Articles related to CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIA (CLL)

The FDA announced a trial hold after two participants with sickle cell disease (SCD) in the LentiGlobin gene therapy trials developed AML and MDS. According to bluebird bio, the manufacturer of LentiGlobin products, the company was unable to find any cancer cells in the patient’s bone marrow and has asked the FDA for permission to resume clinical trials.

Warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (wAIHA) is the most prevalent form of autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA), accounting for 60% to 70% of all cases. In this special instructional series from Blood (ASH), five patient case studies and commentaries are examined, backed by visual illustrations and new/existing drug treatment tables for wAIHA, wAIHA secondary to CLL, and R/R wAIHA.

In this “Clinical Trials & Observations” report/visual abstract from the pages of Blood Advances (ASH), the authors focus on two key points: 1) In patients with R/R AML, venetoclax combination therapy resulted in responses in 31% of patients and a median OS of 6.1 months, and 2) NPM1 mutations predicted higher response rates; adverse cytogenetics and mutations in TP53, KRAS/NRAS, and SF3B1 predicted worse OS.

In this Original Investigation from JAMA, the authors discuss the results of a randomized clinical trial that included 208 patients with high- and intermediate-risk first relapse of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Did postreinduction treatment with blinatumomab compared with chemotherapy, followed by hematopoietic stem cell transplant, result in a statistically significant difference in disease-free survival?

For the estimated 21,000 patients who will receive a diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), 20% of them will have early-stage disease. Unfortunately, that 20% will not be offered treatment, as the current management of these patients follows a “watch-and-wait” paradigm. However, with the advent of better prognostic tools to identify patients at high risk, in addition to the recent approval of several novel oral agents with impressive efficacy, re-examining this approach now seems prudent.

This article presents a review and commentary of selected presentations from the all-virtual 62nd American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting and Exposition, which took place in December 2020. Coverage includes safety and efficacy results in trials of acalabrutinib, venetoclax, obinutuzumab, rituximab, LOXO-305, idelalisib, bendamustine, umbralisib, ublituximab, chlorambucil, lisocabtagene maraleucel, and others.