Lymphoma

Obinutuzumab in combination with bendamustine followed by obinutuzumab maintenance improved PFS over bendamustine monotherapy in patients with refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

With a high sensitivity for detecting disease recurrence, follow-up imaging using PET/CT may help to more successfully guide the management of NHL patients at risk for disease recurrence.

A vaccine known as AST-VAC1 was successfully produced from most patients in a phase II trial of patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Even in the absence of cranial radiation therapy, survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have decreased neurocognitive function years later.

An inhibitor of FLT3 known as ASP2215 showed good clinical activity in FLT3-mutated patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Researchers have discovered that people carrying activating killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) genes, which are expressed in natural killer cells (NK cells), may experience a protective benefit.

An analysis of more than 34,000 5-year survivors of childhood cancer treated over 3 decades finds that modern treatments have reduced long-term mortality rates.

Patients with acute myeloid leukemia who had a DNMT3A mutation had poorer disease prognosis, according to an analysis of patients aged 60 years or younger.

Women who were treated for Hodgkin lymphoma during childhood and adolescence had similar rates of post-treatment parenthood as that of the general population.

CML patients with more comorbidities at diagnosis have significantly reduced overall survival, according to an analysis of the randomized CML-Study IV.

A new study using CML in blast crisis cells has identified existing anticancer agents that may provide benefit to patients with this difficult-to-treat disease.

Older adults with acute myeloid leukemia have a substantial health care burden and high rates of health care utilization even at the end of life.

A revised International Pediatric Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Staging System (IPNHLSS) could allow for more precise staging for children and adolescents with NHL.

This is the largest retrospective review with the longest outcome to specifically evaluate pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma patients. Furthermore, this is the first analysis to find that AA patients have inferior OS when compared with whites and Hispanics. These differences remained significant over the course of 30 years, indicating that modern treatment modalities have not improved this racial disparity.

Overall, outcomes in patients diagnosed with HL in pregnancy in the modern era of chemotherapy and radiation are good. As in HL not diagnosed during pregnancy, outcomes are better in patients with a complete response following initial therapy. Delaying all therapy until the postpartum period is appropriate in properly selected patients and is not associated with poorer outcomes.

Both R-CHOP/R-VACOP-B with RT and DA-EPOCH-R demonstrate excellent outcomes. Long-term follow-up will be required to assess potential complications of contemporary RT. Our data support use of standard immunochemotherapy with RT or DA-EPOCH-R as monotherapy.

In pediatric patients with intrathoracic involvement, IMPT produced significantly lower doses to the lung and heart compared with 3DPRT. Additional studies will be needed to determine the clinical benefit of these findings.

For patients with advanced follicular lymphoma, a treatment strategy of rituximab induction was the most cost-effective approach compared with watch and wait.

Patients with early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma who have a negative PET finding after 3 cycles of chemotherapy have a good prognosis without undergoing radiotherapy.

Researchers have found immunologic evidence that simian virus 40 (SV40) may be associated with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).

With each passing year, chemotherapy is less and less a focus of interest. Instead, the focus is on the abundance of exciting new biologic and targeted agents that are bulldozing the therapeutic landscape in the lymphomas and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Results from a small study suggest that treatment with interferon alpha 2a could help chronic myeloid leukemia patients discontinue imatinib treatment.

A small retrospective study of heavily pretreated patients with chronic myeloid leukemia found bosutinib to be a good option in the fourth-line setting.

Low levels of vitamin D may be associated with poor survival in patients with follicular lymphoma, according to the results of a new analysis.

Use of routine follow-up imaging to monitor asymptomatic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients resulted in a small survival benefit, but at a substantial cost.

Stem cell transplantation from an HLA-genoidentical sibling or an HLA-matched unrelated donor did not affect outcomes among high-risk pediatric ALL patients.

A single-arm, open-label trial in Australia found that selective early switching from imatinib to nilotinib is feasible and effective in patients with CML.

CML patients with high CIP2A levels treated with second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors have better outcomes than those treated with imatinib.

Results of a single-institution study found the risk for fracture among survivors of hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation increased by nearly eight times.

The next few years hold great promise, as new agents emerge and others consolidate their place on our shelves. We will be forced to rethink strategies and redefine management as a new era of immuno-oncology dawns.