Hematologic Oncology

Prior to the advent of targeted therapies, there were few options other than chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with indolent B-cell lymphomas or chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Combining venetoclax (Venclexta, AbbVie and Genentech) plus a tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting the BCR-ABL oncogene can eradicate chronic myeloid leukemia stem cells in a mouse model of the disease.

Use of lenalidomide monotherapy in patients with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma resulted in clinically meaningful antitumor activity, with 42% of phase II trial participants having objective responses.

Many adolescent girls with leukemia did not receive pregnancy screening before undergoing teratogenic exposure.

Genmab recently announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved ofatumumab (Arzerra®) combined with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide (FC) for patients with relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The addition of carfilzomib to lenalidomide and dexamethasone improved health-related quality of life compared with treatment with lenalidomide/dexamethasone alone among patients with relapsed multiple myeloma enrolled in the ASPIRE trial.

Dr. Amitkumar Mehta talks about the various effects of daratumumab on multiple myeloma cells.

The quantification of a patient’s MRD after treatment for CLL allowed for a more specific prediction of progression-free survival among patients who responded to treatment.

Adding the CD38-targeting monoclonal antibody daratumumab to bortezomib and dexamethasone resulted in significantly improved progression-free survival in patients with heavily pretreated multiple myeloma.

Data from the large, population-based EUTOS registry showed strong survival outcomes in patients with CML, and validated risk scores as prognostic of outcome.

Socioeconomic factors affected the care and survival of younger patients with multiple myeloma, but race/ethnicity itself did not influence survival.

The FDA is granting Orphan Drug Designation for chimeric antigen receptor engineered T-cells directed against the target protein CD4 (CD4CAR) for the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma.

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) taking ibrutinib showed an antibody response to the influenza vaccine, according to a data from a small study.

Patients with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma treated with mogamulizumab prior to undergoing allo-HSCT were at significantly greater risk for graft-vs-host disease–related mortality.

In this review, we discuss the potential applications of monitoring ctDNA in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, and mantle cell lymphoma.

An 84-year-old woman with a history of Graves disease, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension presented to her physician with progressive fatigue and palpable bilateral axillary lymphadenopathy.

It is clear that as our understanding of both aggressive and indolent lymphomas improves, the goals of treatment change and the bar for success is set higher.

A propensity score–matched comparison of two phase II trials found that dasatinib and nilotinib offer similar responses and outcomes as first-line therapy for patients with chronic-phase CML.

Myeloma is clearly not one disease but several. In terms of treatment choices, it is increasingly evident that one size of treatment does not fit all. Moreover, as therapy is tailored to each individual patient, with the ability to mobilize and collect stem cells and retain them after successful induction/remission therapy, younger patients have choices.

Results of important studies addressing the optimal consolidation regimen and choice and duration of maintenance therapy are eagerly awaited, but it is evident that ASCT is imperative in the treatment of younger patients with multiple myeloma.

Patients with relapsed or refractory acute myelogenous leukemia respond to single-agent treatment with the B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2) inhibitor venetoclax.

Early evaluation of ABCB1 mRNA expression may help identify CML patients who are likely to be resistant to first- and second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

An anti-CD30 monoclonal antibody called brentuximab vedotin demonstrated in a randomized phase III study a highly statistically significant improvement in rate of objective response lasting at least 4 months.

Treatment with carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone improved the poor prognosis associated with high-risk cytogenetic abnormalities of multiple myeloma.

Survivors of childhood Hodgkin lymphoma had more chronic and severe cardiovascular health conditions at age 50 vs a group of controls.

High-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation was effective in treating patients with newly diagnosed primary CNS lymphoma.

The FDA has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for injected daratumumab added to standard-of-care treatment regimens among patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Juno Therapeutics has reopened the phase II clinical trial (ROCKET trial) of JCAR015 in adult patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia following three deaths.

A new study found that monitoring of minimal residual disease in a group of elderly patients with multiple myeloma proved to have important prognostic value, regardless of patient age or cytogenetic risk.

The advantage of treating low- or intermediate-risk APL with ATRA plus arsenic trioxide appears to increase over time, according to results of the APL0406 trial.