OncLive News Network On Location: ASH 2019 Day 1

Today-

We are on site at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, at the 2019 ASH Annual Meeting!

We'll be recapping some of the top news presented each day during the meeting, and soon we'll speak with Dr. Shaji Kumar on the leading abstracts in multiple myeloma, and Dr. Naval Daver on some exciting studies in acute myeloid leukemia.

Welcome to OncLive News Network! I'm Gina Columbus.

In chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the BTK inhibitor acalabrutinib plus obinutuzumab and acalabrutinib monotherapy significantly improved progression-free survival compared with obinutuzumab and chlorambucil in the phase III ELEVATE-TN trial. The combination also showed a tolerable safety profile in patients with treatment-naïve disease.

Moreover, even with a crossover for disease progression in the obinutuzumab/chlorambucil arm, there was a trend toward improved overall survival in both acalabrutinib arms. However, investigators noted that longer follow-up is needed.

The frontline combinatiom of ibrutinib and venetoclax led to high rates of undetectable minimal residual disease in the peripheral blood and bone marrow in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, according to a cohort of the phase II CAPTIVATE study. The regimen represents an all-oral, once-daily, and chemotherapy-free options for patients, along with a safety profile that is consistent with each agent alone.

A first-of-kind multi-antigen showed persistence as an off-the-shelf CAR natural killer cell in patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell malignancies.

The therapeutic approach would allow for a single, standardized, scalable, off-the-shelf platform, and data support the rational for a first-of-kind phase I trial as a monotherapy and in combination with CD20-targeted monoclonal antibodies in patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphoma and leukemia.

In B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, mosunetuzumab demonstrated a tolerable safety profile and durable efficacy in patients with heavily pretreated disease in a phase I/IIb trial. Activity showed that there were complete responses in patients who experienced disease progression following treatment with CAR T-cell therapies, and the early data support a possibility for retreatment with mosunetuzumab.

Pivotal safety and efficacy results from the phase I Transcend NHL 001 trial of lisocabtagene maraleucel showcased durable clinical activity with a favorable safety profile in patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell NHL, and efficacy was also observed among patients who were refractory, elderly, comorbid, and/or had high tumor burden. Additionally, there was a low incidence and late onset of cytokine release syndrome.

In multiple myeloma, the BCMA-targeted CAR T-cell therapy JNH-4528 delivered early and deep responses, and achieved minimal residual disease negativity in all evaluable patients with refractory multiple myeloma. The treatment also showed a manageable safety profile.

In a phase I dose-climbing trial, a bispecific CAR T-cell therapy targeting both BCMA and CD38 showed a high ORR in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, which included a higher rate and a longer duration of stringent complete response, as well as effective elimination for extramedullary lesions. There was no neurotoxicity was observed with the treatment, and cytokine release syndrome and other advers events were managed.

Finally, in a phase I trial, the 2+1 BCMA T-cell engager CC-93269 showed a manageable safety profile and minimal residual disease-negative stringent complete responses in patients with heavily pretreated relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. The trial continues to enroll patients in the dose-escalation phase.

That's all for today. Stay tuned for tomorrow's OncLive News Network: On Location, where we will sit down with Dr Matthew Davids on chronic lymphocytic leukemia studies, and Dr Bijal Shah on some pivotal abstracts in mantle cell lymphoma and CAR T-cell therapy.

Thank you for watching OncLive News Network! I'm Gina Columbus.