© 2025 HSP News Service, L.L.C.
More than 25,000 specialists in hematology from over 115 countries attended the 61st American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition held last December in Orlando. The conference featured a stunning array of 4,900 abstracts with impressive new data in the treatment of multiple...
In a retrospective analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Fatobene et al found that nonmyeloablative haploidentical related donor cell transplantation was associated with better outcomes compared to unrelated cord blood hematopoietic transplantation in patients with Hodgkin and...
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to agents in lymphoma, lung cancer, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and breast cancer, and granted Fast Track designation to a first-in-class radioenhancer hafnium oxide nanoparticle in head and neck cancer. Priority...
Edmund K. Waller, MD, PhD, Professor, Departments of Medicine, Pathology, and Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine and Medical Director, Center for Stem Cell Processing and Apheresis at Emory, said he was not surprised to learn that bridging therapy was associated...
The use of bridging therapy before treatment with axicabtagene ciloleucel was associated with worse overall survival in univariate, multivariate, and propensity score–matched analyses performed on data from the U.S. Lymphoma CAR T Consortium, investigators reported at the 2019 American Society of...
Michael Jain, MD, PhD, Assistant Member in the Department of Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Immunotherapy at Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida, commented on Dr. Kilgore’s findings. Dr. Jain was coauthor of a study by the U.S. Lymphoma CAR T Consortium that presented real-world data...
Once considered highly experimental, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is now an established third-line treatment option for B-cell lymphomas and leukemias. CAR T-cell therapy has saved the lives of people who would otherwise have run out of treatment options. But the question is...
Jeremy S. Abramson, MD, Director of the Jon and JoAnn Hagler Center for Lymphoma at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, commented on the study by Topp et al for The ASCO Post. “Earlier use of steroids with axicabtagene ciloleucel...
In patients with large B-cell lymphoma undergoing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy with axicabtagene ciloleucel, earlier-than-usual intervention with corticosteroids and tocilizumab may reduce the incidence of severe cytokine-release syndrome, according to the findings of a...
Joshua Brody, MD, Director of the Lymphoma Immunotherapy Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, commented on where zanubrutinib might fit in once the drug is approved. “The two abstracts presented at ASH 2019 …demonstrated remarkably high response rates, durations of...
The Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor (BTK) zanubrutinib continues to achieve high overall response rates for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), even in the presence of high-risk cytogenetics, according to findings from two different trials...
Basem M. William, MD, MRCP(UK), FACP, Director of the T-Cell Lymphoma Program and Member of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center–Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, Columbus, Ohio, commented on the...
Advanced mantle cell lymphoma appears to be a good target for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. Treatment with KTE-X19, an anti-CD19 CAR T-cell product, led to unprecedented outcomes in patients with relapsed or refractory disease in the phase II ZUMA-2 study presented at the 2019 ASH ...
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) has published new guidelines for treating children, adolescents, and young adults with pediatric aggressive mature B-cell lymphomas, including Burkitt lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. NCCN published the first pediatric NCCN Clinical...
The combination of brentuximab vedotin and nivolumab is making headway as first-line therapy for older adults with Hodgkin lymphoma and as salvage therapy for adults with relapsed or refractory classic Hodgkin lymphoma, according to separate studies presented at the 2019 Annual Meeting &...
As reported in The Lancet by Viola Poeschel, MD, and colleagues, the phase III FLYER trial has shown noninferiority of progression-free survival with four vs six cycles of cyclophosphamide/doxorubicin/vincristine/prednisone (CHOP) in combination with six doses of rituximab in patients with...
Interim analysis of the phase I/II KEYNOTE-051 trial, reported in The Lancet Oncology by Geoerger et al, indicated minimal activity of pembrolizumab in pediatric patients with programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1)-positive advanced, relapsed, or refractory solid tumors; however, activity was...
In the Clinic provides overviews of novel oncology agents, addressing indications, mechanisms of action, administration recommendations, safety profiles, and other essential information needed for the appropriate clinical use of these drugs. Late in 2018, rituximab-abbs was approved as the first...
Primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma is an uncommon but distinct clinicopathologic variant of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) that typically presents with an aggressive mediastinal mass and invasion of local structures. Most patients are young, typically in their 20s and 30s, and there is a...
Findings in the phase Ib KEYNOTE-013 and phase II KEYNOTE-170 trials, reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Philippe Armand, MD, PhD, of DanaFarber Cancer Institute, and colleagues, indicate that pembrolizumab is active in relapsed or refractory primary mediastinal large B-cell...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Syed Ali Abutalib, MD, and L. Jeffrey Medeiros, MD, explore the updated World Health Organization (WHO) classification of hematopoietic and lymphoid ...
On November 21, 2019, the Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor acalabrutinib was approved for the treatment of adults with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL).1,2 The review resulting in approval was conducted under Project Orbis, an initiative of the U.S....
Jennifer Crombie, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses early study results which showed that duvelisib plus venetoclax showed activity in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma, with no dose-limiting toxicities observed (Abstract 1763).
Catherine M. Diefenbach, MD, of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone, discusses a primary analysis of a phase Ib/II trial showing that the novel triplet combination of polatuzumab vedotin plus obinutuzumab/lenalidomide is safe and effective, with high complete response rates seen in a heavily pretreated and refractory population (Abstract 126).
On November 14, 2019, the oral Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor zanubrutinib was granted accelerated approval in the treatment of adult patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) who have received at least one prior therapy.1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data The approval was based on findings from...
Patients with follicular lymphoma who have been treated and are in remission for at least 2 years may no longer be incurable based on highly sensitive testing. This may mean they no longer need therapy or active follow-up, according to findings presented by Sarraf Yazdy et al at the 2019 American...
Most people diagnosed with early-stage, or limited, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) may be able to safely skip radiation treatment after a clear positron-emission tomography (PET) scan, according to new clinical trial results from SWOG presented by Persky et al at the 2019 American Society of ...
Loretta J. Nastoupil, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase II study findings that showed obinutuzumab in combination with lenalidomide for patients with previously untreated, high tumor burden follicular lymphoma was associated with improved outcomes (Abstract 125).
A new analysis of Medicare claims data presented by Kilgore et al at the 2019 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition (Abstract 793) has provided the first real-world evidence using claims data available after the approval of autologous anti-CD19 chimeric antigen...
The investigational bispecific antibody mosunetuzumab is showing activity in preliminary studies of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), including those who are refractory to or relapsed after third-line chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. If preliminary findings are validated by...
In a phase I/II study reported in The Lancet Oncology, Geoerger et al found little activity of atezolizumab alone in pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed or refractory malignancies (including solid tumors, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma) with known or expected programmed...
Over the past few weeks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted reviews or designations to treatments for gastrointestinal cancers and lymphoma, and also provided authorizations for products designed to screen for malignancies and tumor mutational burden. Priority Review for Nivolumab...
Question 1 Which of the following statements about nodular lymphocyte-predominant HL is correct? Correct answer: A. Nodular lymphocyte-predominant HL can transform into large B-cell lymphoma. Expert Perspective Nodular lymphocyte-predominant HL is a B-cell neoplasm characterized by a nodular or...
The ASCO Post is pleased to present Hematology Expert Review, an ongoing feature that quizzes readers on issues in hematology. In this installment, Drs. Abutalib and Medeiros explore the updated World Health Organization (WHO) classification of nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma. For...
On November 21, as part of Project Orbis—a collaboration with the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and Health Canada—the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted supplemental approval to acalabrutinib (Calquence) for the treatment of adults with chronic lymphocytic leukemia...
On November 14, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval to zanubrutinib (Brukinsa) for adult patients with mantle cell lymphoma who have received at least one prior therapy. “Mantle cell lymphoma usually responds well to initial treatment, but eventually returns or ...
In a phase Ib/II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Laurie H. Sehn, MD, MPH, and colleagues found that the addition of polatuzumab vedotin to bendamustine/rituximab improved response rate and progression-free and overall survival among transplantation-ineligible patients with...
In the phase II Fol-BRITe study reported in Clinical Cancer Research, Lansigan et al found that a short course of bendamustine/rituximab followed by consolidation with yttrium Y-90 ibritumomab tiuxetan (Y-90 ibritumomab tiuxetan) was associated with a high response rate and a high rate of...
On May 15, 2019, venetoclax was approved for the treatment of adult patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL).1,2 Supporting Efficacy Data Approval was based on findings from the open-label phase III CLL14 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov...
In an analysis reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Eichenauer et al found that patients with newly diagnosed nodular lymphocyte–predominant Hodgkin lymphoma treated in German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG) trials had good long-term outcomes overall. Study Details The analysis identified the...
Two presentations at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting offered more evidence that omitting radiation therapy leads to higher rates of recurrence for patients with early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma.1,2 Both studies involve work by the German Hodgkin Study Group among...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Borchmann et al found that pretreatment vitamin D deficiency was associated with poorer progression-free and overall survival rates in patients receiving first-line treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma. Study Details The analysis involved 351...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Priority Review to trastuzumab deruxtecan for the treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer; granted Fast Track designation for bemcentinib for elderly patients with relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML); granted Breakthrough...
Nothing prepared me for a diagnosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in the fall of 2016. I had none of the typical symptoms of the cancer, such as night sweats, enlarged lymph nodes, or fatigue. In fact, my energy level was as high as ever, as I traveled around the country for business,...
Findings from the phase Ib KEYNOTE-013 and phase II KEYNOTE-170 trials reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Armand et al indicated that pembrolizumab is highly active in relapsed or refractory primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL). The KEYNOTE-170 trial supported the 2018...
Although the role of radiotherapy in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for lymphoma is still evolving, radiotherapy “would be an ideal bridging therapy” for patients with chemorefractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, stated George Mikhaeel, MD, Professor of Radiation Oncology and...
Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track designation to a therapy for steroid-refractory acute graft-vs-host disease and granted Orphan Drug designation to a therapy for peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Fast Track Designation for T-Guard in Steroid-Refractory Acute...
In a Children’s Oncology Group (COG) study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Kahn et al found that event-free survival in pediatric and adolescent patients with Hodgkin lymphoma was similar by race and ethnicity in COG trials, but that adjusted overall survival was better in white...
Richard I. Fisher, MD, of Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses the improvement in survival for patients with follicular lymphoma, new targeted biologic agents providing alternative treatments, and chemoimmunotherapy (a standard in many cases).
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Khodadoust et al found that pembrolizumab was active in patients with advanced relapsed or refractory mycosis fungoides or Sézary syndrome. In the U.S.-based multicenter trial, 24 patients with advanced mycosis fungoides (n = 9) or...