Latest Conference Articles

Adding the oral BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax (Venclexta) to obinutuzumab (Gazyva) and ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia is safe and is demonstrating encouraging signs of efficacy.

An induction regimen of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and obinutuzumab (Gazyva) after bendamustine debulking induced a 100% response rate in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Treatment with the BTK inhibitor BGB-3111 had an objective response rate of 96% for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic leukemia.

The investigational Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor acalabrutinib was shown to be well-tolerated in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic leukemia who display intolerance to ibrutinib (Imbruvica).

Treatment with first-line avelumab yielded promising clinical benefit and durable antitumor activity in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer.

The combination of the PI3 kinase inhibitor TGR-1202 and ibrutinib demonstrated a high response rate without dose-limiting toxicities for patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma.

Joshua Roth, PhD, assistant member, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses the rationale behind the development of a novel risk-prediction algorithm in the context of screening patients for lung cancer. He discussed this during an interview at the IASLC 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Vienna, Austria.

Javier Zulueta, MD, head of the Pneumology Department, co-director, Lung Cancer Area, Clinica Universidad de Navarra, discusses the LuCED test, a non-invasive tool used to detect early stage lung cancer, during an interview at the IASLC 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Vienna, Austria.

While treatment with nivolumab (Opdivo) significantly improved overall survival over docetaxel in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer in the CheckMate-057 trial, an analysis of deaths occurring within 3 months of initiation of therapy showed numerically more deaths in the nivolumab arm.

Douglas Arenberg, MD, discusses preliminary findings of a screening study, and the critical importance of maintaining quality tobacco cessation practices in healthcare clinics.

John M. Burke, MD, discusses the GOYA study, a phase III study investigating obinutuzumab plus CHOP in patients with previously untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Burke discussed the study during the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.

Combining obinutuzumab with chemotherapy in the first-line setting reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 34% versus rituximab plus chemotherapy in patients with follicular lymphoma, according to findings from the phase III GALLIUM study.

Treatment with the combination of pembrolizumab, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone demonstrated promising durable efficacy and a tolerable safety profile for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Michael A. Thompson, MD, PhD, medical director, precision medicine, Vince Lombardi Cancer Clinic, Aurora Health Care, discusses some of the recent exciting advancements in the field of multiple myeloma during the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.

Ibrutinib showed an 89% response rate in both treatment-naïve and relapsed patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma in findings from the longest follow-up to date for the BTK inhibitor.

Lenalidomide as maintenance following first-line immunochemotherapy substantially improves progression-free survival in the treatment of patients with high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The combination of the killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors inhibitor lirilumab with the hypomethylating agent azacytidine was well tolerated and showed early signals of activity in heavily pretreated patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Treatment with enasidenib was active and was well tolerated in pretreated patients with IDH2-mutated myelodysplastic syndrome, including those who failed hypomethylating agents.

Researchers are hopeful that the addition of the investigational agent vadastuximab talirine to standard 7+3 induction therapy may improve survival for patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

The CAR T-cell therapy CTL019 demonstrated an 82% complete remission (CR) or CR with incomplete blood count recovery rate for pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Mrinal S. Patnaik, MBBS, hematologist, Mayo Clinic, discusses a study investigating SL-401 in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms during the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.

Constantine Tam, MD, discusses 2 trials investigating BTK inhibitor BGB-3111 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia.

TKIs can safely be stopped or dose-reduced without jeopardizing long-term outcomes for select patients with chronic myeloid leukemia who have obtained a major molecular response.

Brentuximab vedotin induced responses lasting at least 4 months in 56% of patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma versus 13% in patients receiving physician’s choice of standard therapies, according to findings from the phase III ALCANZA trial presented at the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting.

CPX-351 may provide a bridge to successful transplantation for older patients with acute myeloid leukemia with limited treatment options.

Anti-CD22 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy induced an 80% complete remission rate among children and young adults with relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, many of whom had prior anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy.

The next-generation BTK inhibitor acalabrutinib produced an objective response rate of 38.1% as a monotherapy for patents with Richter transformation.

Treatment with the combination of nivolumab and ibrutinib showed encouraging activity and safety in a small phase II study of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Richter transformation.

Manmeet Ahluwalia, MD, FACP, Miller Family Endowed Chair in Neuro-Oncology and Head of Operations, Burkhardt Brain Tumor NeuroOncology Center, discuses a new classification system for brain metastases.

Antonio Iavarone, MD, professor of Pathology and Cell Biology and Neurology, Columbia University, Institute for Cancer Genetics, discusses the role of the ID2 protein in patients with malignant brain tumors.