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).
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).
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).
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).
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).
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).
