ASH: American Society of Hematology

Results presented during the 64th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition could offer an effective option for those with relapsed or refractory DLBCL, even as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy becomes standard of care for many patients.

Health care providers must acknowledge unconscious bias and watch for it to make sure treatments are given equitably, said Mary Cushman, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Vermont, director of the thrombosis and hemostasis program at the University of Vermont Medical Center.

The longer follow-up in the primary analysis of TRANSFORM provides confidence in the durability of patient responses to lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel), said Jeremy Abramson, MD, director of the lymphoma program, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.

Ajai Chari, MD, professor of medicine, director of clinical research, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, explains the mechanism of action of talquetamab and what method of delivery patients may prefer.

Results from the ALPINE trial were presented Tuesday at a late-breaking session of the 64th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, held in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Consolidation therapy with blinatumomab significantly improves overall survival (OS) in adult patients newly diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) who had no measurable residual disease (MRD negative) following initial treatment.

Third-line ponatinib is the optimal treatment option for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase (CML-CP) without T3151 mutation, said Elias Jabbour, MD, professor of medicine, Department of Leukemia, MD Anderson Cancer Center.

About 10% of patients with blood cancer, especially those with B-cell lymphomas, who did not make anti-spike antibodies after vaccination experienced breakthrough COVID-19 infection, said Lee Greenberger, PhD, chief scientific officer, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Nicole Gormley, MD, acting director of the Division of Hematology Products at FDA, explained that the agency wants to maintain momentum gained during the pandemic that moved clinical trials beyond the walls of academic centers.

Results of a phase 3 study presented Sunday found efgartigimod allowed a third of patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) to quickly achieve platelet levels that signal an ability to avoid sudden bleeding events.

Federico Stella, MD, University of Milan, explains why it was important to challenge the idea that the low-microbial protective diet is more beneficial than a nonrestrictive diet in patients with neutropenia.

Results from a phase 3 study of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are being presented at the 64th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Results for talquetamab presented at the 64th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition showed that about 70% of patients with multiple myeloma had responses.

Building equitable clinical trials means being thoughtful about trial design and criteria, said Matthew J. Maurer, DSc, statistician at Mayo Clinic, director of the statistics and informatics core of the Lymphoma Epidemiology of Outcomes (LEO) cohort.

The 64th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting & Exposition will run Saturday through Tuesday in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

Emma Searle, PhD, consultant hematologist, The Christie Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, touches on key points learnt from MajesTEC-2 data and other data to look forward to at the 64th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition.

There are 2 such vaccines now in use in the United States; the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is fully approved for the first 2 doses for those 16 and older, and the Moderna vaccine has an emergency use authorization for those 18 and older.

John Burke, MD, hematologist, Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers, discussed findings of the late-breaking abstract session POLARIX presented at ASH 2021, which compared pola-R-CHP with standard-of-care R-CHOP in patients with previously untreated DLBCL.

Results presented at the 63rd Annual American Society of Hematology Meeting showed that using polatuzumab vedotin instead of vincristine in R-CHOP improved progression-free survival in patients with newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Frederick Locke, MD, vice chair, Department of Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Immunotherapy Program, co-leader, Immuno-Oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses findings of the phase 3 ZUMA-7 trial presented at ASH 2021 and how use of axicabtagene ciloleucel can be optimally applied in a real-world setting.

Sattva S. Neelapu, MD, professor and deputy department chair in the Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma in the Division of Cancer Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses findings of the ZUMA-12 study examining axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) as a first-line treatment option for high-risk patients with large B-cell lymphoma.

Two-third of those who receive a chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) diagnosis are age 65 or older, so the ease with which drugs are covered in Medicare has an outsized role in patient access to care.

Mark Wildgust, PhD, vice president, Global Medical Affairs, Oncology, Janssen, speaks on progression-free survival, complete response, and overall survival benefits observed with ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel) in CARTITUDE-1 and other studies presented at the 63rd Annual American Society of Hematology Meeting and Exposition.

Frederick L. Locke, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, is the lead study author of the phase 3 ZUMA-7 trial, which examined the use of axi-cel in second-line treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (R/R LBCL).

Lori Muffly, MD, associate professor of medicine, Blood & Marrow Transplantation, Stanford University, discusses findings of her study showing disparities in clinical trial enrollment and patient outcomes for at-risk pediatric minority populations with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Zanubrutinib produced prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) compared with a combination of bendamustine and rituximab among treatment-naïve patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small cell lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL).

Andre Goy, MD, MS, chairman and executive director of the John Theurer Cancer Center, speaks on molecular features of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and how this explains differences in patient response for chemotherapy and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy.

Constantine S. Tam, MBBS, MD, consulting hematologist and associate professor, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discusses the superior safety and progression-free survival outcomes from the SEQUOIA phase 3 trial, which compared zanubrutinib with bendamustine and rituximab combination therapy in treatment-naive chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma.

Sumit Gupta, MD, of The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, told attendees at the 63rd Annual American Society of Hematology Meeting that biological or genetic factors accounted for some of the gap in survival rates, but not all.

L. Elizabeth Budde, MD, PhD, oncologist and associate professor at City of Hope, discusses the use of mosunetuzumab in patients with relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma (R/R FL) who have received 2 or more prior lines of therapy and addresses potential cost-related implications of the drug compared with CAR T-cell therapy.