Clinical

In research presented at the 61st American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, Abby Statler, PhD, MPH, MA, research associate, Cleveland Clinic, and her colleagues found that African Americans with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) may be excluded from clinical trials due to renal dysfunction, despite it having no impact on AML outcomes.

So far, minimal residual disease (MRD) has not been used much outside of clinical trials, but researchers are testing how it might be used to guide decisions in clinical practice, said Lindsey Roeker, MD, clinical fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

The next era in treating mantle cell lymphoma will use precision medicine to target therapies in a personalized way, said Michael Wang, MD, professor in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at MD Anderson.

The terminology for smoldering myeloma has been around for decades, but more discussion over what it means and who it really applies to is needed, said C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and chief of the Myeloma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer.

The introduction of novel agents has really revolutionized the care of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia to the point where chemotherapy is rarely used, said Lindsey Roeker, MD, clinical fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

One of the challenges with treating children with acute myeloid leukemia is that many of the novel drugs are not available in children. Current treatment with chemotherapy really requires balancing increasing doses with the short-term and long-term toxicities, said Sarah Tasian, MD, attending physician in the Division of Oncology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

To avoid the toxicities associated with use of chemotherapy, there has been progress in developing and utilizing chemotherapy-free therapies to treat mantle cell lymphoma, said Michael Wang, MD, professor in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at MD Anderson.

Although the pembrolizumab 8 arm of I-SPY2 did not have strong enough results to continue onto phase 3, it does provide some insights and highlights the need for precision medicine to tailor approaches to treatment, said Rita Nanda, MD, associate professor, medicine, The University of Chicago Medicine.

There are new technologies that allow for genetic counseling services through which the provider does not even need to get that involved in the process, said Banu Arun, MD, medical oncologist, Department of Breast Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Listening to patient concerns and issues and communicating with them can really help providers keep patients with breast cancer adherent to their hormonal therapies, said Erica Mayer, MD, MPH, assistant professor, medicine, Harvard Medical School.

Rita Nanda, MD, associate professor, medicine, The University of Chicago Medicine, outlines the design of the I-SPY2 clinical trial and what the results have been so far.

Ensuring that prognostic or predictive tests to help make decisions regarding radiation therapy are accurate and clinically validated remains a challenge, said Corey Speers, MD, PhD, assistant professor, radiation oncology, University of Michigan.

More than 7 months after Scott Gottlieb, MD, resigned from his position as FDA commissioner, the Senate confirmed Stephen Hahn, MD, FASTRO, to be the next head of the agency.

The bar for who should get genetic testing for breast cancer keeps getting lowered, and oncologists have to keep informed about which results should trigger a referral for germline testing, said Nadine Tung, MD, director, Cancer Risk and Prevention Program, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and associate professor, medicine, Harvard Medical School.