Hematologic Oncology

Almost half of adult patients with previously treated chronic immune thrombocytopenia achieved major responses with the SYK inhibitor fostamatinib (Tavalisse).

Farhad Ravandi, MBBS, professor of medicine, department of leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses targeting CD33 in patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

Nonpediatric young adults with stage III/IV Hodgkin lymphoma had significantly better progression-free survival when treated with brentuximab vedotin and conventional chemotherapy compared with standard therapy.

A growing understanding about the underlying biology of myelofibrosis has helped improve the diagnosis and treatment of the disease during the past decade and is paving the way for further advancements.

Data from 2 early-stage trials of bispecific T-cell engager antibody constructs in relapsed/refractory hematologic malignancies demonstrated antitumor activity and early evidence of tolerability.

The combination of nivolumab and azacitidine demonstrated favorable responses and overall survival in patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

Alexander E. Perl, MD, associate professor of medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, discusses the promise of CAR T cells in the treatment of pediatric leukemia.

Thomas G. Martin, MD, clinical professor of medicine, Adult Leukemia and Bone Marrow Transplantation Program, associate director, Myeloma Program, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF); co-leader, Hematopoietic Malignancies Program, Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses minimal residual disease (MRD) status in multiple myeloma.

A newly discovered recurrent mutation in the B-cell leukemia/lymphoma 2 protein mediates clinical resistance to venetoclax in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Viola Poeschel, MD, department of hematology, oncology and rheumatology, Saarland University Medical School, Germany, discusses outcomes of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who were treated with 4 cycles of R-CHOP during the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

Nina Shah, MD, associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses initial results from a phase I clinical trial of bb21217, a next-generation anti-BCMA CAR T-cell therapy, in patients with multiple myeloma during the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

The overall survival benefit with quizartinib in patients with relapsed/refractory FLT3-ITD-mutated acute myeloid leukemia was observed across patient subgroups and reproduced consistently across sensitivity analyses.

More than 70% of older patients ineligible for intensive chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia had complete responses to venetoclax combined with hypomethylating agents, preliminary results from clinical trials have shown.

An approach using machine learning to analyze genomic and clinical data from patients with myelodysplastic syndromes could replace the gold standard of predicting how long patients may live with the disease.

John P. Leonard, MD, associate dean for clinical research and Richard T. Silver Distinguished Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Meyer Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medicine and New York Presbyterian Hospital, discusses the key takeaway from the phase III AUGMENT trial, a randomized study of lenalidomide (Revlimid) plus rituximab (Rituxan) (R2) versus rituximab/placebo in patients with relapsed/refractory indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma, during the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

Jordan Gauthier, MD, MSc, senior clinical research fellow, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses a study comparing efficacy and toxicity of CD19-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells alone or in combination with ibrutinib in patients with relapsed and/or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) during the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

The CD3 and CD20 bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab demonstrated promising complete remission rates with tolerable toxicity for patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell indolent and aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

The triplet regimen of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus umbralisib and ublituximab reached a 90% response rate in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Initial findings from the Beat AML study showed that rapid genetic testing in patients with AML was feasible and helpful, and that a precision medicine approach is possible for these patients, who must be treated urgently given the disease’s rapid progression.

Single-agent ibrutinib continued to demonstrate strong results after 7 years of follow-up in both the frontline and heavily pretreated, relapsed/refractory setting for patients with CLL and SLL.

Checkpoint inhibition showed promise for augmenting or extending response to chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy in some patients with relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Daratumumab added to bortezomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone induced at least a very good partial response in all patients and a stringent complete response or CR in 63% of patients at the end of consolidation therapy in the run-in phase of an open-label study of transplant-eligible patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

Farhad Ravandi, MBBS, professor of medicine, department of leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses a phase I first-in-human study of AMG 330, an anti-CD33 bispecific T-Cell engager (BiTE) antibody construct, in patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) during the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

Tycel J. Phillips, MD, assistant professor, University of Michigan Cancer Center, discusses safety and efficacy findings for acalabrutinib plus bendamustine and rituximab in patients with treatment-naive or relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) during the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

Treatment with luspatercept significantly reduced the need for frequent red blood cell transfusions in nearly 53% of patients with anemia associated with low- to intermediate-risk myelodysplastic syndrome.