January 2018 Annual Meeting Edition
Volume 4, Issue 2
This issue features highlights from the 2017 ASH Annual Meeting, including a look at the first anti-sickling agent for sickle cell disease, and more.
Table of Contents
January 2018 Annual Meeting Edition
Doing No Harm Versus the Right to Bear Arms
In our December 2017 issue, “Gun Violence: A Public Health Crisis,” we spoke with experts about the complexities of treating gun control as a...
January 2018 Annual Meeting Edition
Fred Hutch Names New Director of HCT, UC San Diego School of Medicine Receives...
Barbara Savoldo Receives Grant From LLS for CAR T-Cell Research
Barbara Savoldo, MD, PhD, assistant director of the Immunotherapy Program at the University of North...
January 2018 Annual Meeting Edition
FDA Grants Priority Review to Pembrolizumab for PMBCL
The FDA granted priority review to a supplemental biologics license application for the anti–PD-1 agent pembrolizumab for adult and pediatric patients with relapsed/refractory primary...
Mogamulizumab Receives Priority Review for CTCL
The FDA granted priority review to a biologics license application (BLA) for the anti-CCR4 monoclonal antibody mogamulizumab for patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL)...
WHO Report: Fake Drug Trade Is Deadly
A report from the World Health Organization (WHO) found that counterfeit or substandard drugs are a growing threat to patients, particularly in low- and...
FDA Accepts Application for Frontline Daratumumab for Myeloma
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received a supplemental biologics license application (sBLA) for daratumumab in combination with bortezomib, melphalan, and prednisone (D-VMP)...
Does Red Cell Exchange Transfusion Lower Stroke Risk in Pediatric Patients With Sickle Cell...
Although chronic transfusion therapy (CTT) reduces the risk of primary or recurrent stroke in pediatric patients with sickle cell anemia (SCA), it introduces long-term...
Combining Romidepsin and Pralatrexate in Relapsed/Refractory T-Cell Lymphoma: Are Two Drugs Better Than One?
In a phase I trial of patients with relapsed/refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL), combining romidepsin and pralatrexate – two agents approved by the U.S....
Previous Malignancy May Increase Risk of Subsequent Malignancy in Patients With Myeloma
A number of new treatments for patients with multiple myeloma (MM) have become available in recent years, enabling patients to live longer. Unfortunately, these...
January 2018 Annual Meeting Edition
Voxelotor: A New Option for Young Patients With Sickle Cell Disease?
Treatment with the hemoglobin S polymerization inhibitor voxelotor led to “a remarkable increase in hemoglobin levels” in young patients with sickle cell disease (SCD),...
Exploring a New Indication for Romiplostim: Correcting and Preventing Chemotherapy-Induced Thrombocytopenia
Many patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy will experience chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia (CIT), which can lead to dose delays or reductions. In an open-label, phase II...
Myeloma: The Next Frontier for CAR T-Cell Therapy
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies have shown great success in acute lymphocytic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and the results of a study presented...
Mogamulizumab Improves Progression-Free Survival in Patients With Previously Treated Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma
Treatment with mogamulizumab improved progression-free survival (PFS), compared with vorinostat in patients with previously treated cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), according to results from a...
“Intra-Bone” Gene Therapy Reduced Transfusion Need in Patients With Beta-Thalassemia
Gene therapy could represent an alternative to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) – the only curative therapy for beta-thalassemia – and may offer several...
Two Versus Three Cycles of Consolidation Therapy for Patients With AML
Patients with core-binding factor acute myeloid leukemia (CBF-AML) who received only two cycles of consolidation chemotherapy experienced similar rates of relapse-free survival (RFS) and...
Catching Up With First-Time Attendees
In December 2017, we introduced you to two first-time ASH annual meeting attendees: Kelly Schoenbeck and Rahul Vedula. We checked in with them to...
Could Adding Sotatercept to Ruxolitinib Improve MPN-Associated MF and Anemia?
The JAK1 inhibitor ruxolitinib is the only therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for myelofibrosis (MF), but it often worsens anemia,...
Will Replacing Bleomycin With Brentuximab Vedotin Revolutionize Frontline Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment?
For patients with advanced-stage Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), eliminating bleomycin (and its associated risks of pulmonary toxicity) from the standard ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, dacarbazine)...
Newly Approved Drugs in ALL and NHL: How to Use Them in Practice
In 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved several therapies for the treatment of hematologic malignancies, marking the first chimeric antigen receptor...
Palliative Care Use Infrequent in Patients with Hematologic Malignancies
Use of palliative care services among patients with hematologic malignancies is “sporadic at best,” and there was no clear subgroup receiving uniform care, according...
Preliminary Results Suggest Less-Frequent Emicizumab Dosing Feasible in Patients With Hemophilia A
In November 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved once-weekly dosing of the recombinant bispecific monoclonal antibody emicizumab for patients with hemophilia...