CLINICAL NEWS
On Location
Conference Coverage
UPDATES IN MALIGNANT
HEMATOLOGY
SH Clinical News was on site
at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology
Annual Meeting in Chicago to bring you the latest
advances in malignant hematology
presented at the meeting, including updates from late-phase clinical
trials in leukemia, lymphoma, and
myeloma. Here we share some of
the practice-changing data, including
anti-CD38 antibodies for myeloma,
brentuximab vedotin combinations
for Hodgkin lymphoma, and treatment strategies for high-risk acute
promyelocytic leukemia.
We asked some of our hematology experts what caught their eye at
this year’s meeting. Here’s what they
had to say:
Attendees listen to a presentation given by a panel of experts at the ASCO Annual Meeting.
Morie A. Gertz, MD
Jeremy S. Abramson, MD, MMSc
Alan K. Burnett, MD
Wendy Stock, MD
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
“Some of the newly developed drugs
– antibodies such as daratumumab, an
anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody – show
high-level activity in very heavily pretreated patients with multiple myeloma
and represent a truly new class of drugs
when other therapies fail. We saw new
uses for the histone deacetylase inhibitor
panobinostat: When used with bortezomib, it improved progression-free survival,
and now it has been shown to improve
progression-free survival and induce more
complete or near responses in patients who
are refractory to proteasome inhibitors
and immunomodulatory drugs. Moreover,
panobinostat, in combination with carfilzomib and lenalidomide, was shown to be a
well-tolerated combination.”
Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer
Center, Boston, MA
“The HELIOS trial compared bendamustine/rituximab with bendamustine/rituximab/ibrutinib in patients with relapsed
chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The
investigators found an increased complete
remission rate and a remarkably improved
progression-free survival favoring the
incorporation of ibrutinib compared with
bendamustine/rituximab alone. There is
still a big unanswered question in that trial:
Since single-agent ibrutinib works great in
the relapse setting, what would ibrutinib
alone have done in this randomized trial?
Also, how much is the bendamustine/
rituximab actually adding? It certainly
adds toxicity. Those questions need to be
answered in another clinical trial.”
CTI BioPharma, Seattle, WA
“FLT3 mutations are a significant issue
and a significant target in acute myeloid
leukemia. It does not prevent patients
from reaching remission, but it increases
the risk of relapse. Even if they receive
transplants, the patients don’t do brilliantly. So, for a long time, there have
been a number of FLT3 inhibitors tested.
Some have been effective in producing a
transient response – mostly by clearing
the peripheral blood, but not the bone
marrow.”
The University of Chicago Medicine,
Chicago, IL
“There were some very interesting and
hopeful abstracts of early-stage trials