Pediatric Oncology

Everyone, at every level, is checking, rechecking, thinking, researching, asking questions, discussing, analyzing, and trying to help patients.

The FDA has approved dasatinib (Sprycel) for the treatment of pediatric patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase.

Treatment with prolonged native E. coli asparaginase therapy for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia or non-Hodgkin lymphoma not only failed to improve survival versus the standard regimen, but also resulted in an increase in infections and allergy.

The combination of clofarabine, cyclophosphamide, and etoposide reached an overall response rate of 41% in a small study of children and adolescents with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

Guy Young, MD, director, Hemostasis and Thrombosis Program, attending physician, Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, USC, discusses other options for managing bleeding in children with cancer.

Guy Young, MD, director, Hemostasis and Thrombosis Program, attending physician, Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, USC, discusses using vitamin-K antagonists in children with cancer.

Guy Young, MD, director, Hemostasis and Thrombosis Program, attending physician, Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, USC, discusses using anticoagulants in children with cancer.

In the CALL-0603 study of 44 patients with first marrow-relapsed childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the second complete remission rate was 72.7% for a chemotherapy regimen that included a reduced dose of idarubicin.

Guy Young, MD, discussed the use of anticoagulants in managing thromboembolic events in pediatric cancer.

Guy Young, MD, director, Hemostasis and Thrombosis Program, attending physician, Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, USC, discusses the occurrence of thromboembolic events in pediatric cancer.

Tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) induced a complete remission with complete or incomplete hematologic recovery in 83% of pediatric, adolescent, and young adult patients with acute lymphoblastic lymphoma.

The effort to improve outcomes in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia should follow insight provided by next-generation sequencing and appropriate use of minimal residual disease criteria.

James L. Ferrara, MD, discusses the significance of the FDA approving tisagenlecleucel as the first CAR T-cell therapy.

A 15 mg/kg dose of rabbit anti-T-lymphocyte globulin was associated with similar graft-vs-host-disease, less nonrelapse mortality, and less disease recurrence compared with a 30 mg/kg dose for children with hematological malignancies.

Administering high-dose cytarabine to children with myeloid leukemia of Down syndrome during the second chemotherapy induction cycle resulted in improved event-free survival and overall survival compared to results observed in previous research studies.

The FDA issued a historic approval of the first chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, authorizing the use of tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) for the treatment of patients up to 25 years of age with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia that is refractory or in second or later relapse.

Arsenic trioxide consolidation was effective and safe in newly diagnosed pediatric patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia, allowing a significant reduction in cumulative anthracycline doses

In a small study of pediatric patients with relapsed/refractory ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma, treatment with 165 mg/m2 of crizotinib (Xalkori) was associated with an overall response rate of 83%

The recent approval of 2 immunotherapies for the treatment of certain patients with tumors that exhibit microsatellite instability has propelled the emerging biomarker into clinical practice, prompting calls for broader genetic testing.

The FDA has granted an accelerated approval to nivolumab for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with microsatellite instability-high or mismatch repair deficient metastatic colorectal cancer that has progressed following treatment with a fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan.

The FDA has approved ipilimumab for the treatment of patients aged ≥12 years with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

Bajil J. Shah, MD, discusses the significant impact CAR T-cell therapy can have on the treatment landscape for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted 10-0 today to recommend approval of a biologics license application for tisagenlecleucel (CTL019) for the treatment of patients aged 25 or younger with relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

The FDA has accepted a supplemental new drug application for dasatinib (Sprycel) for use in children with Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CP Ph+ CML).

CTL019, an investigational chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, demonstrated high response rates and a manageable safety profile in pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed and/or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Renal medullary carcinoma is a rare but devastating tumor type almost exclusively affecting young adults carrying 1 copy of hemoglobin beta (HBB) harboring the A17T mutation (HbS).

The rate of severe long-term side effects caused by treatments for childhood cancers is dropping over time, according to findings from a retrospective analysis of 23,600 survivors enrolled in the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.