in order to be “cured.” That is driven by a whole host of other factors not surprisingly is largely risk vs. benefit. Stem cell transplantation is very costly and toxic and many patients can not even find a match.

MLFS essentially means there’s no leukemia in the bone marrow but something still isn’t quite normal in the blood or marrow depending on which definition you use. For example NCCN criteria says that CRi your platelets and white cells are abnormal but your hemoglobin should be normal. If your Hgb is too low then you would be MLFS.

I agree it’s not a miracle drug by any means, but patients who are getting this most likely don’t have any other options so for them even a small percentage of success at prolonging their lives even a few 7 months is worth it. A 53% response rate is VERY good for adult AML - we still don’t really know how to “cure” it.

I hate click bait articles but this is unfortunately what is needed to get people (investors) excited in funding cancer and medical research