ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition

Jennifer E. Amengual, MD, assistant professor of medicine and developmental therapeutics, member, Center for Lymphoid Malignancies, Columbia University, discusses the potential of the combination of vorinostat and niacinamide as treatment for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, from the National Cancer Institute, discusses a phase II trial that explored the combination of carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone followed by maintenance lenalidomide in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

María-Victoria Mateos, MD, PhD, associate professor, hematology, University Hospital of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain, discusses the design and results of a phase II trial that she presented at the 2013 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting.

James R. Berenson, MD, discusses a phase I/II study looking at pomalidomide, dexamethasone and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. The study was presented at the 2013 ASH Meeting.

Combination treatment with idelalisib plus rituximab was associated with a >70% improvement in OS in patients with high-risk relapsed/refractory CLL.

Almost half of patients with relapsed/refractory AML had complete remissions when treated with quizartinib, which also had a more favorable safety profile as compared with higher doses.

Andre Goy, MD, MS, from the John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses the apparent effectiveness of CD19-targeted CAR-modified T cells as a treatment for patients with various types of lymphoma.

Brentuximab vedotin has demonstrated antitumor activity in the setting of relapsed or refractory DLBCL across a broad range of CD30 expression, including low or undetectable CD30 expression.

Jatin J. Shah, MD, from the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, describes his excitement over novel therapeutics in development for patients with multiple myeloma.

Richard R. Furman, MD, from the New York Weill Cornell Medical Center, discusses the ability to avoid the administration of chemotherapy when using novel agents, such as idelalisib, to treat patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Imetelstat, a telomerase inhibitor, has demonstrated significant activity in myelofibrosis, including complete responses.

The first-in-class targeted agent filanesib has demonstrated promising activity in patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.

Adding ofatumumab to chlorambucil in patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia who are considered inappropriate for fludarabine improves clinical outcomes and is tolerable irrespective of patient age or fitness.

Jacob Laubach, MD, MPP, from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses responses observed following the administration of daratumumab for patients with multiple myeloma.

Ian W. Flinn, MD, PhD, from the Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses the preliminary efficacy of IPI-145 in patients with chronic lymphocyic leukemia (CLL).

The BTK inhibitor ibrutinib rapidly reduced serum immunoglobulin M levels and improved hematocrit levels in patients with relapsed or refractory Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, and the responses to ibrutinib were durable.

Almost half of patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia attained objective responses when treated with an oral inhibitor of phosphoinositide-3-kinase-delta and -gamma.

ABT-199, an orally bioavailable selective inhibitor of the Bcl-2 protein as monotherapy, induced remissions in patients with relapsed/refractory CLL and SLL, including adverse-risk subsets of patients.

The combination of continuous lenalidomide and low-dose dexamethasone extends PFS and trends toward improving OS compared with the standard MPT in patients with transplant-ineligible newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and major comorbidities had significantly better outcomes when treated with the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody obinutuzumab instead of rituximab.

Treatment with engineered donor T cells led to substantial tumor regression in patients with posttransplant relapsed B-cell malignancies, results of a small clinical study showed.

Valentin Goede, MD, from the University Hospital Cologne, discusses the efficacy findings from the stage 2 CLL11 study that examined obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia with comorbidities.

Intervention in early or "smoldering" myeloma with a three-drug regimen led to complete responses in a group of high-risk patients, suggesting a window of opportunity that may delay or prevent progression to a debilitating disease state.

A higher cumulative dose of bortezomib, including a longer duration of treatment and/or higher dose intensity, appears to improve OS in patients with previously untreated multiple myeloma.

Jennifer Brown, MD, PhD, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the development of the novel PI3K-delta inhibitor idelalisib as a treatment for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

John F. Seymour, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, discusses the efficacy of single-agent ABT-199 (GDC-0199), a novel Bcl-2 inhibitor, in high-risk relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic lymphoma.

To gain insight into the studies being presented at the ASH Annual Meeting, we interviewed Marcel R.M. van den Brink, MD, PhD, on abstracts being presented by faculty at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Marcel R.M. van den Brink, MD, PhD, Head, discusses a trial being presented at the 2013 ASH Annual Meeting, analyzing the addition of ibrutinib to R-CHOP in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL).