ASCO 2015 Highlights

San Diego, CA—Longer-term follow-up of 2 large pivotal clinical trials in B-cell malignancies has demonstrated continuing remissions after chimeric antigen ­receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy: the ELIANA study in pediatric patients and young adults with relapsed or refractory B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) and the JULIET study in adult patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Both updates were presented at a press conference at ASH 2018.

San Diego, CA—Zanubrutinib, a highly specific and irreversible next-generation Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, exhibited excellent activity in a single-arm, open-label multicenter phase 2 clinical trial of patients with relapsed or refractory mantle-cell lymphoma (MCL). Early study results were reported at ASH 2018.

San Diego, CA—The BCL2 Gly101Val mutation is the first genomic alteration to be identified as responsible for resistance to venetoclax (Venclexta), a potent and effective medication indicated for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The BCL2 Gly101Val mutation is unique to CLL and so far has not been described in other cancers.

San Diego, CA—More than 40% of older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) associated with an IDH2 mutation achieved complete remission when treated with the IDH2 inhibitor enasidenib (Idhifa), according to results of a mutation-driven clinical trial substudy presented at ASH 2018.

San Diego, CA—Front-line ibrutinib (Imbruvica) therapy results in a lower rate of disease progression or death than the current standard-of-care chemoimmunotherapy with bendamustine (Ben­deka) and rituximab (Rituxan) in older patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Adding rituximab to ibrutinib did not improve outcomes compared with ibrutinib alone, reported Jennifer A. Woyach, MD, Associate Professor, Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, at ASH 2018.

San Diego, CA—In a first-in-human study of a novel bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE), AMG 420, when administered at a daily dose of 400 mcg, this novel drug induced responses in 7 of 10 patients with heavily pretreated multiple myeloma in a phase 1 clinical trial, according to results presented at ASH 2018.

San Diego, CA—Selinexor has shown promising activity in very heavily pretreated patients with penta-refractory multiple myeloma. In the pivotal STORM Part 2 study, oral selinexor in combination with low-dose dexamethasone induced responses in 26.2% of patients.

San Diego, CA—Real-world data highlight the significant clinical and economic burden associated with venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with cancer. The data come from a study of 12,785 patients hospitalized with acute illnesses, of which 2002 patients had cancer. The results were presented at ASH 2018 and showed that 3.9% of patients with cancer experienced a VTE event requiring rehospitalization—the highest proportion of patients among the study population. Moreover, 28.2% of VTE-related readmissions occurred within the first 30 days of initial hospital discharge.

Patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who have not responded to available therapies, with relapsed or primary resistant disease, have a poor prognosis.

Currently, there are limited therapies to prevent or delay recurrence in advanced ovarian cancer, with approximately 70% of patients having a recurrence within 3 years. The effectiveness of olaparib, an oral poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor, in relapsed disease has been well-established; however, its benefit as a maintenance therapy in newly diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer is uncertain. In a recent study, researchers evaluated the efficacy of upfront maintenance therapy with olaparib in patients with newly diagnosed, advanced BRCA-positive ovarian cancer.