Jerald P. Radich, MD, on CML: Predicting Deep Molecular Response to Treatment
2019 ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition
Jerald P. Radich, MD, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses a gene-expression model that distinguishes patients with chronic myeloid leukemia who achieved a deep molecular response from those with a poor response to treatment. This work could yield new therapeutic targets that could potentially turn a poor responder into a good responder who might even achieve treatment-free remission (Abstract 665).
Patrick A. Brown, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, discusses phase III findings from a Children’s Oncology Group Study showing that blinatumomab was superior to chemotherapy in terms of efficacy and tolerability for young patients as a post-reinduction therapy in the setting of high- and intermediate-risk first relapse of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Abstract LBA-1).
Mark Bustoros, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses phase II study results showing that the combination of ixazomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone is effective in patients with high-risk smoldering disease, with a high response rate, convenient schedule, and manageable toxicity. Longer follow-up for disease outcome is ongoing (Abstract 580).
C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses phase II study findings that showed an 83% negative rate of minimal residual disease in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma treated weekly with 8 cycles of the quadruplet regimen of carfilzomib/lenalidomide/dexamethasone/daratumumab, without autologous stem cell transplant (Abstract 862).
Andrew H. Wei, MBBS, PhD, of The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, discusses phase III findings on oral azacitidine (CC-486), the first treatment used in the maintenance setting shown to improve both overall and disease-free survival in patients with acute myeloid leukemia that is in remission following induction chemotherapy (Abstract LBA-3).
Catherine M. Diefenbach, MD, of the Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone, discusses a primary analysis of a phase Ib/II trial showing that the novel triplet combination of polatuzumab vedotin plus obinutuzumab/lenalidomide is safe and effective, with high complete response rates seen in a heavily pretreated and refractory population (Abstract 126).