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Although diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is a curable disease in most patients aged 65 years or older, these patients are also at higher risk of chemotherapy-related death within the first 30 days of treatment. To quantify the risk of early fatality and identify risk factors, researchers led ...
In 2012, my husband, Robert, and I were looking forward to starting the next phase of our lives and were feeling excited about the future. Although only in our 50s, we had decided to retire early from our full-time careers, move to our cabin in Hayward, Wisconsin, and find less stressful part-time ...
It is commonly said that if something is too good to be true, it usually is. It is therefore quite refreshing when really good results are replicated in a subsequent study. As reported in The Lancet Oncology by Younes et al1 and reviewed in this issue of The ASCO Post, a phase II trial of...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology by Anas Younes, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and colleagues, treatment with the anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) produced response in two-thirds of patients with...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug designation for chimeric antigen receptor–engineered T cells directed against the target protein CD4 (CD4CAR) for the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma. William Tse, MD, Chief of the Blood and Marrow Transplantation Division ...
The ability to cure a majority of patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the major milestones of success in the combination chemotherapy era. It has been over 40 years since Bonadonna and colleagues in Milan developed the ABVD regimen (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Peter Johnson, MD, of the Cancer Research UK Centre, University of Southampton, and colleagues found similar efficacy with continued ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine) vs omission of bleomycin (AVD) after...
In June 2016, the European Hematology Association Congress convened in Copenhagen, Denmark. The educational and scientific program highlighted state-of-the-art clinical practice and the latest findings in hematology research. The ASCO Post brings its readers brief summaries of some of the important ...
Outcomes for adults with high-grade and aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs) appear to be better when these patients are treated with pediatric-inspired protocols, according to Mitchell S. Cairo, MD, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Maria...
Approximately 20% of patients with follicular lymphoma will relapse within 2 years of diagnosis. Although the optimal management of these patients has not been established, clinicians may be guided by data from recent clinical trials, according to Nathan H. Fowler, MD, Associate Professor and...
In a pooled analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Meignan et al found that higher baseline total metabolic tumor volume measured by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron-emission tomography–computed tomography (FDG PET-CT) was associated with poorer outcome in patients...
Double-hit lymphomas are a challenging subset of high-grade B-cell lymphomas, previously characterized histologically as diffuse large B-cell lymphoma or B-cell lymphoma unclassifiable with intermediate features between diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and Burkitt lymphoma. Expert guidance in their...
After several dose-finding phase I and II studies in a variety of B-cell malignancies, the potential clinical role of the newer anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody obinutuzumab (Gazyva) remained unclear. These early trials tested low and high doses as well as weekly and every-3-week schedules of...
In the phase III GADOLIN trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Laurie H. Sehn, MD, Chair, British Columbia Cancer Agency Lymphoma Tumor Group, and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and colleagues, found that adding the anti-CD20 antibody obinutuzumab...
For diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, does the dose of rituximab (Rituxan) matter? Are there patient characteristics that determine outcomes as well as the optimal dose? These questions were explored at the 2016 Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference by Matthew A. Lunning, DO, Assistant Professor of...
In a small phase Ib/II study, 100% of patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma evaluated thus far responded to treatment with obinutuzumab (Gazyva), lenalidomide (Revlimid), and CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone), investigators from the University of...
In the treatment of classical Hodgkin lymphoma, antibodies targeting programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) are just the beginning, according to Stephen M. Ansell, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Lymphoma Group at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.1 Speaking at the 2016 Pan...
iCell Gene Therapeutics announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug designation for its chimeric antigen receptor engineered T-cells directed against the target protein CD4 (CD4CAR) for the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL). William Tse, MD,...
July 2009 was the start of the worst 5-year period of my life, and I’m just grateful I am still here to tell you about it. I was preparing for brain surgery to remove an acoustic neuroma on the right side of my brain when I noticed a lump on my left thigh. Thinking I had pulled a muscle while...
There was a time when transplantation across human leukocyte antigen (HLA) barriers was fraught with so much difficulty that many thought it was impossible and we should stop trying. However, most patients do not have an HLA-matched sibling donor, and death was therefore certain if they had a...
In an analysis of the observational database of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nilanjan Ghosh, MD, PhD, of Levine Cancer Institute, Carolinas Healthcare System, Charlotte, North Carolina, and colleagues found that...
In a genome-wide association study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Li et al identified genetic variants associated with the risk of nasal-type extranodal natural killer T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL). This rare aggressive malignancy is seen predominantly in Asian and Latin American populations;...
In an analysis from the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Bhakta et al found a high cumulative burden of cardiovascular morbidity among pediatric, adolescent, and young adult survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma. Study Details The study involved data from 670 survivors of...
Research conducted at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, is moving the field of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy forward in the treatment of B-cell malignancies. At the 2016 Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference in Koloa, Hawaii, David G. Maloney, MD, PhD, Professor of...
Treatment with the anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) immune checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab (Opdivo) produced response in two-thirds of patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of both autologous stem cell transplantation (SCT) and brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris),...
When I was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) at the age of 2 in 1974, not much was known about the cancer or the side effects of its treatment. Too young to understand what was happening to me, the burden fell to my parents and older sibling to protect and care for me. For more than...
In a long-term follow-up of a European trial reported by Isabelle Demeestere, MD, PhD, of the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium, and colleagues in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist treatment during chemotherapy in young women with lymphoma was...
James O. Armitage, MD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, discusses how an increased understanding of the biology of lymphomas and their multiple subtypes has had a major impact on the ability to treat patients.
Nathan H. Fowler, MD, of University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Sagar Lonial, MD, of the Emory University School of Medicine, discuss managing early relapsing/refractory disease.
Steven P. Treon, MD, PhD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the question of what is the best upfront therapy for lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma/Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia.
Jonathan W. Friedberg, MD, of the University of Rochester Medical Center, discusses the use of rituximab as a single agent and in combination with chemotherapy, the emerging role of novel agents, and some possible explanations for the small subset of patients with inferior outcomes.
Steven M. Horwitz, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, reviews the data supporting current treatment approaches for T-cell lymphomas and discusses the specific subtype criteria used to individualize therapy.
Richard I. Fisher, MD, of Fox Chase Cancer Center-Temple Health, discusses this rare disease––with features between classical Hodgkin lymphoma and primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma––and reviews the clinical data on treatment.
Wyndham H. Wilson, MD, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute, discusses the molecular underpinnings of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and targeted treatments.
Fredrick B. Hagemeister, Jr, MD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses whether rituximab maintenance should be used in indolent lymphomas other than follicular.
John G. Gribben, MD, DSc, of Barts Cancer Institute, discusses the pros and cons of both autologous and allogeneic stem cell transplantation in follicular lymphoma, and the challenges of selecting the right patients for these procedures.
Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, discusses the key presentations at the 2016 Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference.
Bruce D. Cheson, MD, of Georgetown University Hospital, and Julie M. Vose, MD, MBA, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, discuss whether lymphoma should be staged with a positron emission tomography (PET) scan and what follow-up scans are needed.
David G. Maloney, MD, PhD, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses the efficacy of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells for lymphoma and their toxicity.
Stephen M. Ansell, MD, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic, discusses the role of checkpoint inhibitors in Hodgkin lymphoma and the efficacy of nivolumab and pembrolizumab.
Susan M. O’Brien, MD, of the University of California, Irvine, discusses the challenges of treating older patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoma, and the positive results with newer regimens using blinatumomab and inotuzumab.
Kieron M. Dunleavy, MD, of the National Cancer Institute, discusses the genomic landscape of aggressive lymphomas and how this is informing therapy decisions.
Andrew D. Zelenetz, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the pros and cons of these two regimens, with or without another agent, in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
Five-year survival data published by Chen et al in Blood suggest that the targeted therapy brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) may be curative in some patients with Hodgkin lymphoma whose disease has persisted despite receiving previous therapies. This multinational phase II study examined brentuximab...
Here are several abstracts selected from the proceedings of the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting, focusing on clinical trials on therapeutics in different types of leukemia, multiple myeloma, follicular lymphoma, and central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma. For full details of these study abstracts, visit...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Schmitz et al have developed and validated a risk score for CNS relapse—the Central Nervous System International Prognostic Index (CNS-IPI)—in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treated with R-CHOP (rituximab [Rituxan]...
In an analysis of data from SWOG studies reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Stephens et al found as continued risk of relapse among patients with limited-stage diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) irrespective of whether they received CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine,...
Findings in a classical Hodgkin lymphoma cohort in the phase Ib KEYNOTE-013 trial, reported by Armand et al in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, indicate that pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is active in patients with disease progressing on or after brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) treatment. Study Details ...
In a phase III trial reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, Johnson et al found similar efficacy with continued ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine) chemotherapy vs omission of bleomycin (AVD) after negative interim PET-CT (positron-emission tomography–computed...
In the phase III GADOLIN trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sehn et al found that adding the anti-CD20 antibody obinutuzumab (Gazyva) to bendamustine (Bendeka, Treanda) increased progression-free survival in patients with rituximab-refractory indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Outcomes in...