Nikhil C. Munshi, MD, PhD, on COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness in Patients With Multiple Myeloma
2021 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition
Nikhil C. Munshi, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the findings from a large nationwide Veterans Affairs study, which showed that, for patients with multiple myeloma, the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine is reduced, likely due to patients’ immunosuppression. Dr. Munshi describes what next steps should be taken (Abstract 400).
The ASCO Post Staff
Alba Rodriguez-Meira, DPhil, of the University of Oxford, discusses a comprehensive analysis of the genetic, cellular, and molecular landscape of TP53-mediated transformation, providing insights into the evolution of chronic hematologic malignancies toward an aggressive acute leukemia. Because TP53 is the most commonly mutated gene in human cancer, these findings may well be of broad relevance (Abstract 3).
The ASCO Post Staff
Musa Yilmaz, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses study results suggesting that quizartinib with decitabine and venetoclax is active in patients with FLT3-ITD–mutated acute myeloid leukemia and that RAS/MAPK mutations continue to drive primary and secondary resistance (Abstract 370).
The ASCO Post Staff
Sangeetha Venugopal, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses a retrospective analysis of 562 patients with treated secondary acute myeloid leukemia and prior exposure to hypomethylating agents (HMAs). The results showed that an HMA plus venetoclax yielded significantly higher overall response rates and improved overall survival compared with intensive chemotherapy or low-intensity chemotherapy, particularly in patients 60 years or older who had a karyotype without adverse risk (Abstract 794).
The ASCO Post Staff
Talha Badar, MD, of the Mayo Clinic, discusses the near-universal poor outcomes for patients with TP53-mutated acute myeloid leukemia and the findings that show allogeneic stem cell transplantation appears to improve the long-term survival in a subset of these patients. Effective therapies may successfully bridge patients to transplant and prolong survival for those who are transplant-ineligible (Abstract 797).
The ASCO Post Staff
Manali Kamdar, MD, of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, discusses phase III results from the TRANSFORM study, which suggest that lisocabtagene maraleucel, a CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy, improved outcomes with a favorable safety profile and may be a potential new standard of care for second-line treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (Abstract 91).
