Lena E. Winestone, MD, MSHP, on Health-Care Disparities in Hematologic Cancers: Real-World Data
2020 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition
Lena E. Winestone, MD, MSHP, of the University of California, San Francisco and Benioff Children’s Hospital, reviews different aspects of bias in treatment delivery, including patient selection for clinical trials; racial and ethnic disparities in survival for indolent non-Hodgkin diffuse large B-cell lymphomas; and end-of-life hospitalization of patients with multiple myeloma, as well as outcome disparities (Abstracts 207-212).
The ASCO Post Staff
Sara Zarnegar-Lumley, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, discusses an analysis of a large cohort confirming the age-associated prevalence of IDH mutations in patients, across the age spectrum, with acute myeloid leukemia and therapeutic implications. IDH-mutated genes were found to co-occur frequently with other mutations, some of which favorably impact outcomes in patients younger than 60 (Abstract 388).
The ASCO Post Staff
Meletios A. Dimopoulos, MD, of the University of Athens, discusses data from the phase III APOLLO study, which evaluated the use of subcutaneous daratumumab plus pomalidomide and dexamethasone, vs pomalidomide and dexamethasone alone, in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (Abstract 412).
The ASCO Post Staff
Steven M. Horwitz, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses data from the largest multicenter retrospective analysis of allogeneic hematopoietic transplantation, which supports its curative potential in patients with mature T-cell lymphoma, a group marked by poor survival and limited treatment options (Abstract 41).
The ASCO Post Staff
Ann-Kathrin Eisfeld, MD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses SEER data showing that patients with acute myeloid leukemia who are Black and younger than age 60 may have poor survival outcomes, a disparity that should be addressed and further studied to establish molecular risk profiles (Abstract 6).
The ASCO Post Staff
Matthew S. Davids, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, summarizes three key studies from a session he co-moderated on ibrutinib plus venetoclax for first-line treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), long-term responses to these agents for relapsed and refractory CLL, and undetectable minimal residual disease following fixed-duration treatment with venetoclax and rituximab for CLL (Abstracts 123, 124, and 125).
