ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition

Neal Young, MD, discusses the advancement of treatment for aplastic anemia. Young said aplastic anemia used to kill almost all patients diagnosed with the disease within a year.

Jeffrey Jones, MD, discusses small molecule inhibitors of B-cell receptor signaling in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Amy Johnson, PhD, discusses the overall high response rates in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) to a new novel bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor called acalabrutinib (ACP-196).

A combination of venetoclax and obinutuzumab, followed by additional cycles of venetoclax, has shown tolerability in elderly patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia with comorbidities, data from the CLL14 trial (BO25323) shows.

Patricia L. Kropf, MD, discusses a combination of decitabine and arsenic trioxide as a replacement for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who cannot withstand induction chemotherapy.

Blinatumomab (Blincyto) as a single agent showed high complete remission (CR), or CR with partial hematological recovery, in adult patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive and -negative B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

David Steensma, MD, discusses how midostaurin could affect the treatment paradigm for acute leukemia. He says that while midostaurin is not currently approved by the FDA, studies show its potential usefulness when added to conventional induction platforms.

Ibrutinib (Imbruvica) saw over 80% response in patients with treatment-refractory Waldenstrom

Two CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T-cell therapies showed complete response (CR) rates from 90% to 100% in patients with high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to data from two studies presented during the 2015 ASH Annual Meeting.

Updated data shows chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T-cell therapies continue to remain effective for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), according to findings presented at the 2015 ASH Annual Meeting.

Novel BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax showed a near 80% overall response rate (ORR) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia harboring a chromosome 17p deletion.

Ibrutinib reduced risk of death by 84% against chlorambucil in treatment-naive elderly patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or small lymphocytic lymphoma.

Over one-third of patients with severe aplastic anemia has hematologic responses lasting at least 6 months when the oral thrombopoietin inhibitor eltrombopag was added to conventional immunosuppressive therapy, according to data from a prospective single-center phase II trial presented at the 57th ASH meeting.

Data from a phase III trial shows adding idelalisib to bendamustine and rituximab (BR) dropped the risk of progression and/or death by 67% when compared to BR alone in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

The multikinase inhibitor midostaurin (PKC412) has been shown to nearly triple the median overall survival (OS) rates of patients with FLT3-mutated acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in comparison to a placebo, according to the results of the prospective phase III trial CALGB 10603.

Farrukh T. Awan, MBBS, discusses a phase II trial examining the clinical activity of entospletinib in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia who were previously treated with a B-cell receptor pathway signaling inhibitor.

Stephen Nimer, MD, leukemia and lymphoma treatment specialist, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, discusses results of a study which examined Musashi2 as a requirement for maintaining activated myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) cells.

Data shows ruxolitinib continues to work in patients with advanced myelofibrosis by maintaining spleen size reduction and overall survival improvements over the course of a 5 year study, according to data presented during the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Leonard says some of the more interesting studies to crop up in the field of Hodgkin's lymphoma include ones that utilize checkpoint inhibitors, as well as one of the first combination immunotherapies to be used in the disease

In the last 5 years, the treatment paradigm for patients with hematologic malignancies has seen vast changes. These alterations continue their progress in the field with groundbreaking data and new ideas presented at the 2015 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting from December 5 through 8.