Hematologic Oncology

Finding new ways of manipulating the body's own defenses to better combat various hematologic malignancies is yielding some interesting results and could represent a very promising new field of care for patients dealing with these disorders.

Adding ibrutinib to standard R-CHOP chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma resulted in an objective response rate of 100% in the first-line setting.

Andre Goy, MD, Chairman and Director and Chief of Lymphoma at John Theurer Cancer Center, comments on the recent developments in fighting cancer with the immune system.

A dual-target PI3 kinase inhibitor known as IPI-145 demonstrated activity in several types of relapsed and refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

The biopharmaceutical industry has 241 medicines in development for the treatment of leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, and other blood cancers, which together are expected to comprise 9%, or 150,000, of new oncologic diagnoses in America this year.

Measurable patient characteristics that predict better tolerance have not been widely studied and are desperately needed in clinical practice to inform treatment decision-making and individualize care for each older adult with AML.

Edward Bradley, MD, Senior Vice President, Head, Innovative Medicines unit (iMED), MedImmune (the global biologics research and development arm of AstraZeneca), discusses the development of moxetumomab pasudotox.

Researchers highlighted the latest developments in the treatment of multiple myeloma at the 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting. Noteworthy abstracts included updated data on pomalidomide, as well as research involving the novel agents daratumumab and elotuzumab.

Obinutuzumab (GA101), a novel antibody that targets CD20, demonstrated a dramatic advantage in response rates when added to chlorambucil compared with the chemotherapy agent alone in elderly patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Bayard L. Powell, MD, the Director-At-Large and a Professor in Hematology & Oncology at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the next steps for CPI-613 in hematologic malignancies.

Acute myeloid leukemia is potentially driven by at least one genetic mutation in nearly all cases, with a complex interaction of multiple genetic events contributing to the development of the disease

Timothy S. Pardee, MD, describes a phase I trial looking at the first-in-class mitochondrial metabolism inhibitor CPI-613 in patients with advanced hematologic malignancies.

Renier J. Brentjens, MD, PhD, Leukemia Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the treatment of B-cell malignancies with chimeric antigen receptor(CAR)–modified T cells.

Catherine Bollard, MBChB, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, and Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, discusses the treatment of EBV-positive lymphoma with T-cell therapy.

Oncologist Jennifer Kelly, MD, PhD, shares her personal experiences as a stomach cancer patient, recognizes the barriers between cancer care providers and patients, and suggests ways of improving these interactions.

Ibrutinib was well tolerated and highly effective in eradicating tumor cells in both treatment-naïve and relapsed/refractory patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in an ongoing phase II study.

Valentin Goede, MD, Department I of Internal Medicine and Center of Integrated Oncology Cologne-Bonn, University of Cologne, Germany, discusses the findings of the phase III CLL11 trial.

Daniel H. Fowler, MD, senior investigator, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, describes the mechanism of action of T-rapa cells.

Bayard L. Powell, MD, from the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses a phase I study that explored the first-in-class mitochondrial metabolism inhibitor CPI-613 in patients with advanced hematologic malignancies.

As one of the world's top multiple myeloma physicians and researchers, Brian G.M. Durie, MD, can boil his mission down to one simple goal: saving lives. But it was two people the doctor couldn't save who have most affected his path.

Andre Goy, MD, Chairman and Director and Chief of Lymphoma at John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses the approval of the immunomodulatory agent lenalidomide (Revlimid).

The immunomodulatory agent lenalidomide is now approved by the FDA to treat patients with mantle cell lymphoma who have relapsed or whose disease has progressed after two prior therapies including at least one prior treatment with bortezomib.

Tal Zaks, MD, PhD, vice president and head of development at Sanofi Oncology, discusses patient-reported symptom assessment in the phase III JAKARTA trial of SAR302503 for myelofibrosis.

Harry Erba, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Director, Hematologic Malignancy Program, University of Alabama at Birmingham, discusses treating a patient with acute myeloid leukemia with curative intent.

A late-stage trial investigating inotuzumab ozogamicin as a treatment for patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma has been halted after interim data showed the agent was unlikely to improve survival.