January 2017

At the 58th annual meeting of the 58th American Society of Hematology, representatives from 2 national clinical trials, Beat AML and NCI-MATCH, detailed how they were incorporating genomic profiling to assign patients to different treatment arms.

A poster presented at the 58th Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Society of Hematology compared the utilization patterns and associated costs for recently approved and older drugs in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma in the United States.

Disease status, MUD/MRD donor, myeloablative conditioning regimen, GVHD prophylaxis other than tacrolimus/sirolimus, and Medicare and/or Medicaid as payer are significant predictors for cost of care in patient with acute leukemia who undergo allogenic hematopoietic cell transplant (AHCT).

Patients diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who relapsed following first-line treatment had higher rates of healthcare utilization and greater costs than the patients who had not relapsed.

Initiated by the American Board of Internal Medicine, Choosing Wisely® is a campaign that has seen participation by a number of different national medical organizations to promote conversations between clinicians and patients to ensure adequate, evidence-based care.

At the 2016 annual meeting, the American Society of Hematology introduced the “Choosing Wisely Champions” to recognize the efforts of practitioners who are working to eliminate costly and potentially harmful overuse of tests and procedures.

During the ASH Practice Partnership lunch, Joseph Alvarnas, MD, from the City of Hope, and editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Oncologyâ„¢ moderated a panel discussion on the impact of including nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and clinical nurse specialists into hematology care.

The Special Symposium on Quality looked at how health information technology (IT) can be utilized to improve healthcare quality, enhance patient—provider shared decision making, and facilitate efforts in quality research.

A joint session hosted by the American Society of Hematology and the European Hematology Association provided an update on the clinical progress with pluripotent stem cells.

The improved expansion of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells indicates a deeper clinical response.

Despite the complexities associated with treating older patients diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL), patients in the RESONATE-2 trial continue to present a favorable response to single-agent ibrutinib at a follow-up of 29 months.

The results showed that obinutuzumab-based immunochemotherapy and maintenance improved progression-free survival in treatment-naïve patients with follicular lymphoma.

A study in a mouse model found that mice receiving chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T immunotherapy plus ibrutinib demonstrated longer overall survival and reduced cytokine production than the mice not treated with ibrutinib.

At the 58th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition, Jan Joseph Melenhorst, PhD, presented results of a study evaluating biomarkers of response to anti-CD19 CAR T-cell treatment in patients diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Phase 3 results from the LyMa trial have shown that rituximab, after autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT), prolongs event-free survival, progression-free survival, and overall survival (OS) in previously untreated young patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) following ASCT.

Early phase 1 results show that including the cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitor palbociclib in the treatment plan of patients with mantle cell lymphoma can help overcome resistance to ibrutinib.

In high-risk patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells of defined composition can be administered with an acceptable early toxicity.