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Using a pediatric chemotherapy regimen to treat young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) significantly improved their outcomes compared to what has historically been achieved with “adult” treatment protocols, report Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists. Overall survival...
Ninety-three percent of pediatric patients (55 of 59) with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) went into remission after receiving an investigational therapy made from their own immune cells, with continuous remissions of over 1 year in 18 patients and over 2 years in nine...
Prophylactic antibiotics significantly reduce the risk of serious bacterial infections in children during the critical first month of treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer, according to a study led by investigators from Dana-Farber/Boston Children's...
A presentation by Tedeschi et al at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting outlined results of the phase III RESONATE TM-2 study of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) vs chlorambucil (Leukeran) in patients aged 65 years and older with treatment-naive chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small...
In a phase III study to be presented by Zelenetz et al at the 57th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting, idelalisib (Zydelig) plus bendamustine (Treanda) and rituximab (Rituxan), or BR, proved superior to BR alone in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)...
In a study to be presented at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting by Stilgenbauer et al, monotherapy with the investigational agent venetoclax (ABT-199/GDC-0199) induced deep remissions—including complete remission and undetectable minimal residual...
The results of the randomized Graall-R 2005 study presented by Maury et al at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting found a new use for rituximab (Rituxan) in acute leukemia (Abstract 1). CD20 is present in 30% to 50% of patients with B-cell precursor acute lymphocytic...
A study presented by Stone et al at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting described a phase III trial of the first targeted therapy for genetically defined subset of patients with acute myeloid leukemia and its improvement of their survival (Abstract 6). Acute myeloid...
A study presented by Landier et al at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting examined the common problem of children in remission from acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) not adhering to their maintenance drug regimens, thus putting them at risk of relapse (Abstract 82). ...
A study to be reported by Raetz et al at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting examined the potential of using real-time genetic analysis to personalize chemotherapy regimens for children with B-cell lymphocytic leukemia (Abstract 807). The study findings were presented at a...
Two new studies to be reported at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting highlighted new insights on genetic mutations in children with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) that indicate a higher risk for debilitating chemotherapy-associated bone damage. The study findings were...
A study (Abstract 99) to be reported today by Brudno et al at the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting was the first clinical trial to use engineered donor immune cells to prevent progressive cancer after stem cell transplantation. The findings were presented at a...
In a German phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Röllig et al found that the addition of sorafenib (Nexavar) to standard therapy improved event-free survival but increased toxicity vs placebo in patients aged ≤ 60 years with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Study...
Although the CD19 antigen expressed on most B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL) can be targeted with chimeric antigen receptor–armed T cells (CART-19), relapse rates among pediatric and adult patients with the cancer remain high. In this study by Sotillo et al, the researchers...
In a UK-based phase III trial (AML17) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Burnett et al found that a chemotherapy-free regimen of arsenic trioxide plus all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) did not improve quality of life, the primary endpoint, vs ATRA plus idarubicin in patients with acute promyelocytic...
Pfizer announced that the investigational antibody-drug conjugate inotuzumab ozogamicin received Breakthrough Therapy designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The Breakthrough Therapy designation was based on the results of the phase III...
As reported by Falini et al in a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, dactinomycin treatment resulted in morphologic and molecular complete remission ongoing at 14 months in a patient with NPM1-mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML). NPM1-mutated AML may account for one-third of AML in...
An analysis of whole-exome sequencing data from 538 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), including 278 pretreatment samples collected from patients enrolled in a clinical trial, has identified 44 recurrently mutated genes and 11 recurrent somatic copy number variations. These findings...
Bone marrow transplantation is a lifesaving therapy for many patients with blood cancers like leukemias and lymphomas. Currently, the gold standard blood-generating stem cells are obtained from a donor, most likely a sibling, with a perfect match to the patient in order to minimize the chance of...
In an interim analysis of the phase III PROLONG trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, van Oers et al found that maintenance therapy with ofatumumab (Arzerra) prolonged progression-free survival vs observation in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in complete or partial remission after...
In the first trial of the University of Pennsylvania's personalized cellular therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), 8 of 14 patients responded to the therapy, with some complete remissions continuing past 4.5 years. These results, published by Porter et al in Science Translational...
A small phase I/IIa study of third-generation CD19 CAR (chimeric-antigen receptor) T-cell therapy combined with chemotherapy pretreatment has resulted in complete responses in 6 of the 11 patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma and leukemia enrolled in the study. Although CAR T-cell...
In a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Petersdorf et al found a greater risk of acute graft-vs-host disease among hematopoietic cell transplant recipients with the high-expression rs9277534G allele linked to mismatched HLA-DPB1 who received transplants from donors with the...
In a study reported in JAMA, Klco et al found that persistence of leukemia-associated mutations in ≥ 5% of bone marrow cells at remission predicted poorer outcome among patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), including those with intermediate-risk disease. Study Details In the study,...
In two phase II studies reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Tiacci et al found that the BRAF inhibitor vemurafenib (Zelboraf) produced responses in nearly all patients with BRAF V600E–positive hairy cell leukemia who relapsed after treatment with a purine analog or who had...
In a phase III VALOR trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Ravandi et al found that the addition of the quinolone derivative vosaroxin to cytarabine did not significantly improve overall survival in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, differences favoring...
A new study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, reveals a protein’s critical—and previously unknown—role in the development and progression of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The finding offers a novel target for better treating AML, and...
A study published by Bianchi et al in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that genetic test results revealed by noninvasive prenatal testing for fetal chromosomal abnormalities may detect underlying conditions in the mother, including cancer. The study reports on a case...
Laboratory and animal tests of the type II inhibitor CHZ868, which stabilizes the kinase domain in an inactive conformation, are showing that the compound is highly potent against B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALLs) with CRLF2 rearrangements. When combined with dexamethasone, CHZ868 induced ...
The costs associated with cancer drug prices have risen dramatically over the past 15 years, a trend concerning to many oncologists. In a new analysis, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center concluded that the majority of existing treatments for hematologic cancers are...
The results of a nearly 10-year investigation that identified a key gene mutation that can trigger acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and several other types of cancer were recently published by Noetzli et al in Nature Genetics. The findings have, for the first time, pinpointed a mutation that...
Blood and marrow transplantation is a potentially curative treatment for patients with leukemia or other life-threating blood diseases. With a goal of increasing survival rates, a research team led by Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) investigators verified patient outcome data submitted by more ...
In an analysis of Children’s Oncology Group (COG) trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chow et al found that dexrazoxane use did not appear to be associated with poorer survival among pediatric patients with leukemia or lymphoma in long-term follow-up. Study Details The...
In a UK study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Gale et al found that presence of DNMT3A mutations was associated with poorer prognosis in young adults with cytogenetic intermediate-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) irrespective of the presence of NPM1 mutation. Poorer outcome was found ...
Survivors of childhood cancer in recent eras have shown a significant reduction in late mortality, and “for the first time, we have been able to attribute that to fewer deaths from treatment-related causes or fewer deaths from late effects of the primary therapy,” Gregory T....
First results from a randomized phase III study show that the combination of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and bendamustine (Treanda)/rituximab (Rituxan) improves outcomes for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) that progressed despite prior therapy. At a median follow-up of 17 months,...
A new study links a father's age at birth to the risk that his child will develop blood and immune system cancers as an adult, particularly for only children. The study, published by Teras et al in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found no association between having an older mother and these...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had granted Fast Track designation to AG-120 for the treatment of patients with acute myeloid leukemia who harbor an isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 (IDH1) mutation. Agios Pharmaceuticals’ AG-120 is a first-in-class, oral, selective, potent inhibitor of the...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to AbbVie’s investigational agent venetoclax (ABT-199) for the treatment of relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in patients with the 17p deletion. Venetoclax is an investigational oral...
Initial intensive induction chemotherapy may be of benefit in a subgroup of newly diagnosed elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a study by Ross et al in Oncology Research. However, relapse rates remained high. Elderly patients with AML generally experience worse...
In the phase III COMPLEMENT 1 trial reported in The Lancet, Hillmen et al found that the addition of the anti-CD20 antibody ofatumumab (Arzerra) to chlorambucil (Leukeran) increased progression-free survival among patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who were not considered candidates...
In a retrospective single-center study reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, Rozovski and colleagues found that chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients with disease progression after allogeneic stem cell transplantation had a relatively good prognosis, with apparent benefit of salvage...
More than 60% of patients with Epstein-Barr virus–associated lymphoproliferative disorder (EBV-LPD) that was nonresponsive to standard rituximab (Rituxan) treatment responded to a new type of immunotherapy called Epstein-Barr virus–specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (EBV-CTL) therapy....
In a Children’s Oncology Group study (COG-AALL03N1) reported in JAMA Oncology, Bhatia et al found that < 95% adherence to mercaptopurine treatment was associated with a nearly threefold increase in the risk of relapse in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Among adherent...
Most patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who discontinued ibrutinib (Imbruvica) early “were difficult to treat and had poor outcomes,” according to a study of patients enrolled in four different clinical trials of ibrutinib, with or without rituximab...
In a phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stone et al found that the combination of cytarabine and amonafide L-malate, a DNA intercalator and non–ATP-dependent topoisomerase II inhibitor, did not improve complete remission rate compared with cytarabine plus...
In a European trial (Berlin-Frankfurt-Muenster study group trial ALL-SCT-BFM 2003) reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Peters et al found no difference in event-free survival with stem cell transplantation using matched unrelated vs sibling donors in pediatric patients with high-risk...
According to a prospective study led by researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, measuring the concentration of leukemia cells in patient bone marrow during the first 46 days of chemotherapy may help boost survival of young leukemia patients by better matching patients with the right...
The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital–Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project reports that a highly aggressive form of leukemia in infants has surprisingly few mutations beyond the chromosomal rearrangement that affects the MLL gene. The findings, reported by Andersson et al ...
In a single-center study reported in JAMA Oncology, Maddocks et al found that Richter’s transformation accounted for early progression-related discontinuation of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and that CLL progression but not Richter’s...