Hematologic Oncology

On Sunday, December 9, 2012, the Plenary Session at the 54th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting featured several noteworthy abstracts.

Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD, from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, describes challenges and emerging treatment approaches for patients with hematologic malignancies.

Patients with the rare form of blood cancer polycythemia vera whose hematocrit levels hover between 45% and 50% have a four-fold higher incidence of thrombotic complications.

Ari M. Melnick, MD, Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, discusses MALT1 as a potential target for patients with activated B cell-like diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Richard T. Silver, MD, Professor of Medicine, Director, Leukemia and Myleoproliferative Center, New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center, discusses the use of interferons in myeloproliferative neoplasms.

Ruben A. Mesa, MD, Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology & Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, discusses the use of JAK2 inhibitors in patients with myelofibrosis.

Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, Head, Multiple Myeloma Section, National Cancer Institute, discusses the pros and cons of maintenance therapy for patients with myeloma.

Quizartinib, an investigational tyrosine kinase inhibitor, demonstrated a clinical benefit in patients with a particularly deadly form of acute myeloid leukemia.

Jennifer Brown, MD, PhD, Director, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses gauging response in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The investigational agent ibrutinib was granted "Breakthrough Therapy Designations" by the FDA as a singular therapy for a pair of B-cell malignancies: relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma and Waldenström's macroglobulinemia.

Francesco Lo-Coco, MD, Hematology, University Tor Vergata, discusses a new emerging treatment, arsenic trioxide (ATO), in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL).

Several updates highlighted at the 2012 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting as well as other developments.

Michelle A. Fanale, MD, from the MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the potential of antibody-drug conjugates, as a new category of therapy for patients with cancer.

Francesco Lo-Coco, MD, Hematology, University Tor Vergata, discusses a new emerging treatment, arsenic trioxide, in acute promyelocytic leukemia.

James R. Berenson, MD, discusses a phase I/II study of pomalidomide, dexamethasone and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Jorge E. Cortes, MD, Department of Leukemia, University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the use of ponatinib as initial therapy for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.

The first set of results from a phase III clinical trial found that obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil chemotherapy significantly improved PFS in patients with CLL.

Michelle A. Fanale, MD, Associate Professor, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the role of brentuximab vedotin as frontline treatment of systemic anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

Research from the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center suggests that chlorambucil may be better than fludarabine in treating older patients with CLL, and that rituximab is beneficial regardless of age.

John C. Byrd, MD, director of the division of hematology at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses the role of Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Harry Erba, MD, PhD, discusses the results of a phase II study analyzing azacitidine and gemtuzumab ozogamicin as induction and post-remission therapy in patients of age 60 and older with previously untreated non-M3 AML.

Sundar Jagannath, MD, Director, Multiple Myeloma Program, The Tisch Cancer Institute at The Mount Sinai Medical Center, details the advances in life expectancy for patients with multiple myeloma.

Tal Zaks, MD, PhD, Sanofi Oncology, details a phase II randomized study of the JAK2 inhibitor SAR302503 in patients with intermediate-2 or high-risk primary myelofibrosis (MF), post-polycythemia vera MF, or post-essential thrombocythemia MF.

Richard R. Furman, MD, from the Weill Cornell Medical Center, discusses the safety profile of the oral BTK inhibitor ibrutinib in both relapsed/refractory and treatment naive patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Philip L. McCarthy, MD, Director, Blood & Marrow Transplant Program, Department of Medicine, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, explains the factors that determine patient tolerability to allogeneic bone marrow transplant.