2019 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition
Selected Abstracts From the 2019 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition
To complement The ASCO Post’s comprehensive coverage of the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, here are several abstracts selected from the meeting proceedings ...
Expert Point of View: Preet M. Chaudhary, MD, PhD
Preet M. Chaudhary, MD, PhD, of the University of Southern California (USC) Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, commented on the HOVON-96 trial for The ASCO Post. Dr. Chaudhary is Professor and Chie...
Improved Prevention of Graft-vs-Host Disease Reported With Posttransplant Cyclophosphamide
Following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, cyclophosphamide significantly reduced grades II to IV acute and chronic extensive graft-vs-host disease compared with conventional immuno...
Phase Ib/II Studies Explore Next-Generation BCMA-Targeted CAR T-Cell Therapies in Multiple Myeloma
In patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, two novel dual-target chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell strategies are yielding early and durable responses, with seemingly less cytokine...
Saad Z. Usmani, MD, on Carfilzomib, Dexamethasone, and Daratumumab for Relapsed or Refractory Myeloma
Saad Z. Usmani, MD, of the Levine Cancer Institute, discusses phase III study findings suggesting that the combination of carfilzomib/dexamethasone/daratumumab represents an efficacious new regimen fo...
Jeff P. Sharman, MD, on CLL: Trial Results on Acalabrutinib, Obinutuzumab, and Chlorambucil
Jeff P. Sharman, MD, of the Willamette Valley Cancer Institute and US Oncology Research, discusses phase III findings from the ELEVATE TN study, which showed that acalabrutinib plus obinutuzumab and a...
C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, on Carfilzomib, Lenalidomide, Dexamethasone, and Daratumumab for Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma
C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses phase II study findings that showed an 83% negative rate of minimal residual disease in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma ...
Patrick A. Brown, MD, on B-Cell ALL in Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults: Blinatumomab vs Chemotherapy
Patrick A. Brown, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, discusses phase III findings from a Children’s Oncology Group Study showing that blinatumomab was superior to chemotherapy in terms of efficacy and t...
Ilaria Iacobucci, PhD, on AML and MDS: Moving Beyond Gene Panel–Based Classifications
Ilaria Iacobucci, PhD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, discusses her work to more accurately define mutation subtypes in acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes, as well as the ...
Jerald P. Radich, MD, on CML: Predicting Deep Molecular Response to Treatment
Jerald P. Radich, MD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses a gene-expression model that distinguishes patients with chronic myeloid leukemia who achieved a deep molecular response ...
Andrew H. Wei, MBBS, PhD, on AML: Results From the QUAZAR Trial on Oral Azacitidine
Andrew H. Wei, MBBS, PhD, of The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, discusses phase III findings on oral azacitidine (CC-486), the first treatment used in the maintenance setting shown to improve both overal...
Jennifer Crombie, MD, on Relapsed or Refractory CLL/SLL: Results From a Phase I Trial of Duvelisib and Venetoclax
Jennifer Crombie, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses early study results which showed that duvelisib plus venetoclax showed activity in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphoc...
Mark Bustoros, MD, on Ixazomib/Lenalidomide/Dexamethasone for High-Risk Smoldering Multiple Myeloma
Mark Bustoros, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses phase II study results showing that the combination of ixazomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone is effective in patients with high-risk s...
Catherine M. Diefenbach, MD, on Follicular Lymphoma: Polatuzumab Vedotin Plus Obinutuzumab/Lenalidomide
Catherine M. Diefenbach, MD, of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone, discusses a primary analysis of a phase Ib/II trial showing that the novel triplet combination of polatuzumab vedotin plus ...
ASH 2019: Blinatumomab vs Standard Chemotherapy for Pediatric Patients With Relapsed B-ALL
Blinatumomab improved survival in children with relapsed B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) compared with standard chemotherapy, accordings to findings from a study presented by Brown et al at the...
ASH 2019: Oral Azacitidine Improves Survival in Older Patients With AML in First Remission
Treatment with an investigational oral form of azacitidine, CC-486, improved overall survival in older patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who were in remission following standa...
David P. Steensma, MD, on Myeloid Neoplasms: Results From a First-in-Human Trial of a Splicing Modulator
David P. Steensma, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses early study findings on H3B-8800, which decreased the need for red blood cell or platelet transfusion in 14% of patients. This splicin...
ASH 2019: Pilot Study of Next-Generation Sequencing for Undetectable Minimal Residual Disease in Patients With Follicular Lymphoma
Patients with follicular lymphoma who have been treated and are in remission for at least 2 years may no longer be incurable based on highly sensitive testing. This may mean they no longer need therap...
ASH 2019: PET-Directed Therapy for Early-Stage DLBCL
Most people diagnosed with early-stage, or limited, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) may be able to safely skip radiation treatment after a clear positron-emission tomography (PET) scan, accordin...
ASH 2019: Should African American Patients With AML and Evidence of Abnormal Kidney Function Be Enrolled Into Clinical Trials?
A study of more than 1,000 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) revealed that African Americans were more likely to have evidence of abnormal kidney functioning than whites, but this was not ass...
ASH Recognized Choosing Wisely Champions at 2019 Annual Meeting & Exposition
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) recognized three Choosing Wisely® Champions, practitioners working to tackle the overuse of hematology tests and treatments, at its 2019 Annual Meeting & E...
Addition of Daratumumab Increases Benefit of Carfilzomib/Dexamethasone in Multiple Myeloma
In patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, the addition of daratumumab to carfilzomib plus dexamethasone improved multiple outcomes, compared with carfilzomib/dexamethasone alone, in th...
ASH 2019: Genomic Features of AML in Patients Aged 60 or Older May Predict Stem Cell Transplant Outcome
For older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the prospects for success of a stem cell transplant can often be predicted based on the particular set of leukemic genetic characteristics, accord...
Edward A. Stadtmauer, MD, on Advanced Multiple Myeloma and Sarcoma: First-in-Human Assessment of CRISPR-Edited T Cells
Edward A. Stadtmauer, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania Abramson Cancer Center, discusses phase I results of immune cells, modified with CRISPR/Cas9 technology, and infused in three patients (two ...
Tait D. Shanafelt, MD, on CLL in Younger Patients: Comparing Ibrutinib and Rituximab With FCR
Tait D. Shanafelt, MD, of Stanford University, discusses extended follow-up data that show ibrutinib plus rituximab improved clinical outcomes vs the standard therapy of fludarabine/cyclophosphamide/ ...
Mhairi Copland, PhD, MB BChir, on Blast Phase CML: A Possible Treatment Advance
Mhairi Copland, PhD, MB BChir, of the University of Glasgow, discusses results of a study on the combination of ponatinib and fludarabine, cytarabine, idarubicin, and G-CSF for patients with blast pha...
Nitin Jain, MD, on First-Line Ibrutinib Plus Venetoclax in CLL
Nitin Jain, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses findings from two studies showing that the combination of ibrutinib and venetoclax is an effective chemotherapy-free ora...
Loretta J. Nastoupil, MD, on Follicular Lymphoma: Trial Results With Obinutuzumab/Lenalidomide
Loretta J. Nastoupil, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase II study findings that showed obinutuzumab in combination with lenalidomide for patients with previously...
Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, on Newly Diagnosed Hematologic Malignancies: Early Trial Findings on Glasdegib Plus Azacitidine
Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, discusses results of a phase Ib study of glasdegib in combination with azacitidine, which showed activity in patients with untreated myelodysplastic sy...
ASH 2019: CAR T-Cell Therapy Shows Activity, Reduces Health-Care Utilization in Older Patients With DLBCL
A new analysis of Medicare claims data presented by Kilgore et al at the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 793) has provided the first real-world evi...
ASH 2019: Is Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Safe and Effective for Patients Aged 70 or Older With Multiple Myeloma?
Even though autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHCT) is an effective treatment for multiple myeloma, only 4 out of 10 patients receive this therapy. A new study presented by Munshi et...
ASH 2019: Lower Area-Based Income and Educational Attainment Associated With Poorer Survival Among Pediatric Patients With AML
Children from lower-income neighborhoods were 2.4 times more likely to die during treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) than children from middle- and high-income neighborhoods, according to find...
ASH 2019: Early-Phase Study of Venetoclax in Reduced-Intensity Transplant Conditioning Regimen for Patients With High-Risk Myeloid Malignancies
For patients with high-risk myeloid malignancies undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant, adding the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax to a reduced-intensity drug regimen prior to transplant...
ASH 2019: Dose-Climbing Trial of Dual-Target CAR T-Cell Therapy for Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma
More than three out of four patients with relapsed multiple myeloma, or myeloma that was refractory to at least two therapies, remained in remission 7 months after treatment with a novel chimeric anti...
ASH 2019: Phase Ib/II Study of BCMA-Directed CAR T-Cell Therapy for Pretreated Multiple Myeloma
Patients with multiple myeloma who had received a median of five prior therapies with refractory disease had a high response rate when treated with the investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) ...
ASH 2019: CAR-NK Therapy for B-Cell Malignancies Shows Activity in Preclinical Studies
Preclinical studies have provided the first evidence that cellular immunotherapy for B-cell cancers could ultimately become an off-the-shelf product, capable of being uniformly manufactured in large q...
ASH 2019: Early Data Signal Potential for Bispecific Antibody in Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
The investigational bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab is showing activity in preliminary studies of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), including those who are refractory to or relapsed after th...
