Hematologic Oncology

Jennifer E. Amengual, MD, assistant professor of medicine and developmental therapeutics, member, Center for Lymphoid Malignancies, Columbia University, discusses the potential of the combination of vorinostat and niacinamide as treatment for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

María-Victoria Mateos, MD, PhD, associate professor, hematology, University Hospital of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain, discusses the design and results of a phase II trial that she presented at the 2013 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting.

Combination treatment with idelalisib plus rituximab was associated with a >70% improvement in OS in patients with high-risk relapsed/refractory CLL.

Almost half of patients with relapsed/refractory AML had complete remissions when treated with quizartinib, which also had a more favorable safety profile as compared with higher doses.

Andre Goy, MD, MS, from the John Theurer Cancer Center, discusses the apparent effectiveness of CD19-targeted CAR-modified T cells as a treatment for patients with various types of lymphoma.

Brentuximab vedotin has demonstrated antitumor activity in the setting of relapsed or refractory DLBCL across a broad range of CD30 expression, including low or undetectable CD30 expression.

Several trials of ibrutinib, an oral BTK inhibitor, either alone or in combination with currently used therapies for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia were presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Richard R. Furman, MD, from the New York Weill Cornell Medical Center, discusses the ability to avoid the administration of chemotherapy when using novel agents, such as idelalisib, to treat patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Adding ofatumumab to chlorambucil in patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia who are considered inappropriate for fludarabine improves clinical outcomes and is tolerable irrespective of patient age or fitness.

Ian W. Flinn, MD, PhD, from the Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses the preliminary efficacy of IPI-145 in patients with chronic lymphocyic leukemia (CLL).

Almost half of patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia attained objective responses when treated with an oral inhibitor of phosphoinositide-3-kinase-delta and -gamma.

ABT-199, an orally bioavailable selective inhibitor of the Bcl-2 protein as monotherapy, induced remissions in patients with relapsed/refractory CLL and SLL, including adverse-risk subsets of patients.

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and major comorbidities had significantly better outcomes when treated with the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody obinutuzumab instead of rituximab.

Treatment with engineered donor T cells led to substantial tumor regression in patients with posttransplant relapsed B-cell malignancies, results of a small clinical study showed.

Valentin Goede, MD, from the University Hospital Cologne, discusses the efficacy findings from the stage 2 CLL11 study that examined obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia with comorbidities.

Jennifer Brown, MD, PhD, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the development of the novel PI3K-delta inhibitor idelalisib as a treatment for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

John F. Seymour, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, discusses the efficacy of single-agent ABT-199 (GDC-0199), a novel Bcl-2 inhibitor, in high-risk relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic lymphoma.

To gain insight into the studies being presented at the ASH Annual Meeting, we interviewed Marcel R.M. van den Brink, MD, PhD, on abstracts being presented by faculty at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Marcel R.M. van den Brink, MD, PhD, Head, discusses a trial being presented at the 2013 ASH Annual Meeting, analyzing the addition of ibrutinib to R-CHOP in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL).

During the past three decades, our treatment approach to lymphoma has been based on the underlying histological and clinical features of the disease.

Mark J. Levis, MD, PhD, Department of Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University, discusses the difficulty of treating a patient with a FLT3-ITD mutation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Immunotherapy can induce regressions of even advanced stage cancers, and many of these patients can have prolonged disease remissions.

Jae Park, MD, attending physician, Leukemia Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital, discusses vemurafenib in hairy cell leukemia.

Vincent T. DeVita, Jr, MD, Lymphoma: Giant of Cancer Care, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the use of chemotherapy for patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Infinity Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Massachusetts, began its efforts to produce innovative cancer treatments 12 years ago.

Headlines from the June meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago announced to the general public what oncologists and hematologists have known for more than two years: sporadic shortages of cancer drugs are forcing suboptimal treatment plans for patients, and government efforts have not filled the void.

The FDA has approved obinutuzumab plus chlorambucil as a first-line treatment for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, based on clinical trial data demonstrating that the combination more than doubled median PFS over the chemotherapy agent alone.

Marketing and commercial distribution of ponatinib has been temporarily suspended, following an ongoing FDA investigation that revealed an increased frequency of arterial thrombosis and severe narrowing of the blood vessels.