HEMATOLOGY

Due to the diversity of disease presentation, together with new iterations of guidelines for MCL diagnosis, staging, and risk, there is no standardized therapeutic approach. Treatment decisions are currently guided by several factors, including patient age, level of fitness, presence of symptoms, risk category, proliferative index, and cell variant, which means it is important to accurately diagnose, stage, and assess risk in patients with MCL

Anas Younes, MD, chief of the Lymphoma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses results from a trial studying the combination of nivolumab and ibrutinib for the treatment of patients with relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Denise. L. Pereira, MD, recently shared the treatment considerations and decisions she makes when treating patients with multiple myeloma. Pereira, assistant professor of clinical medicine, University of Miami, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Miami, Florida, explained her treatment decisions based on 2 case scenarios during a <em>Targeted Oncology</em> live case-based peer perspectives presentation.

In an 8 to 4 vote, the FDA&#39;s&nbsp;Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee recommended approval of blinatumomab for the treatment of minimal residual disease-positive B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Lung Cancer

One of the most exciting advancements in the lymphoma community has been the FDA approval of axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma&nbsp;in October 2017.

New indications were approved by the FDA within the last month, including abemaciclib for HER2-negative breast cancer, durvalumab for non&ndash;small cell lung cancer, and abiraterone acetate for castration-sensitive prostate cancer.

Several combinations are being investigated for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, said Ian W. Flinn, MD, citing numerous ongoing trials presented at the 2017 ASH Annual Meeting.

Patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma with renal impairment who were treated with pomalidomide and&nbsp;low-dose dexamethasone had an overall response rate of up to 39%,&nbsp;according to findings of a phase II study published in the <em>Journal of Clinical Oncology.</em> &nbsp;

Progression-free survival was successfully predicted by a 23-gene expression-based model for patients with follicular lymphoma enrolled in the phase III randomized PRIMA trial.

The treatment paradigm of acute myeloid leukemia has not changed much in the last several decades, but with 4 new drugs approved by the FDA within the span of a few months, 2017 easily became the most promising year yet for the treatment of AML.

Constantine S. Tam, MD, associate professor, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discusses the phase III DUO trial, a randomized comparison of duvelisib versus ofatumumab (Arzerra) in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic leukemia.

Denosumab was recently recommended for approval by the European Medicines Agency&rsquo;s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use for the&nbsp;prevention of skeletal-related events in patients with multiple myeloma, according to Amgen, the developer of the RANK ligand inhibitor.

Brad S. Kahl, MD,&nbsp;discusses the latest data for ibrutinib and highlighted emerging treatments in MCL.<br /> &nbsp;

According to phase I findings published in <em>The Lancet Oncology,</em>&nbsp;an&nbsp;objective response rate of 37% was induced in patients with&nbsp;relapsed/refractory lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated with the&nbsp;PI3K-delta inhibitor umbralisib.

Sattva S. Neelapu, MD, associate professor, Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, Division of Cancer Medicine, at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses long-term findings of the ZUMA-1 trial investigating axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) in patients with refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma.