HEMATOLOGY

The FDA has granted a fast track designation to tipifarnib for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory T-cell lymphomas, according to a press release from Kura Oncology, Inc. The fast track designation includes patients with relapsed/refractory angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, follicular T-cell lymphoma, and nodal peripheral T-cell lymphoma with a T follicular helper phenotype.

The combination of venetoclax plus low-dose cytarabine did not demonstrate a statistically significant improvement in overall survival compared with LDAC plus placebo in patients with acute myeloid leukemia who were ineligible for intensive chemotherapy at the time of a planned analysis, missing the primary end point of the phase III VIALE-C trial.

Treatment with pembrolizumab resulted in a statistically and clinically significant improvement in progression-free survival compared with brentuximab vedotin in adults patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma , meeting a dual primary end point of the phase III KEYNOTE-204 trial, according to the interim analysis results announced in press release from Merck.

To enhance outcomes for patients with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma, an in-depth review of the available data is required. As a start, Sonali M. Smith, MD, University of Chicago Medicine, reviewed the clinical trial findings that are currently informing treatment selection in the frontline iNHL paradigm, at 24th Annual International Congress on Hematologic Malignancies.

Sameer Desai, MD, discusses the changing treatment landscape for lymphomas.

In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Stephen J. Schuster, MD, discussed the findings for mosunetuzumab in patients with relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma and the particularly promising findings for those patients who had received prior chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy.

To help clinicians cope with an increasing number of geriatric patients with cancer, the Association of Community Cancer Centers is addressing this problem with a 2-pronged approach that focuses on the delivery of care and diagnostic assessment.

Clinically meaningful outcomes in patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease were observed with administration of the selective ROCK2 inhibitor KD025, according to interim results of the phase II ROCKstar trial presented at the 2020 Transplant and Cellular Therapies Meetings in Orlando, Florida.

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Evolving data about possible therapeutic targets for the treatment of transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy may introduce narsoplimab as a new therapy for management of patients with this challenging complication.

Evaluation of an expansion cohort of the pivotal phase I/II ZUMA-1 trial in patients with refractory large B-cell lymphoma revealed that early steroid intervention may have a positive impact on the toxicity profile of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy with axicabtagene ciloleucel, according to findings presented during a poster session at the 2020 Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings in Orlando, Florida.

Use of an off-the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor T-cell product may be feasible for use in patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell malignancies for whom no other available therapies exist, according to results of a phase I trial in adult and pediatric patients that were presented at the 2020 Transplant & Cellular Therapies Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

Preliminary results of the phase III SIERRA trial indicate that conditioning therapy with iodine apamistamab leads to high rates of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant in patients with active acute myeloid leukemia, according to Boglarka Gyurkocza, MD, who presented midpoint results of the trial at the 2020 Transplant & Cellular Therapies Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

Treating chronic graft-versus-host disease with ruxolitinib in both adult and pediatric patients was found to be safe and effective based on data from 2 separate single-center retrospective analyses whose results were presented during a poster session at the 2020 Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings in Orlando, Florida.

In the phase II CLOVER-1 trial, the small-molecule phospholipid drug conjugate CLR 131, achieved high response rates in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma and relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma, meeting the primary efficacy end point of the study, according to a press release from Cellectar Biosciences, developer of the agent.

In an interview with <em>Targeted Oncology</em>, Rajneesh Nath, MD, discussed the background and rationale for the phase III SIERRA trial. He also explained what this research means for the treatment landscape of acute myeloid leukemia.&nbsp;

The use of agents targeting Bruton tyrosine kinase have moved into the standard of care for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma in recent years. New data have indicated that more effective therapy by way of combination regimens and newly approved agents may further improve the prognosis of this disease.

Jeff P.&nbsp;Sharman, MD, discusses what differentiates acalabrutinib from other BTK inhibitors available in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The FDA has granted Priority Review to the New Drug Application for tazemetostat as treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma who have received at least 2 prior lines of systemic therapy. The drug will now be considered for accelerated approval and the application was designation as a supplemental NDA with a Prescription Drug User Fee Act target action date of June 18, 2020, Epizyme, Inc announced in a press release.

The FDA has granted Priority Review to the Biologics License Application for lisocabtagene maraleucel for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma, after at least 2 prior therapies.