Updated results from the ELIANA clinical trial demonstrated CTL019 (tisagenlecleucel) remission rates are maintained at 6 months in relapsed/refractory pediatric and young adult patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). These data from this pivotal trial of CTL019 show that 83% (52...
On June 22, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted regular approval to the combination of rituximab and hyaluronidase human (Rituxan Hycela) for adult patients with follicular lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The approval provides a...
Seattle Genetics has discontinued its phase III CASCADE clinical trial of front-line vadastuximab talirine (SGN-CD33A) in older acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. The phase III CASCADE clinical trial is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study evaluating vadastuximab talirine...
Commenting on the studies of CAR T cells in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) thus far, Susan O’Brien, MD, of the University of California at Irvine, said: “Some people are disappointed in the results, but the problem is there was too much hype to begin with. The first article on CAR T published...
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is a hot area of research and development in hematologic malignancies and, more recently, some solid tumors. Results have been particularly good in acute lymphocytic leukemia, and one or more CAR T-cell products may be getting close to approval by the ...
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...
Data was recently presented from the phase III GENUINE trial of ublituximab, a novel glycoengineered anti–CD20 monoclonal antibody, in combination with ibrutinib (Imbruvica), a Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, for the treatment of high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), at the...
Data from the chemotherapy-free triple combination of umbralisib, an oral, next generation PI3K delta inhibitor; ublituximab, a novel glycoengineered anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody; and ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) and...
In a French randomized phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Thomas et al found that clofarabine-based consolidation may provide improved relapse-free survival vs conventional high-dose cytarabine in postremission treatment in younger patients with acute myeloid leukemia...
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...
Preliminary study results suggest that venetoclax (Venclexta) plus rituximab (Rituxan) is a highly active combination in relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), achieving durable responses and minimal residual disease negativity in previously treated patients. “The results of our...
In a separate interview with The ASCO Post, David L. Porter, MD, Director of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the Jodi Fisher Horowitz Professor in Leukemia Care Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, said: “It is encouraging that many patients with acute lymphoblastic...
Updated results in 51 adults with relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York showed high complete response rates regardless of pre–CAR T disease burden.1 That said, pretreatment...
After phase I results of Seattle Children’s Pediatric Leukemia Adoptive Therapy (PLAT-02) trial, published by Gardner et al in Blood,1 showed T-cell immunotherapy to be effective in sending 93% of patients with relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) into complete initial...
After phase I results of Seattle Children's Pediatric Leukemia Adoptive Therapy (PLAT-02) trial, published by Gardner et al in Blood, showed T-cell immunotherapy to be effective in sending 93% of patients with relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) into complete initial...
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...
On April 28, 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved midostaurin (Rydapt) for the treatment of adult patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who are FLT3 mutation–positive, as detected by an FDA-approved test, in combination with standard cytarabine and...
Susan O’Brien, MD, Associate Director for Clinical Science, Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California Irvine Health, put the venetoclax (Venclexta) monotherapy study in context. “The study by Jones et al is impressive. Patients who fail on a prior kinase...
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...
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....
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....
In a phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Martinelli et al found that blinatumomab (Blincyto) produced complete responses in patients with relapsed/refractory Philadelphia chromosome–positive (Ph+) B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) progressing after...
In a report from the Children’s Oncology Group Study AALL03N1 published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Landier et al found no association between oral mercaptopurine ingestion habits in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and risk of relapse after adjustment for medication...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Chan Shen, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues found that more than three-quarters of patients receiving targeted oral therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) reached the catastrophic phase of the...
In a substudy of a European phase III trial (Nordic Society of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology ALL2008) reported in The Lancet Oncology, Nygaard Nielsen et al found that higher leukocyte DNA-incorporated thioguanine nucleotide (DNA-TGN) levels were associated with an improved relapse-free...
Long-term follow-up of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) randomized to imatinib in the IRIS trial was reported by Hochhaus et al in The New England Journal of Medicine. In the open-label crossover-design trial, 1,106 patients with CML were randomized to receive imatinib at 400 mg/d (n = ...
In the phase III TOWER trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Kantarjian et al found that blinatumomab (Blincyto) treatment improved overall survival vs chemotherapy in heavily pretreated patients with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Blinatumomab received...
In a French phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Thomas et al found that clofarabine-based consolidation may provide improved relapse-free survival vs conventional high-dose cytarabine in postremission treatment in younger patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and no...
New research suggests that young patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL)—the most common type of pediatric cancer—and their parents are likely to report to their physician that they took more of their anticancer medication than they actually did. The study, published by Landier et al in...
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...
New research suggests that young patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and their parents are likely to report to their physician that they took more of their anticancer medication than they actually did. The study, published by Landier et al in Blood, found that 84% of patients with ALL...
As reported by Zelenetz et al in The Lancet Oncology, an interim analysis of a phase III trial has shown the superiority of adding the phosphoinositide-3-kinase δ inhibitor idelalisib (Zydelig) to bendamustine/rituximab (Rituxan) in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic...
In an analysis of a French trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Balsat et al found that postinduction minimal residual disease was predictive of outcome and benefit from allogeneic stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in patients with NPM1-mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Nicolas...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Platzbecker et al, the final results of the Italian-German phase III APL0406 trial indicate that the combination of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and arsenic trioxide (ATO [Trisenox]) is associated with better outcomes than standard ATRA plus...
In a study reported in the Journal of Oncology Practice, Shen et al found that more than three-quarters of patients receiving targeted oral therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) reached the catastrophic phase of the Medicare Part D benefit within the calendar year of starting such treatment....
An international panel of experts has released updated evidence-based and expert opinion–based recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in adults. The recommendations were issued by the European LeukemiaNet (ELN) and published by Döhner et al in...
Research led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has identified three genetic alterations to help identify high-risk pediatric patients with acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) who may benefit from allogeneic stem cell transplants. The study, published by de Rooij et al in Nature...
The addition of norethandrolone as maintenance therapy improved survival in patients aged ≥ 60 years with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a French phase III trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Pigneux et al. Norbert Ifrah, MD, of CHU d’Angers, France, is the...
I was feeling a bit more tired than usual as the Christmas holidays approached in December 2012, but I chocked it up to the frenetic pace of the season and keeping up with caring for my two young children, ages 4 and 12. I had none of the other typical warning signs of chronic myeloid leukemia...
Sir Donald Munger: “You have been on holiday, I understand. Relaxing, I hope?” James Bond: “Oh, hardly relaxing, but most satisfying.” (Diamonds Are Forever) As tyrosine kinase inhibitors became the mainstay of therapy for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), our assumption has been that...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Gabriel Etienne, MD, PhD, of the Institut Bergonié, Bordeaux, and colleagues, long-term follow-up in the French Stop Imatinib (STIM1) study indicates that imatinib can be safely stopped in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with...
“These results are interesting, important, and relevant for maintenance post chemotherapy, but if we are not using chemotherapy, they may not be relevant,” said Richard Furman, MD, of Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York. He said that newer drugs such as...
Lenalidomide (Revlimid), a cornerstone of therapy for multiple myeloma in the modern era, is making headway as maintenance therapy in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Separate phase III studies presented at the 2016 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition showed...
In a phase Ib study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Seymour et al found that the combination of the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax (Venclexta) and the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab (Rituxan) was highly active in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia...
Twenty-five years ago, I was a physically fit woman of 45 in training to run a marathon, which had been a lifelong goal. I was feeling fine and had no hint of the illness that would nearly take my life and has forever changed it. While ramping up to go the 26.2-mile distance, I decided to have a...
“This study shows that a great deal of innovation can come from existing knowledge. The 7+3 regimen has been around since I was an intern,” admitted Armand Keating, MD, of the University of Toronto and Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. “Using the liposomal formulation of...
Induction therapy with the experimental chemotherapy called CPX-351—a liposomal formulation of cytarabine and daunorubicin—outperformed standard “7+3” cytarabine plus daunorubicin by extending survival in older high-risk patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who subsequently underwent...
Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, MS, Director of the Leukemia Program at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center in Ohio, commented on vadastuximab talirine in newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML). He noted that the drug is similar to gemtuzumab ozogamicin, another antibody-drug conjugate that...
The investigational CD33-directed antibody-drug conjugate vadastuximab talirine yielded high overall and complete response rates when combined with standard “7+3” chemotherapy for patients newly diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.1 Results from this phase Ib study were presented at the 2016...
“In the past few years, there has been increased reporting of other, less traditional, response criteria in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), including morphologic leukemia-free state, partial response, and complete remission [or complete response] with incomplete recovery. There is some concern that...