HEMATOLOGY

Tisagenlecleucel-T has been granted a breakthrough therapy designation by the FDA for use as a treatment for adult patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma after the failure of at least 2 prior therapies.

Richard Carvajal, MD, Director of Experimental Therapeutics and Director of the Melanoma Service at Columbia University Medical Center, discusses options for treating melanoma after the use of targeted therapies and immunotherapy. 

The American Association for Cancer Research has announced Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, will serve as its president and Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, will serve as its president-elect for the 2017-2018 term.

The investigational tyrosine kinase inhibitor quizartinib is extremely promising as a monotherapy for patients with <em>FLT3-ITD&ndash;</em>positive relapsed acute myeloid leukemia.

Patients with hematologic malignancies who receive a hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) still risk treatment failure through relapse. As part of a conditioning regimen prior to allogenic HSCT, strategies are emerging to improve HSCT outcomes by reducing the risk of relapse. Several of these conditioning regimens were reviewed during a satellite symposium to the 2017 BMT Tandem Meetings.

The chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel has shown promising results in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, primary mediastinal lymphoma, and transformed follicular lymphoma, according to findings presented at the 2017 AACR Annual Meeting.

Richard M. Stone, MD, discusses what is currently understood regarding the genetic landscape in acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

According to results from a randomized, double-blind, phase III study, patients with stage III or IV melanoma assigned to 10 mg/kg ipilimumab lived longer than patients assigned to a lower dose of the anti-CTLA-4 anticlonal antibody, but at the cost of greater toxicity.

Andrew Wei, MBBS, PhD, discusses&nbsp;a study which explored the safety and efficacy of the novel BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax in combination with low-dose cytarabine chemotherapy for treatment-na&iuml;ve patients over the age of 65 with AML.

A majority of patients with relapsed or refractory indolent lymphoma responded to treatment with the PI3K dual-isoform inhibitor copanlisib, according to results from the phase II CHRONOS-1 trial.<br /> &nbsp;

A retrospective analysis presented at the 2017 AACR Annual Meeting found the flexibility of CAR T cells to perform multiple functions was associated with the level of clinical activity elicited for patients with advanced non-Hodgkin&rsquo;s lymphoma.

Combining the IDO inhibitor indoximod with pembrolizumab led to an overall response rate of 52% in patients with advanced melanoma.

Adding a formulation of the Coxsackievirus A21 to ipilimumab yielded an overall response rate of 50% and was well-tolerated in immunotherapy-na&iuml;ve and pretreated patients with advanced melanoma.

Mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 and 2 (<em>IDH1/2</em>) are not the mutations commonly found in cancer cells, according to a presentation from the 2017 AACR Annual Meeting.

Sudipto Mukherjee, MD, assistant staff, Gaussig Cancer Institute, Cleveland Clinic, discusses a study exploring eltrombopag to enhance platelet count recovery in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Yousef Zakharia, MD, assistant professor, University of Iowa, Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses an interim analysis of the phase II clinical trial investigating the IDO pathway inhibitor indoximod in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for patients with advanced melanoma.&nbsp;

More than 80% of patients with refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) achieved objective responses to treatment with the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel (KTE-C19), according to the results of a pivotal phase II trial.

The PD-1 and CTLA-4 inhibitor combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) induced a 12% reduction in the risk of death versus nivolumab monotherapy in patients with treatment-na&iuml;ve advanced melanoma.

FDA approval is being sought for the use of denosumab for the prevention of skeletal-related events in patients with multiple myeloma, according to Amgen, the developer of the RANK ligand inhibitor.

A biologics license application has been submitted for axicabtagene ciloleucel (KTE-C19) as a potential treatment for transplant ineligible patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Patients with lymphoma who are treated with brentuximab vedotin often experience peripheral neuropathy as an adverse event and potentially dose-limiting toxicity. A novel study has shown that, despite the prevalence of this toxicity, these patients report that the better outcomes yielded from treatment with brentuximab vedotin outweigh the risk of neuropathy.&nbsp;

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) will recognize several individuals for their contributions to cancer research during its annual meeting, to be held April 1 to 5 in Washington, DC.

The FDA has granted a priority review to a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) supporting the conversion of the accelerated approval of blinatumomab (Blincyto) to a full approval as a treatment for patients with Philadelphia chromosome-negative (Ph-) relapsed/refractory B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Tisagenlecleucel-T (CTL019) has been granted a priority review designation by the FDA as a treatment for pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed and refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Subcutaneous rituximab has received the FDA&rsquo;s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) unanimous (11-0) recommended approval for the treatment of patients with certain blood cancers.