07:55 AM EST, 02/12/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Aptose Biosciences Inc. ( APTO ) , a clinical-stage precision oncology company, was at last look up more than 20% in US premarket trade on Wednesday after reporting "promising" early safety and response results from newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients dosed in Aptose's Phase 1/2 TUSCANY trial with a 40 mg dose of tuspetinib in combination with standard of care dosing of venetoclax and azacitidine (TUS+VEN+AZA triplet).

A statement noted the TUS+VEN+AZA triplet is being developed as a frontline therapy to treat large, mutationally diverse populations of newly diagnosed AML patients who are ineligible to receive induction chemotherapy.

"These are very promising early results from the TUSCANY trial of TUS+VEN+AZA and the first indicators of the safety and efficacy we expected to see in newly diagnosed AML patients," said Rafael Bejar, Chief Medical Officer. "To achieve a complete remission (CR) in Cycle 1 in a subject harboring a TP53 mutation -- one of the most adverse forms of AML -- is particularly encouraging. With enrollment ongoing in the TUSCANY study, we look forward to reporting additional data as it becomes available."

William G. Rice, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aptose, added: "TUS+VEN+AZA triplet therapy has the potential to treat large AML patient populations, including those with traditionally difficult-to-treat mutations, and improve patient outcomes right from the outset of treatment... The ability to treat such diverse AML populations - including FLT3 wildtype patients - with a favorable safety profile and without having to alter the standard of care dosing, differentiates our drug from many AML drugs in development."

APS lost 5.5% on the TSX and 1.7% in the United States yesterday,