ASH: American Society of Hematology

Vorinostat added to standard chemotherapy before, during, and after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation reduced the cumulative incidence of graft-versus-host disease in a phase I/II trial reported at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Adrian Wiestner, MD, PhD, Investigator, Laboratory of Lymphoid Malignancies, National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, discusses the patient outcomes that clinical trials have demonstrated regarding the use of targeted kinase inhibitors for the management of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

A unique targeted therapy, quizartinib, was able to clear leukemia cells from the bone marrow in more than 33% of patients with an aggressive form of acute myeloid leukemia marked by a mutation in the FLT3 gene.

Elisabeth M. Paietta, PhD, Professor, Department of Medicine (Oncology), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, defines minimum residual disease (MRD) and discusses its clinical significance. She then describes the methodological and therapeutic challenges that face clinical MRD implementation.

An investigational, weekly, oral proteosome inhibitor called MLN9708 achieved excellent response rates when combined with lenalidomide and dexamethasone as up-front treatment of newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma, according to results of a phase II trial presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Thomas P. Loughran, Jr, MD, Professor of Medicine, Penn State University, Director, Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute, describes the clinical sequelae of large granular lymphocyte (LGL) leukemia, particularly noting neutropenia and anemia, and discusses the pharmacotherapeutic approach.

Ibrutinib, an investigational Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor, achieved excellent results in clinical trials of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) presented at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Richard T. Hoppe, MD, Professor of Radiation Oncology - Radiation Therapy, Stanford School of Medicine, discussed the current role and utility of radiation therapy in patients with early stage Hodgkins Lymphoma when compared to conventional chemotherapy.

Extended anticoagulation with fixed doses of the oral Factor Xa inhibitor apixaban significantly reduced the incidence of symptomatic recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE) or death without increasing the risk of major bleeding in patients with VTE who had already completed up to 12 months of anticoagulation.

Claire E. Dearden, MD, Consultant Hematologist, Head of CLL Clinic, Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK, highlights the pharmacotherapeutic strategies for the management of B- and T-cell PLL, noting the clinical outcomes associated with the diseases, and briefly touches on the future of PLL therapy.