Danai Dima, MD, on Multiple Myeloma: Update on Safety and Efficacy of Teclistamab
2023 ASH
Danai Dima, MD, of the Taussig Cancer Institute, Cleveland Clinic, discusses teclistamab-cqyv, a B-cell maturation antigen approved in October 2022 for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have received at least four prior lines of therapy. Dr. Dima and her team evaluated the real-world safety and efficacy of this agent and found encouraging evidence of efficacy in a real-world setting (Abstract 91).
The ASCO Post Staff
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).
The ASCO Post Staff
William G. Wierda, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses results from the phase I/II BRUIN study, which shows encouraging response and overall survival in patients with Richter transformation. Although this condition remains a challenging diagnosis, pirtobrutinib represents a potential treatment option that warrants further investigation, according to Dr. Wierda (Abstract 1737).
The ASCO Post Staff
Sara Khan, DO, of the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine and HCA Healthcare, discusses her findings showing that women received only 33% of grants from the National Institutes of Health from 2012 to 2022 in nonmalignant hematologic research. Although some agencies have made strides in this area, others continue to have a significant gap. Identifying these areas of gender disparity will enable targeted efforts to bridge this gap and advance gender equality (Abstract 5113).
The ASCO Post Staff
Jennifer A. Woyach, MD, of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses phase I/II findings of the BRUIN study on the use of pirtobrutinib after covalent Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL). The results suggest that continuing BTK pathway inhibition following a covalent BTK inhibitor may be an important sequencing approach to consider in the treatment of CLL/SLL (Abstract 325).
The ASCO Post Staff
Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, reviews key abstracts from ASH 2023 on treatment of myelofibrosis, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, large B-cell lymphoma, and acute myeloid leukemia (Abstracts 620, 631, 781, 425).
