HEMATOLOGY

Researchers discovered that pregnancy while in remission of Hodgkin lymphoma does not increase the risk of cancer relapse, making this report the first largest study to specifically examine the impacts of pregnancy as a potential trigger for relapse in Hodgkin lymphoma survivors.

Farhad Ravandi, MD, Professor in the Department of Leukemia, MD Anderson Cancer Center‎, discusses minimal residual disease. Ravandi says historically, MRD has shown a resistance to cytotoxic chemotherapy.

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.

The PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab in combination with an established multiple myeloma regimen showed responses in 76% of a cohort of 17 patients with relapsed/refractory disease in data one of several clinical trials presented at the 2015 ASH Annual Meeting.

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.

A rapid infusion formulation of bendamustine (Bendeka) has received FDA approval for the treatment of patients with CLL or indolent B-cell NHL that has progressed during or within 6 months of treatment with rituximab or a rituximab-containing regimen.

In this review, our authors discuss the mechanism of action and clinical development of various checkpoint inhibitors in lymphoma.

Leonard Saltz, MD, discusses VEGF inhibitors, their history and why oncologists might be overestimating the treatment.

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.

Srdan Verstovsek, MD, PhD, discusses the JAK2 inhibitor, as well as upcoming treatments like momelotinib and pacritinib, for the treatment of patients with myelofibrosis.

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.

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.

Michael Mauro, MD, discusses the side effects of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.

Elotuzumab (Empliciti) has been approved by the FDA for use in combination with lenalidomide (Revlimid) and dexamethasone in patients with multiple myeloma after the failure of at least 1 prior therapy.

Where once limited treatment options existed for patients with CLL, medical oncologists now have a plethora of agents from which to choose, making disease management in CLL more effective with fewer toxicities.

Andre Goy, MD, MS, chief, John Theurer Cancer Center's Division of Lymphoma, talks about the emerging novel therapies in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).