Articles related to LEUKEMIA

Pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) is the most common malignancy seen in children and adolescents and young adults (AYAs). This article highlights two recent studies that provide novel evidence of the association between obesity and increased risk of high-risk B-ALL and the effectiveness of a non-pharmacologic intervention for reducing minimal residual disease (MRD) risk.

The investigational new drug (IND) application is for GDX012, which also received an FDA orphan drug designation for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The drug’s manufacturer, GammaDelta Therapeutics, is developing the T-cell platform in partnership with Takeda and will initiate a phase I study in late 2021 that will evaluate the treatment’s safety and activity in patients with measurable residual disease-positive AML.

It’s a battle of two heavyweights in this trial report from the Journal of Clinical Oncology, sharing the results of acalabrutinib (Calquence) compared to ibrutinib (Imbruvica) in treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Selected events of clinical interest included cardiac events, atrial fibrillation, ventricular tachyarrhythmias, hypertension, bleeding and major bleeding events, infections, and second primary malignancies excluding non-melanoma skin cancers.

In this article from Blood Advances highlighted by helpful visual abstracts, two key points are discussed. First, patient-specific next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based measurable residual disease (MRD) monitoring using non-DTA mutations after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT) is independently prognostic for relapse and survival. Second, the kinetics rather than a single time point should be further evaluated when DTA mutations are used for MRD monitoring after alloHCT.

In this interview with Dr. Richard Furman, Professor of Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medicine, the importance of the CLL14 study is highlighted. In addition, Dr. Furman discusses the best use of venetoclax and whether anti-CD20 agents really add to the benefit of venetoclax treatment and whether a policy of watch and wait is still beneficial for all patients. 

In this Original Report from the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the authors conducted a phase I trial of autologous CD19 CAR T cells in children and young adults (CAYAs) with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) to discover whether the role for allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplant (alloHSCT) following CD19-CAR T-cell therapy can improve long-term outcomes.