Vol.24/No.7

CAR T-cell therapies have transformed the treatment landscape of multiple hematologic malignancies since they first rose to prominence, but they are associated with a high financial cost, both for the patient and the health care institution that provides them.

Elias Jabbour, MD; Harry Paul Erba, MD, PhD; Anjali Advani, MD; and Sameem Abedin, MD, discuss key updates pertaining to the leukemia treatment landscape that were presented at the 64th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition.

A recent retrospective study found that patients with endometrial cancer in International FICO stage I high- intermediate risk subgroups with fewer than 2 risk factors had a greater than 95% cause-specific survival at 3-year follow-up, and subgroups with 2 or more risk factors had poorer outcomes.

The first-in-class telomerase inhibitor imetelstat is poised to expand the myelofibrosis treatment armamentarium should it prove safe and effective in the newly initiated phase 3 IMpactMF trial.

In the setting of cancer, cytokines contribute to cells’ antitumor response, cell damage, inflammation, angiogenesis, metastasis, and other cellular processes that enable tumor survival

Nearly 40 years after the first cytokine-based therapy was approved for the treatment of patients with hairy cell leukemia, investigators are taking a fresh look at ways to leverage these signaling proteins to enhance immunotherapies and vaccines in other cancers.

As the development of systemic treatments for metastatic colorectal cancer move toward precision therapy, guidelines have adjusted to integrate decisions based on molecular drivers.

The evaluation of diagnostic quality in precision medicine should almost certainly be assessed by standards different from those used in drug development.