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Researchers have announced that, for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) driven by the Philadelphia chromosome, the drug dasatinib provides more benefit than the standard-of-care drug imatinib. US and Chinese researchers worked together on the first trial of its kind. In the randomised phase III clinical trial, researchers from St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, USA, and the Chinese Children’s Cancer Group compared imatinib, the first targeted therapy for Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) ALL, and dasatinib, a next-generation inhibitor. They found that the dasatinib led to an event-free survival rate of 71% compared to 49% with imatinib over four years. Overall survival rates over four y...