Hematologic Oncology

The FDA is granting Orphan Drug Designation for chimeric antigen receptor engineered T-cells directed against the target protein CD4 (CD4CAR) for the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma.

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) taking ibrutinib showed an antibody response to the influenza vaccine, according to a data from a small study.

Patients with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma treated with mogamulizumab prior to undergoing allo-HSCT were at significantly greater risk for graft-vs-host disease–related mortality.

In this review, we discuss the potential applications of monitoring ctDNA in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, and mantle cell lymphoma.

An 84-year-old woman with a history of Graves disease, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension presented to her physician with progressive fatigue and palpable bilateral axillary lymphadenopathy.

It is clear that as our understanding of both aggressive and indolent lymphomas improves, the goals of treatment change and the bar for success is set higher.

A propensity score–matched comparison of two phase II trials found that dasatinib and nilotinib offer similar responses and outcomes as first-line therapy for patients with chronic-phase CML.

Myeloma is clearly not one disease but several. In terms of treatment choices, it is increasingly evident that one size of treatment does not fit all. Moreover, as therapy is tailored to each individual patient, with the ability to mobilize and collect stem cells and retain them after successful induction/remission therapy, younger patients have choices.

Results of important studies addressing the optimal consolidation regimen and choice and duration of maintenance therapy are eagerly awaited, but it is evident that ASCT is imperative in the treatment of younger patients with multiple myeloma.

Patients with relapsed or refractory acute myelogenous leukemia respond to single-agent treatment with the B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2) inhibitor venetoclax.

Early evaluation of ABCB1 mRNA expression may help identify CML patients who are likely to be resistant to first- and second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

An anti-CD30 monoclonal antibody called brentuximab vedotin demonstrated in a randomized phase III study a highly statistically significant improvement in rate of objective response lasting at least 4 months.

Treatment with carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone improved the poor prognosis associated with high-risk cytogenetic abnormalities of multiple myeloma.

Survivors of childhood Hodgkin lymphoma had more chronic and severe cardiovascular health conditions at age 50 vs a group of controls.

High-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplantation was effective in treating patients with newly diagnosed primary CNS lymphoma.

The FDA has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for injected daratumumab added to standard-of-care treatment regimens among patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Juno Therapeutics has reopened the phase II clinical trial (ROCKET trial) of JCAR015 in adult patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia following three deaths.

A new study found that monitoring of minimal residual disease in a group of elderly patients with multiple myeloma proved to have important prognostic value, regardless of patient age or cytogenetic risk.

The advantage of treating low- or intermediate-risk APL with ATRA plus arsenic trioxide appears to increase over time, according to results of the APL0406 trial.

Results of a single-center analysis indicated that patients aged 80 or older with DLBCL had superior outcomes with anthracycline-based therapies.

Combination treatment with obinutuzumab plus bendamustine followed by obinutuzumab maintenance significantly delayed disease progression in patients with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma refractory to rituximab.

The targeted therapy drug everolimus may be safely combined with R-CHOP in newly diagnosed, untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Continuous lenalidomide plus low-dose dexamethasone reduced the risk for progression in untreated multiple myeloma patients who were ineligible for stem cell transplantation.

Treatment with the anti–PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab was safe and active in a small study of patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma whose disease progressed after treatment with brentuximab vedotin.

Maintenance therapy with TKIs following allogeneic HSCT is feasible and may improve outcomes in patients with high-risk Philadelphia chromosome–positive leukemia.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have recently discovered how gene mutations keep blood stem cells from maturing, leading to the development of AML.

Dietary, pet, and social contact restrictions did not have any effect on infectious complications in children undergoing intensive treatment of acute myeloid leukemia.

A study covering 4 decades of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in Sweden found dramatic improvements in life expectancy since the advent of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy.

Similar survival outcomes were seen in lymphoma patients who underwent related donor haploidentical HCT and HLA-matched sibling donor transplant.

The anti-CCR4 antibody mogamulizumab showed promising response rates compared to investigator’s choice in a randomized phase II trial of relapsed/refractory adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma.