Twenty-seven (27) children with heavily pretreated neuroblastoma (12 with refractory disease, 14 with relapsed disease, and one with a complete response at the end of first-line therapy) were enrolled in this academic, phase 1-2 clinical trial to test autologous, third-generation GD2-CAR T cells expressing the inducible caspase 9 suicide gene (GD2-CART01). The use of GD2-CART01 in the treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma was feasible and safe. Treatment-related toxic effects emerged, and the suicide gene was activated to control side effects. GD2-CART01 may have long-term antitumor activity.

Following participation in this educational activity, hematologists/oncologists, nurses, pharmacists, and other members of the interprofessional team involved in the management of DLBCL patients should be better able to:

Bispecific antibodies are molecules that are designed to engage or bind to two distinct targets, bringing two distinct cells together. The majority of those that have received regulatory approval are T-cell-engaging bispecific antibodies. Blinatumomab (Blincyto) for ALL, teclistamab (Tecvayli) for multiple myeloma, and mosunetuzumab-axgb (Lunsumio) for follicular lymphoma are some examples of FDA-approved treatments. Glofitamab, another bispecific antibody, is currently under FDA Priority Review for the treatment of R/R DLBCL. Another type of immunotherapy is chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, but bispecific antibodies provide the same spectrum of side effects with much less toxicity and are showing promise in solid tumors as well.

The authors evaluated the treatment approaches and outcomes of 110 patients with primary plasma cell leukemia (pPCL) in this retrospective study . Higher complete response rates were associated with treatment with bortezomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (VRd) or daratumumab-based quadruplets (DBQ) and autologous stem-cell transplantation. Patients who received VRd/DBQ had better outcomes than those who received other bortezomib-based combinations or standard chemotherapy.

According to the findings of this study, patients with rectal cancer who were monitored using a watch-and-wait approach had a good quality of life, with some patients reporting bowel and sexual dysfunction. When patients needed surgery, their quality of life and functional outcome deteriorated. These findings will be useful in daily practice to advise patients on what to expect from a wait-and-see approach.

The decision was based on the findings of the open-label, multi-cohort, multicenter, phase 1b/2 clinical trial EV-103/KEYNOTE-869. Patients who participated in the study and were included in the current analysis had locally advanced or metastatic disease, were ineligible for cisplatin-containing chemotherapy, and had not previously received systemic therapy. The primary efficacy outcome measures for the study were the objective response rate (ORR) and duration of response (DoR), which were determined by an independent central review using RECIST v1.1. The ORR for the 121 patients treated with the combination was 68%, with 12% having a complete response. The median DoR for dose escalation was 22 months for two cohorts but not for a third.