New Drug Approved by FDA to Treat Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Agios Pharmaceuticals’ Idhifa (enasidenib) to treat acute myelogenous leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. Developed in partnership with Calgene, the pill treats the cancer in people with a certain genetic mutation in the IDH2 gene by starving cancer cells. It does this by targeting the metabolism of cancer cells to accomplish the Warburg effect, a phenomenon developed by German scientist Otto Warburg, who first observed in the early 1900s that cancer cells don’t need as much oxygen to metabolize sugar as normal cells. The effect, which is estimated to occur in approximately 80 percent of cancers, targets just cancer cells, leaving healthy cells untouched. It’s only been in the past decade, however, that researchers have figured out how to use the Warburg effect in treatments.