ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition

The combination of elotuzumab, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone has excellent activity and is well-tolerated in the treatment of high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM), providing hope that it can delay or even halt progression to MM.

Patients with myelofibrosis and thrombocytopenia had significantly greater reductions in spleen volume and symptoms when treated with the multikinase inhibitor pacritinib, compared with the best available therapy.

The CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy JCAR017 demonstrated a 60% complete response rate in patients with relapsed or refractory CD19-positive non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

According to the results of the phase III StaMINA trial evaluating posttransplant therapy in multiple myeloma, a second a round of chemotherapy or stem cell transplant does not improve progression-free survival or overall survival compared with the current standard course of treatment alone.

Early data from a phase I/II study suggest that the combination of brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) and nivolumab (Opdivo) may be an active and well-tolerated outpatient regimen in patients with relapsed/refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of standard frontline chemotherapy.

Two thirds of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) that progressed on B-cell receptor pathway inhibitors had objective responses to treatment with venetoclax, results of a small open-label trial showed.

Graham Jackson, MD, PhD, Northern Institute for Cancer Research, Newcastle University, discusses results of a study that determined lenalidomide (Revlimid) is a highly-effective maintenance therapy in myeloma patients of all ages.

Almost 80% of patients with treatment-refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma had objective responses following treatment with KTE-C19, a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy targeting CD19.

An FDA-approved blood cancer drug has demonstrated encouraging findings, including an overall response rate of 67%, in treatment of patients with chronic graft-versus-host-disease that was not resolved by corticosteroids.

Jennifer Woyach, MD, associate professor, Ohio State University, discusses a study examining the use of MOR208 combined with lenalidomide (Revlimid) for the treatment of chronic lymphotic leukemia (CLL) during the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.

Subcutaneous delivery of daratumumab was well tolerated with comparable efficacy to the FDA-approved intravenous dose in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Adding venetoclax to bortezomib and dexamethasone showed very promising efficacy and acceptable safety for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Selinexor, in combination with dexamethasone, induced a response rate of 20.5% (n = 16) among 78 heavily pretreated patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, according to results from the phase IIb STORM trial presented at the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting.

Heinz Gisslinger, MD, Medical University of Vienna, discusses the phase III PROUD-PV study, which evaluated ropeginterferon alfa-2b (P1101) for the treatment of polycythemia vera (PV) during the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.

Treatment with the CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy KTE-C19 showed a complete remission rate of 73% for patients with aggressive, chemorefractory primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma and transformed follicular lymphoma.

Adding the oral BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax (Venclexta) to obinutuzumab (Gazyva) and ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia is safe and is demonstrating encouraging signs of efficacy.

An induction regimen of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and obinutuzumab (Gazyva) after bendamustine debulking induced a 100% response rate in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Treatment with the BTK inhibitor BGB-3111 had an objective response rate of 96% for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic leukemia.

The investigational Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor acalabrutinib was shown to be well-tolerated in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and small lymphocytic leukemia who display intolerance to ibrutinib (Imbruvica).

The combination of the PI3 kinase inhibitor TGR-1202 and ibrutinib demonstrated a high response rate without dose-limiting toxicities for patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma.

John M. Burke, MD, discusses the GOYA study, a phase III study investigating obinutuzumab plus CHOP in patients with previously untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Burke discussed the study during the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.

Combining obinutuzumab with chemotherapy in the first-line setting reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 34% versus rituximab plus chemotherapy in patients with follicular lymphoma, according to findings from the phase III GALLIUM study.

Treatment with the combination of pembrolizumab, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone demonstrated promising durable efficacy and a tolerable safety profile for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Michael A. Thompson, MD, PhD, medical director, precision medicine, Vince Lombardi Cancer Clinic, Aurora Health Care, discusses some of the recent exciting advancements in the field of multiple myeloma during the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting.

Ibrutinib showed an 89% response rate in both treatment-naïve and relapsed patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma in findings from the longest follow-up to date for the BTK inhibitor.

Lenalidomide as maintenance following first-line immunochemotherapy substantially improves progression-free survival in the treatment of patients with high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The combination of the killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors inhibitor lirilumab with the hypomethylating agent azacytidine was well tolerated and showed early signals of activity in heavily pretreated patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Treatment with enasidenib was active and was well tolerated in pretreated patients with IDH2-mutated myelodysplastic syndrome, including those who failed hypomethylating agents.

Younger patients with mantle cell lymphoma lived significantly longer and without disease progression or clinical events when they received rituximab maintenance therapy after stem cell transplantation, final results of a randomized trial showed.

Researchers are hopeful that the addition of the investigational agent vadastuximab talirine to standard 7+3 induction therapy may improve survival for patients with acute myeloid leukemia.