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ASH: Drugs Effective in Chronic ITP Not Appropriate as First-Line Treatment

Ƶ MedicalToday

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 9 -- Rituximab (Rituxan) and eltrombopag (Promacta) are "too aggressive and too expensive" for use as first-line therapies against chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, agreed participants in an exclusive Ƶ roundtable discussion.

Despite the fact that a study of rituximab and dexamethasone versus dexamethasone in treatment-naïve ITP found that the combination was effective, James N. George, M.D., of the hematology-oncology section at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, cautioned that the treatment was too aggressive for first-line therapy.

Dr. George, a past president of ASH, joined David J. Kuter, M.D., D.Phil, director of the center for hematology at Massachusetts General Hospital, and J. Evan Sadler, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, in a discussion of the latest platelet research reported at ASH.

Dr. Sadler noted that several studies -- especially results of the RAISE trial -- provided evidence of the "bench to bedside" research reported at ASH in recent years.

Peggy Peck, the executive editor of Ƶ, moderated the discussion.