Cleveland Clinic Faculty Speak to Shifting Standards in Hematologic Malignancies

Welcome to OncLive On Air^®! I’m your host today, Jessica Hergert.

OncLive On Air^® is a podcast from OncLive^®, which provides oncology professionals with the resources and information they need to provide the best patient care. In both digital and print formats, OncLive® covers every angle of oncology practice, from new technology to treatment advances to important regulatory decisions.

In today’s episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with faculty from an OncLive^® Institutional Perspectives in Cancer (IPC) webinar on hematologic malignancies, hosted in partnership with Cleveland Clinic, to discuss current practice patterns and emerging therapies in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), myelofibrosis, and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

We first spoke with the chair of the meeting Aaron T. Gerds, MD, MS, an assistant professor in medicine (hematology and medical oncology) and a physician in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Taussig Cancer Institute of Cleveland Clinic, as well as an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine of the School of Medicine, and a member of the Developmental Therapeutics Program at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center of Case Western Reserve University. Dr Gerds highlighted the key messages that emerged from his colleagues’ presentations and the importance of events like the IPC webinars.

We then passed the mic to Kendra Sweet, MD, an associate member in the Department of Malignant Hematology at Moffitt Cancer Center and an assistant professor in the Department of Oncologic Sciences at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, who discussed key efficacy and safety data from the phase 3 BFORE trial (NCT02130557) comparing bosutinib (Bosulif) with imatinib (Gleevec) in patients with newly diagnosed, chronic-phase CML and shed light on whether bosutinib has become a standard frontline option in this patient population.

Next, we spoke with Brian T. Hill, MD, PhD, director of the Lymphoid Malignancies Program and a staff physician at the Taussig Cancer Institute, chairman of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee within the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, and co-director of the Lymphoid Malignancies Center of Excellence at Cleveland Clinic, an associate professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, a member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, and an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine of the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. Dr Hill provided insight into his approach to frontline treatment in CLL with BTK inhibitors and time-limited combinations.

We then talked with Gabriela Hobbs, MD, clinical director of the Leukemia Service at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who discussed the current standard of care in the treatment of patients with myelofibrosis. Dr Hobbs also previewed the potential utility of emerging agents like pacritinib and navitoclax, as well as combination strategies with ruxolitinib (Jakafi) that could reshape the paradigm for these patients.

Finally, we spoke with Ryan D. Cassaday, MD, a physician at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, an associate professor in the Division of Hematology at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and an assistant professor in the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who discussed updates in ALL. Dr Cassaday highlighted the FDA approvals of 4 agents: inotuzumab ozogamicin (Besponsa), blinatumomab (Blincyto), brexucabtagene autoleucel (Tecartus), and tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah), which span 3 different mechanisms of action. He also highlighted how he is selecting between and optimizing these treatment options for patients with ALL.

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