Venetoclax (Venclexta) plus rituximab (Rituxan)—a non–chemotherapy-containing regimen—was superior to standard-of-care bendamustine plus rituximab for patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to a final analysis of the phase III MURANO study reported at...
Primary analysis of the JULIET trial adds to mounting evidence that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is effective for the treatment of lymphoma in patients with no other good treatment options. A single infusion of CAR T cells (CTL019) achieved durable remissions in almost 40% of...
Older patients with Hodgkin lymphoma typically do not fare as well as younger patients on standard regimens. A phase II study reported the best outcomes to date in older patients with Hodgkin lymphoma who were treated with sequential brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) before and after a regimen of...
Andrzej Jakubowiak, MD, PhD, Director of the Multiple Myeloma Program at the University of Chicago Medical Center, commented on the study for The ASCO Post. “Overall, I was impressed with these results. They make an important contribution to the field. This is an advance in the right direction,”...
Can aggressive treatment of high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma patients prevent disease worsening? A carfilzomib (Kyprolis)-based regimen and autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) plus maintenance produced encouraging outcomes in the phase II GEM-CESAR study by the Spanish Myeloma Group. The...
Here is an update on five different studies featured at the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition. Topics center on possible newer treatment regimens in both Hodgkin and Burkitt lymphomas, relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and newly...
The anti-CCR4 monoclonal antibody mogamulizumab may answer an unmet need in providing an effective treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. In the phase III MAVORIC trial reported at the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, treatment with mogamulizumab was...
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” —Albert Einstein The phase III international ECHELON-1 study, designed to evaluate brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) as part of a front-line chemotherapy regimen for previously untreated advanced classic...
FRONT-LINE TREATMENT of advanced Hodgkin lymphoma with brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) plus doxorubicin/ vinblastine/dacarbazine (A+AVD) achieved superior outcomes compared with the standard four-drug regimen of doxorubicin/bleomycin/vinblastine/dacarbazine (ABVD). The substitution of brentuximab...
THE COMBINATION of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) plus venetoclax (Venclexta) achieved favorable responses in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to initial results of the phase II CLARITY trial presented at the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual ...
COMMENTING ON the ALCYONE trial for The ASCO Post, Keith Stewart, MB, ChB, the Carlson and Nelson Endowed Director of the Center for Individualized Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, said, “Daratumumab added to a combination of drugs that we don’t use much anymore in the United...
FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED multiple myeloma patients not eligible for transplant, the addition of the anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody daratumumab (Darzalex) to subcutaneous bortezomib (Velcade), melphalan, and prednisone (VMP) reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 50%, the phase III ALCYONE...
POSITIVE DATA about chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in lymphoma continue to accrue. Long-term follow-up of the pivotal ZUMA-1 trial shows that patients with refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) continue to have durable responses to the CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy...
At the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, Wang et al presented results from the open-label, single-arm phase II ACE-LY-004 clinical trial, which served as the basis for the recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accelerated approval of acalabrutinib...
At the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, Hunger et al presented data from the phase II CA180-372 study in pediatric patients with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome–positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with dasatinib (Sprycel) added ...
Updated results from the phase III ALCANZA clinical trial evaluating brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) in CD30-expressing cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) were presented by Horwitz et al at the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 1509). The presentation...
People with cancer face an increased risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE). Under current guidelines, cancer patients who develop VTE are prescribed low–molecular-weight heparin, an anticoagulant that must be injected under the skin daily for several months. While effective, this regimen can...
In a phase III trial, patients with acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP), a rare blood clotting disorder, who received the investigational drug caplacizumab showed significant improvements in the time it took to normalization of their platelet count compared to those receiving a...
Results from a phase II clinical trial presented by Kean et al at the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting (Abstract 212) show that the drug abatacept (Orencia) nearly eliminated life-threatening severe acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in patients receiving hematopoietic...
In the phase III MURANO trial, treatment with the targeted cancer drug venetoclax (Venclexta) in combination with rituximab (Rituxan) more than doubled the likelihood that patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) would survive for 2 years without cancer progression, compared to treatment...
The first randomized trial to evaluate the use of a monoclonal antibody for treating newly diagnosed multiple myeloma showed that adding the drug daratumumab (Darzalex) to one of the standard treatment regimens reduced the likelihood of disease progression or death by 50%. The regimen also induced...
In the first comprehensive analysis of clinical trial enrollment among older adults with blood cancers, researchers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found significant gaps in participation among those aged 75 and older when considered against the incidence of these malignancies in...
Maria-Victoria Mateos, MD, PhD, of the University Hospital of Salamanca, discusses phase III study findings on daratumumab plus bortezomib, melphalan, and prednisone vs bortezomib, melphalan, and prednisone in patients ineligible for transplant who have been newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma...
John F. Seymour, MBBS, PhD, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discusses an interim analysis of venetoclax plus rituximab vs bendamustine plus rituximab in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (Abstract LBA-2).
Joseph M. Connors, MD, of the British Columbia Cancer Agency, discusses study findings on a new front-line option: brentuximab vedotin plus doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine in patients with previously untreated stage III or IV Hodgkin lymphoma (Abstract 6).
Brian T. Hill, MD, PhD, of the Cleveland Clinic, discusses study findings that showed consolidation with autologous hematopoietic cell transplant in the first remission improves overall survival in patients younger than age 65 (Abstract 341).
Gilles A. Salles, MD, PhD, of the Université de Lyon, discusses study findings on rituximab maintenance after induction immunochemotherapy and the significant long-term progression-free survival benefit over observation (Abstract 486).
Mark J. Roschewski, MD, of the National Cancer Institute, discusses phase II study findings that showed DA-EPOCH-R cures most adult patients with Burkitt lymphoma, irrespective of HIV status (Abstract 188).
Jakub Svoboda, MD, of the Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, discusses some encouraging phase I/II results on brentuximab vedotin with R-CHP chemotherapy as front-line treatment of CD30-positive primary mediastinal large B-cell, diffuse large B-cell, and gray zone lymphomas...
Andrew M. Evens, DO, of Tufts University, discusses findings on the effectiveness of DLBCL-based therapy for patients whose disease fell between diffuse large B-cell and classical Hodgkin lymphoma (Abstract 375).
Tycel J. Phillips, MD, of the University of Michigan Medical School, discusses the findings of the largest retrospective study to date of patients with intravascular diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a disease with a poor outcome, partly due to the difficulty in diagnosing it early (Abstract 377).
Laurie H. Sehn, MD, MPH, of the British Columbia Cancer Agency and University of British Columbia, discusses long-term results of PET-guided radiation therapy in patients with advanced-stage diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with R-CHOP (Abstract 823).
Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Sattva S. Neelapu, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discuss long-term study findings on axicabtagene ciloleucel in patients with refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (Abstract 578).
Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Stephen J. Schuster, MD, of the Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, discuss phase II findings on tisagenlecleucel in adult patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (Abstract 577).
Michael Unterhalt, MD, of the University Hospital Grosshadern, discusses study findings on rituximab maintenance after first-line immunochemotherapy among older patients who are not candidates for autologous stem cell transplantation (Abstract 153).
Alok A. Khorana, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, discusses the prevalence of venous thromboembolism in cancer patients treated at U. S. emergency departments and associated costs, mortality, and hospital admissions in the United States (Abstract 219).
A one-time infusion of an investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy that targets a protein found on most multiple myeloma cells elicited an 86% overall response rate in 21 patients whose disease had come back or had not responded after a median of seven prior treatments,...
Six months after receiving a single dose of tisagenlecleucel, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy that targets CD-19, high response rates persist among adult patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), according to findings reported by Schuster et al at...
Among 108 patients with fast-growing and refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), more than half were still alive at least a year after receiving a single infusion of a CAR T-cell therapy called axicabtagene ciloleucel that targets the CD-19 protein frequently found on cancerous lymphoma...
Jia Ruan, MD, of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, discusses a 5-year follow-up analysis that showed lenalidomide and rituximab as initial treatment achieved a high rate of complete responses and MRD negativity with durable remissions beyond 4 years (Abstract 154).
Nitin Jain, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase II study results on combined venetoclax and ibrutinib for patients with previously untreated high-risk and relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (Abstract 429).
Carla Casulo, MD, of the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, discusses findings on POD24 as a robust early clinical endpoint of poor survival in follicular lymphoma, using data from more than 5,000 patients in 13 clinical trials (Abstract 412).
In a phase I trial, patients with an advanced or aggressive form of systemic mastocytosis, a rare blood disorder, had rapid and durable responses with few adverse effects following treatment with an investigational drug that targets the genetic mutation found in more than 90% of cases. Results were ...
One-third of patients with previously treated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) had no detectable disease after 6 months of combination therapy with the targeted agents ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and venetoclax (Venclexta), with no increase in the occurrence of tumor-lysis syndrome, a serious treatment ...
Patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) who were treated with a multidrug regimen that included the targeted agent brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) had a 23% reduction in the risk of disease progression, death, or the need for additional therapy, compared with patients who received the standard...
In a large, international, randomized phase III trial presented by Kim et al at the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 817), patients with previously treated cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) who received the investigational targeted drug...
Tanaya Shree, MD, PhD, of Stanford University Medical Center, discusses findings from a large population-based study suggesting lasting effects of lymphoma and its treatments: an increased incidence of autoimmune and infectious diseases (Abstract 198).
The results of a pooled analysis of patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) treated with ibrutinib (Imbruvica) were presented at the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 151). The extended follow-up data demonstrated that...
At the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, the 3-year follow-up data from the RESONATE-2 study (PCYC-1115/1116) were presented. The investigators found that patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL)...
Phase III ASPIRE Trial of Carfilzomib in Relapsed Multiple Myeloma Overall survival results from the phase III ASPIRE trial will be detailed for the first time in an oral presentation by Stewart et al on Monday, December 11. The addition of carfilzomib to lenalidomide and...