Mhairi Copland, PhD, MB BChir, of the University of Glasgow, discusses results of a study on the combination of ponatinib and fludarabine, cytarabine, idarubicin, and G-CSF for patients with blast phase chronic myeloid leukemia, a rare complication with a poor outcome (Abstract 497).
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).
David P. Steensma, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses early study findings on H3B-8800, which decreased the need for red blood cell or platelet transfusion in 14% of patients. This splicing modulator, used in the trial to treat patients with hematologic malignancies, also showed safety, dose-dependent target engagement, and a predictable pharmacokinetic profile (Abstract 673).
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).
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).
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).
