American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition (ASH)

A phase III trial of idelalisib plus rituximab in patients with previously treated chronic lymphocytic leukemia found that the combo improved progression-free and overall survival, according to results presented at the 2013 ASH meeting.

In a study presented at the 2013 ASH meeting, researchers showed evidence that p53 mutations are already present in patients who develop treatment-related MDS and AML, results which could help identify high-risk patients prior to cytotoxic therapy.

Treatment with gemtuzumab ozogamicin improved the event-free survival in children and adolescents with acute myeloid leukemia by reducing the risk of relapse among those able to achieve remission, according to trial results presented at the 2013 ASH meeting.

Patients aged 70 years or older had similar survival outcomes compared to their younger counterparts when undergoing nonmyeloablative, related haploidentical bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplants for the treatment of hematologic malignancies, according to the results of a study presented at the 2013 ASH meeting.

The combination of lenalidomide plus dexamethasone demonstrated an improvement in both response rate and survival in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients not eligible for a stem cell transplant, according to data presented at the 2013 ASH meeting.

Patients with the rare and potentially deadly multicentric Castleman disease were able to achieve durable tumor and symptomatic response when assigned to treatment with the monoclonal antibody siltuximab, according to data presented at the 2013 ASH meeting.

In a late-breaking abstract presentation, Thorsten Klampfl, PhD, of the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, presented data from a whole exome study of primary myelofibrosis patients, identifying a new specific molecular mutation

In a 12-patient multiple myeloma pilot study, researchers demonstrated that anti-CD3 and anti-CD20 bispecific antibody (CD20Bi) activated both cellular and humoral anti-myeloma immunity that was detectable after patients received an autologous stem cell transplant.

In this video, Dr. Mikhael discusses the current treatment paradigm for multiple myeloma and highlights some of the new agents in development.

Patients of non-white northern European descent have better access to transplant than ever before due to access to cord blood and haploidentical transplants, a new study presented at the ASH annual meeting indicated.

In a front-line trial of older patients with newly diagnosed chronic lymphocytic leukemia, obinutuzumab topped rituximab, demonstrating improvements in response rate and progression-free survival, according to results presented at the ASH annual meeting.

As part of our coverage for the 2013 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, we discuss some of the research that will be highlighted during this year’s meeting.

A combination of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and arsenic trioxide resulted in outcomes “at least not inferior” to those achieved when ATRA was used in combination with idarubicin chemotherapy in newly diagnosed patients with non–high-risk, acute promyelocytic leukemia.

Preliminary findings presented at ASH suggest a “favorable emerging clinical profile” for once weekly administration of MLN9708 in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

The combination of rituximab and the novel immunotherapy pidilizumab (CT-011) is both active and well tolerated in follicular lymphoma patients according to results of a phase II trial presented at ASH.

ARRY-520, a novel selective kinesin spindle protein (KSP) inhibitor showed promising clinical activity both alone and combined with low-dose dexamethasone in a phase II clinical trial in patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.

The targeted agent ibrutinib has shown a high response rate in both treatment-naive and previously treated, relapsed, refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients older than 65.

Relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients have shown durable responses of almost 2 years to a novel T-cell engineering technique developed at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Updated findings from the pivotal phase II PACE trial show sustained benefit of the investigational BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor ponatinib in heavily pretreated patients with resistant or intolerant chronic myeloid leukemia or Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Data from an on-going early stage phase I/II trial of daratumumab in multiple myeloma continues to show promising activity. The dose-escalation study has shown that higher doses of daratumumab alone can reduce both bone marrow plasma cells as well as paraprotein.

Today we speak with Steven T. Rosen, MD, about a couple of the projects he and his group are working on, repurposing old drugs for the treatment of multiple myeloma, that will be presented this year at ASH.

Final results of a cohort from a phase II monotherapy trial of quizartinib in acute myeloid leukemia patients showed that more than half of patients 60 years of age and older who harbored an internal tandem duplication in the FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 had a composite complete remission.

Results of the phase III SWOG S0016 trial comparing 2 chemotherapy regimens for follicular lymphoma (FL), presented this week at ASH, show no statistically significant differences in either progression-free survival (PFS) or overall survival. Both regimens produced “excellent” results, according to the presenter.

The phase III randomized RESORT (ECOG Protocol E4402) trial asked whether a maintenance schedule of rituximab every 3 months would lead to a superior disease control outcome compared to retreatment upon progression. The answer, presented this week at ASH, is no.

Updated findings from a multicenter phase Ib/II clinical trial suggest that the novel Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor PCI-32765 may be an important new targeted treatment approach for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Researchers presented a late-breaking abstract reporting activity in a metastatic lymphoma mouse model of two monoclonal antibodies combined with CpG, a short synthetic oligonucleotide agonist of TLR9, that mimic bacterial and viral DNA and facilitates a pro-inflammatory immune response.

Romiplostim, a synthetic protein that binds to and stimulates the thrombopoietin receptor, induced a rapid platelet response in adult patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) and maintained a consistent safety profile in an international phase III trial.

The first plenary session at this year’s ASH was kicked off by the presentation of a study that showed that when stem cells come from donors unrelated to the patient there is no difference in patient survival between the use of cells sourced from peripheral blood or bone marrow.

The phase III trial comparing the use of gemtuzumab ozogamicin combined with chemotherapy to chemotherapy alone in newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients provides evidence that the combination treatment may be promising in this patient population.

Obinutuzumab (GA101) achieved higher response rates than rituximab in the first head-to-head trial of the two biologic agents in patients with relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma.