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).
Michael Wang, MD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses phase III results from the Sympatico study, which shows the combination of ibrutinib and venetoclax improved progression-free survival vs ibrutinib plus placebo in patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma. According to Dr. Wang, these findings demonstrate a favorable benefit-risk profile for ibrutinib plus venetoclax in this patient population (Abstract LBA2).
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).
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).
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).
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).
