People with cancer have an increased risk of developing blood clots, with roughly one in five experiencing venous thromboembolism (VTE). International guidelines recommend treatment using low–molecular-weight heparin, an anticoagulant that is injected subcutaneously; however, new results from ...
The roadside along the path to curing follicular lymphoma is riddled with the debris of failed cytotoxic regimens. For decades, clinical trials unsuccessfully pitted various chemotherapy combinations against each other. It took but a single, noncytotoxic molecule, rituximab (Rituxan), to forever...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) presented the 2017 awards for outstanding service and public service on December 10 during the 59th Annual Meeting and Exposition in Atlanta. Tom Brokaw is the 2017 recipient of the ASH Outstanding Service Award, presented annually to an individual who has ...
With the recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals of two chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell products, this novel approach seems to be moving into the mainstream. The approvals were tisagenlecleucel (also known as CTL019; Kymriah) for the treatment of pediatric B-cell acute...
In a webcast press briefing prior to the 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, journalists got a peek at some of the most anticipated abstracts. ASH President Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, Director of the Lebow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics and Jerome Lipper...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will honor James R. Downing, MD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, with the 2017 E. Donnall Thomas Lecture and Prize for his discoveries related to the hematopathology and molecular biology of childhood leukemia. This lectureship and prize is named...
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HEMATOLOGY (ASH) will honor Luigi Naldini, MD, PhD, of the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan, and Marina Cavazzana, MD, PhD, of Paris Descartes University, Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital, and Imagine Institute of Genetic Diseases, AP-HP, Inserm in...
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY of Hematology (ASH) will recognize Josef T. Prchal, MD, of the University of Utah, and Sherrill J. Slichter, MD, of Bloodworks Northwest and the University of Washington, with the 2017 Henry M. Stratton Medal for their seminal contributions in the areas of basic and clinical/ ...
THE AMERICAN Society of Hematology (ASH) will present the 2017 William Dameshek Prize to Benjamin L. Ebert, MD, PhD, of Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for his seminal discoveries in multiple areas of nonmalignant and malignant hematology....
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HEMATOLOGY (ASH) has elected Stephanie Lee, MD, MPH, a member of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Fred Hutch), as its Vice President. Dr. Lee will begin her 1-year term after the 2017 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition in December...
With the vast majority of patients cured with primary therapy, classical Hodgkin lymphoma is largely a success story. For the 10% to 20% of patients who either relapse or are refractory to front-line therapy, the disease can still be fatal. At the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) 12th ...
Although the indications to initiate treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have not changed, determining the optimal first-line treatment and sequence of therapies once treatment has begun remain challenges for providers. At the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) 12th Annual...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) will recognize Marshall A. Lichtman, MD, of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, with the 2017 Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology. Dr. Lichtman will be honored for his notable service to the field of...
AMYLOIDOSIS REMAINS a challenging and nuanced diagnosis. At the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference, held in Sea Island, Georgia, Jonathan L. Kaufman, MD, discussed his approach to diagnosing amyloid light-chain amyloidosis. Dr. Kaufman is Associate Professor of...
SIMILAR CELLULAR immunotherapies are currently being developed and tested by other National Cancer Institute–designated cancer centers, including Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. David Maloney, MD, Medical Director of Cellular Immunotherapy at Fred Hutchinson and Medical Director of the...
Researchers are tackling multiple myeloma from many angles, and the result could be a flood of novel approaches soon within the oncologist’s reach, according to Kenneth C. Anderson, MD. At the 2017 Debates and Didactics in Hematology and Oncology Conference at Sea Island, Georgia, Dr. Anderson...
On August 16, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted a supplemental Biologics License Application (sBLA) and granted Priority Review for brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) in patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). The sBLA and its acceptance is based on data from the phase III...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) announced the names of 11 outstanding fellows selected to receive the 2017 ASH Research Training Award for Fellows, a year-long program that aims to encourage careers in academic hematology by providing protected research time during training. Each awardee...
HERE ARE SEVERAL ABSTRACTS selected from the proceedings of the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, highlighting clinical trials on autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for various hematologic malignancies. Additional selected...
The troubling results from a survey1 investigating the sexual harassment and discrimination experiences of academic medical faculty show that such incidents continue to happen with unexpected frequency despite increasing awareness of the problem. The study by Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, and...
Three years ago, early results from the U.S. Intergroup C10403 trial,1 which evaluated the effectiveness of treating adolescent and young adults (AYAs) with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) using an intensive pediatric regimen, showed significant improvement in event-free and overall survival...
Over the past 20 years, the Intergroupe Francophone du Myelome (IFM) and Dr. Michel Attal have pioneered the use of autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (AHCT) for multiple myeloma in a series of randomized studies. Notable studies include comparisons of planned upfront AHCT vs...
Here are several abstracts selected from the proceedings of the 2016 America Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, highlighting newer therapeutics for the development for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. For full details of these study abstracts, visit...
Phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors represent a highly active class of drug for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Idelalisib (Zydelig), a PI3K-delta inhibitor and the first PI3K inhibitor to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for CLL, has...
In response to the introduction of the Cancer Drug Parity Act (H.R. 1409) by Representatives Leonard Lance (R–NJ) and Brian Higgins (D–NY), American Society of Hematology (ASH) President Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, issued the following statement: “Oral and...
Here are several abstracts selected from the proceedings of the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, highlighting newer therapeutics in smoldering and relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma. For the full details of these study abstracts, visit...
An investigational immunotherapy is improving outcomes in difficult-to-treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and showing promise in other cancers, as well. Blinatumomab (Blincyto), the first U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE), has demonstrated...
Here are several abstracts selected from the proceedings of this year’s American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, highlighting newer therapeutics in various types of high-grade, aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs), including peripheral T-cell lymphomas, central...
The novel mechanism of action of drugs that inhibit the cyclin D–dependent kinases CDK4 and CDK6 has prompted effective new treatment strategies. Although the bulk of the data supporting the use of selective CDK4/6 inhibitors is currently in breast cancer, patients with other tumor types are...
The advent of successful monoclonal antibody therapy in the treatment of relapsed/refractory myeloma has dramatically improved the prognosis of patients for whom currently approved novel therapies have failed. In 2015, the approval of the combination of elotuzumab (Empliciti) with lenalidomide...
Long-term follow-up of treatment with ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in patients with previously untreated and treated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic leukemia (SLL) has shown high response rates that are durable. At 5 years, 89% of patients with treatment-naive and relapsed or...
Although the prognosis of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) has improved with R-CHOP—the addition of rituximab (Rituxan) to the cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone chemotherapy regimen—one-third of patients still relapse after therapy, and patients with the ...
Researchers from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle reported early results from a small study of their chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product (JCAR014) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition....
Amrita Krishnan, MD, Director of the Judy and Bernard Briskin Center for Multiple Myeloma Research at the City of Hope in Duarte, California, told The ASCO Post that the most exciting drug in the “New Agents” session she moderated at the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting...
Early-phase studies suggest that venetoclax (Venclexta) holds promise as a treatment for myeloma. At the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, investigators reported strong activity in heavily pretreated patients, especially those with the t(11;14)...
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common leukemia in adults. Each year, about 20,000 Americans will be diagnosed with AML, and roughly 10,000 people in this country will die of the disease. AML progresses quickly, and unless treatment begins soon and is effective , the prognosis is grim....
The treatment of multiple myeloma is becoming increasingly complicated. This is not only because of the complexity of the disease, but also because of the increasing number of effective combination treatments and continuous development of new drugs. This has resulted in an ever-increasing number ...
An article in the March 10, 2017, issue of The ASCO Post reported on a presentation from the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, noting that the investigational drug pacritinib has been shown to reduce spleen volume in myelofibrosis. The article erroneously...
Patients with follicular lymphoma are clearly living longer without disease progression, but what clinician has had no patients progress? Michael Auerbach, MD, a hematologist/oncologist in private practice in Baltimore and Clinical Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University, may have these...
MARCH ESMO Symposium on Signaling Pathways in Cancer 2017March 17-18 • Barcelona, SpainFor more information: http://esmo.org/Conferences/Signalling-Pathways-2017 17th Multidisciplinary Management of Cancers: A Case-Based ApproachMarch 17-19 • Napa, CaliforniaFor more...
Speaking at the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, before the hold on pacritinib was lifted (in January 2017), Selina Luger, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, commented, “I think the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) needs to revisit ...
The investigational drug pacritinib met the primary endpoint of the phase III PERSIST-2 trial in high-risk patients with myelofibrosis and thrombocytopenia. Treatment with the Janus kinase (JAK)1/2 inhibitor pacritinib achieved a significant reduction in spleen volume compared with best available...
In a lecture at the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, Edward A. Stadtmauer, MD, Chief of the Hematologic Malignancies Section at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, summarized the advances in chimeric antigen receptor...
For patients with multiple myeloma, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is gaining ground in pilot studies. At the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, researchers presented their latest findings for this innovative therapy, which has proven...
MARCH 2017 ASCO Oncology Practice ConferenceMarch 2 • Orlando, FloridaFor more information: www.asco.org/meetings/symposia-conferences/asco-oncology-practice-conference 23rd Annual Blood-Brain Barrier Consortium Meeting March 2-4 • Stevenson, WashingtonFor more information:...
Jose Leis, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, commented on the promise of checkpoint inhibitors in Richter transformation. “At Mayo, we have treated more than 30 patients with programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) blockade. We do see that chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has low expression ...
Despite advances in treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the 5% to 10% of patients who develop Richter transformation continue to have poor outcomes. For these patients, median progression-free survival is approximately 6 months, and median overall survival is about 8 months. Phase II...
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) announced that Justin Taylor, MD, and Roger Belizaire, MD, PhD, have been selected to participate in the American Society of Hematology–Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program (ASH-AMFDP). Designed to increase the number of underrepresented...
Here are several abstracts selected from the proceedings of this year’s American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition, highlighting newer therapeutics in high-grade, aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs), including newly diagnosed as well as relapsed or refractory...
On January 19, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ibrutinib (Imbruvica) for the treatment of patients with marginal zone lymphoma who require systemic therapy and have received at least one prior anti–CD20-based therapy. Accelerated approval was granted for this indication based...