Jia Ruan, MD, PhD, of Meyer Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medicine, and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, discusses trial results demonstrating that the triple chemotherapy-free combination of acalabrutinib, lenalidomide, and rituximab is well tolerated, highly effective, and produces high rates of minimal residual disease (MRD)-negative complete response as an initial treatment for patients with mantle cell lymphoma, including those with TP53 mutations. Real-time MRD analysis may enable treatment de-escalation during maintenance to minimize toxicity, which warrants further evaluation. An expansion cohort of acalabrutinib/lenalidomide/obinutuzumab is being launched (Abstract 73).
Paul G. Richardson, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses preliminary results from the dose-expansion phase of the CC-92480-MM-001 Trial, which showed promising efficacy in patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma, including those with prior BCMA-targeted therapies. Patients in these two groups had an overall response rate of 40% and 50%, respectively. The results support the development of mezigdomide, currently being evaluated in combination with standard therapies in multiple myeloma as part of a large, ongoing phase I/II trial (NCT03989414) and planned phase III studies (Abstract 568).
Eva Hoster, PhD, of Munich University, discusses results from the European MCL Elderly Trial, which confirmed the strong efficacy of rituximab maintenance in minimal residual disease (MRD)-negative patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) after induction. Omitting maintenance based on MRD-negativity is thus discouraged. Considering the short time to progression, more effective treatment strategies should be explored in MRD-positive patients to improve long-term prognosis (Abstract 544).
Smita Bhatia, MD, MPH, of the Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship, University of Alabama at Birmingham, discusses study findings that showed key somatic mutations in the peripheral blood stem cell product increases the risk of developing therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (Abstract 119).
Jorge E. Cortes, MD, of Georgia Cancer Center at Augusta University, discusses new findings on vodobatinib, which was administered to patients with chronic-phase Philadelphia chromosome–positive chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and appeared to be efficacious and safe in people who had received therapy with two or three prior tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Vodobatinib remains a potential option for these highly refractory patients. A phase II study (NCT02629692) of vodobatinib is ongoing in CML patients whose disease has failed to respond to three or more TKIs, including ponatinib (Abstract 84).