ASH Annual Meeting & Exposition: Leukemia

Adults with Philadelphia chromosome–negative B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia are very likely to achieve complete response with intensive combination induction chemotherapy, according to a retrospective review presented at the ASH Annual Meeting.

About one-third of patients with previously treated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) were minimal residual disease negative after 6 months of treatment with the combination of targeted agents ibrutinib and venetoclax, according to the results of the TAP CLARITY study.

Hospice use occurred more frequently among Medicare beneficiaries with acute and chronic leukemias who were transfusion dependent, according to the results of a study presented at the ASH Annual Meeting.

In this interview ahead of the ASH Annual Meeting we discuss the current management of Philadelphia chromosome–positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia and the role of stem cell transplantation.

Among pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients who have favorable prognosis, an attempt to reduce the burden of chemotherapy by using lower intensity delayed intensification failed to show better outcomes.

T-cell therapy targeting CD22, a protein found on the surface of leukemic cells, was safe and feasible in a small and ongoing study of patients with ALL.

Many patients with stable CML may be able to safely decrease their dose of tyrosine kinase inhibitor to half of the standard dose and improve TKI-related side effects, according to the results of the DESTINY trial.

Older patients with AML survive longer after receiving an allogeneic stem cell transplant if they are initially treated with CPX-351 liposome injection instead of the standard “7+3” chemotherapy with cytarabine and daunorubicin.

Cessation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy may be possible in chronic myeloid leukemia patients with deep molecular response, according to the results of the Euro-Ski trial.

In this interview we discuss prognostic models that may be able to predict disease progression in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated with the targeted agent ibrutinib.

Combining standard chemotherapy with vadastuximab talirine was safe and well-tolerated in newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia.