Decitabine, Venetoclax, and Ponatinib for the Treatment of Philadelphia Chromosome-Positive Acute Myeloid Leukemia or Myeloid Blast Phase or Accelerated Phase Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: I. To determine the efficacy of the regimen, as defined by the rate of complete remission (CR) or CR with incomplete count recovery (CRi). SECONDARY OBJECTIVES: I. To determine efficacy outcomes, including rate of minimal residual disease negativity by flow cytometry and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for BCR-ABL1 transcripts, median relapse-free survival, and median overall survival. II. To determine the proportion of patients proceeding to allogeneic stem cell transplant (ASCT). III. To preliminarily determine the safety of the combination regimen. EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES: I. To evaluate the effect of single-agent ponatinib on apoptotic proteins and Bcl-2 dependency. II. To correlate apoptotic protein expression and Bcl-2 dependency on response and resistance to the combination regimen. OUTLINE: Patients recently (within 2 weeks of anticipated start date) treated with ponatinib receive ponatinib orally (PO) daily on days 1-21 of cycle 1 and days 1-28 of subsequent cycles, venetoclax PO daily on days 1-21, and decitabine intravenously (IV) over 60 minutes on days 1-5. Treatment repeats every 28 days for up to 24 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients who have not been recently (within 2 weeks of anticipated start date) treated with ponatinib may receive ponatinib monotherapy PO daily on days 1-7 before starting combination therapy with venetoclax in cycle 1. After completion of ponatinib lead-in, patients will receive ponatinib PO daily on days 1-21 of cycle 1 and on days 1-28 of subsequent cycles, venetoclax PO daily on days 8-28 of cycle 1 and days 1-21 of subsequent cycles, and decitabine IV over 60 minutes on days 8-12 of cycle 1 and days 1-5 of subsequent cycles. For these patients, cycle 1 is 35 days in duration and cycles 2-24 repeat every 28 days in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up at 30 days then every 6 months thereafter.