Adam S. Kittai, MD, of The Ohio State University, discusses his data supporting the use of CAR T-cell therapy for patients with Richter’s transformation. Given the high response rate to CD19 CAR T-cell treatment, along with early relapse in most patients, allogeneic stem cell transplantation at response should also be considered, he says (Abstract 108).
Darren Denjay Pan, MD, of Tisch Cancer Institute and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses his findings on risk assessment of CAR T-cell therapy for patients with multiple myeloma. Higher fibrinogen and ferritin values at baseline were associated with inferior overall survival after CAR T-cell therapy, even after controlling for tumor burden. Higher baseline absolute lymphocyte count was also associated with higher risk and grade of immune effector cell–associated neurotoxicity syndrome, an important toxicity to consider for patients receiving CAR T (Abstract 92).
Sanjal H. Desai, MBBS, of the University of Minnesota, discusses results from a multicenter cohort, which shows that, for transplant-eligible patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma, PD-1–based salvage therapy at any point before transplantation is associated with improved progression-free survival, compared with brentuximab vedotin or chemotherapy-based salvage regimens (Abstract 182).
Hamish S. Scott, PhD, and Chris Hahn, PhD, both of Australia’s SA Pathology and Centre for Cancer, discuss ERG, a new predisposition gene for bone marrow failure and hematologic malignancy. Identifying causal germline ERG variants has direct clinical implications for diagnosis, counseling, surveillance, and treatment strategies, according to Drs. Scott and Hahn (Abstract LBA5).
Ibrahim Aldoss, MD, of City of Hope National Medical Center, discusses phase II safety and efficacy results from the Augment-101 study. This trial showed that patients with heavily pretreated, relapsed or refractory KMT2-rearranged acute leukemia benefited from monotherapy with the menin-KMT2A inhibitor revumenib, with high overall response rates and undetectable measurable residual disease (Abstract LBA-5).
Jeffrey E. Rubnitz, MD, PhD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, discusses study findings suggesting that pharmacogenomic differences between Black and White patients should be considered when tailoring induction regimens to improve outcomes of all patients and bridge the racial disparity gap in acute myeloid leukemia treatment (Abstract 386).
