Great Advances in AML, Multiple Myeloma at ASH 2024

The American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition included the latest advances in treatments for hematologic diseases. In a series of interviews, experts discussed the latest advances in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and multiple myeloma.

The following interview includes insights from:

• Amir Ali, PharmD, BCOP, clinical pharmacist specialist at the University of Southern California
• Yi Lin, MD, PhD, hematologist and oncologist, Mayo Clinic
• Rakesh Popat, MBBS, PhD, associate professor, University College Hospital in London, United Kingdom

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Transcript

What has been the biggest takeaway in your field this year?

Ali: There have been many great advances, and when you look at ASH ’24, one of the things that stands out is the addition of the newly approved menin inhibitors for the treatment of AML. Menin inhibitors are a form of targeted therapy looking at specific mutations. One of the mutations includes a KMT2A mutation; you also see NPM1 mutations as well for these patients. So, having the ability to use these new targeted therapies for these patients is certainly a big step forward for our treatments of AML.

Lin: Well, there has been a lot of excitement in both therapy and how we consider clinical trial conduct. With the ODAC [Oncology Drug Advisory Committee) meeting and FDA approval to allow the use of MRD [minimal residual disease] negativity—that's so relevant for assessing the depths of response and prognosis for outcome—this will now be allowed to be used in the fast track designation clinical trial, so that there's a potential to move promising therapies to access earlier for our patients.

And then, of course, with the evolving CAR [chimeric antigen receptor] T data, we're seeing that now CAR T is approved for earlier lines of therapy for our patients. We've seen a lot of data at ASH this year for safety and good clinical response for the use of bispecifics in real-world populations. I think these are therapies that will remain highly relevant as they're being studied, even in the frontline setting for patients with myeloma, and demonstrating how these our practices can learn to use this for a broader patient population.

I think it’s a very exciting time. There's a lot of things to learn still, but we're seeing that these things are getting into practice, and we are working very hard together to continue to expand the access of that for our patient.

Popat: Multiple myeloma is a huge area for innovation. One of the big areas which I'm super excited about is the area of smoldering multiple myeloma. Up until now, we've been observing these patients, but there's been strong data suggesting that we should start to intervene in patients with high-risk moderate myeloma. We have a phase 3 trial looking at daratumumab monotherapy, but we're also having innovative studies looking at bispecific T-cell engagers and indeed, CAR T-cell therapy for this area. So, I think that's an area to watch and to look and to get involved with.