VJHemOnc Podcast

Immunotherapies are at the forefront of myeloma treatment and there are many questions remaining. Defining high-risk is important when making treatment decisions in myeloma and including genomic data may allow for a more personalized risk strategy to be formed for each patient. Highly proliferative cells remain an important indicator of disease, and another factor to consider is the susceptibility of dormant cells to apoptosis, which can influence patient relapse. With the emergence of novel immunotherapies, it is still important to consider genomic data when identifying high-risk patients and use this information to better understand prognosis and potential mechanisms of resistance to novel agents.

In this exclusive podcast, Gareth Morgan, MD, PhD, FRCP, FRCPath of NYU Langone, New York City, NY, Francesco Maura, MD, of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Miami, FL, and Leo Rasche, MD, of the University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany, have a fascinating discussion in which they explore genomics in 2022, highlighting key topics including the impact of genomics on the success of immunotherapies, changing risk stratification, and the role of dormant cells in disease progression. This discussion took place at The International Workshop on Myeloma 2022, held in Scottsdale, AZ.

Relapsed/refractory (R/R) multiple myeloma remains an incurable hematological malignancy with an unmet clinical need.  It is necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms driving disease progression and drug resistance in order to find new therapeutic targets for this patient population. In recent years, single-cell approaches including genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic technologies have emerged as promising tools to decipher this complex disease.

In this episode chaired by Irene Ghobrial, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, Rodger Tiedemann, PhD, ChB, MB, of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON, Yael Cohen, MD, of Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel,  and Eileen Boyle, MD, PhD, of NYU Langone, New York City, NY, have a fascinating discussion on using single-cell multiomics to better understand the mechanisms of drug resistance and response to therapy, drawing focus on the impact of chromosome 1q copy number alterations on patient outcomes, as well as on signatures of drug resistance in primary refractory patients, and on how interactions between tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment can predict response to treatment. This discussion took place at The International Workshop on Myeloma 2022, held in Scottsdale, AZ.

Amyloidosis is a disease that results from the accumulation of a toxic, insoluble protein called amyloid in various tissues and organs, which eventually leads to organ failure. Amyloidosis can be acquired or hereditary, and occurs when protein misfolding turns soluble precursor proteins into insoluble fibrils. There are four main types of amyloidosis: light chain (AL) amyloidosis, AA amyloidosis, ATTR amyloidosis, and AB2M amyloidosis. Amyloidosis remains a challenging disease to diagnose and treat, although recent advances and data from clinical trials provide promising future therapeutic strategies.

In this exclusive podcast, Efstathios Kastritis, MD, University of Athens School of Medicine, Athens, Greece, Vaishali Sanchorawala, MD, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, and Maria Moscvin, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, discuss treatment approaches and clinical trial updates to bring you the latest in this field. This interview took place at the 63rd ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition Congress, Atlanta, GA, 2021.

Various forms of immunotherapy represent a novel treatment option, especially for patients who progress from conventional chemotherapy hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT). Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy consists of modified T cells from patients that target antigens specific to cancer cells. Six CAR T-cell therapies have currently been approved by the FDA, with tisagenlecleucel and brexucabtagene autoleucel approved for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL).

Tune into this podcase as Nitin Jain, MD, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, delves into the latest updates in CAR T-cell therapies for B-ALL, including exciting results from the  Phase I BALLI-01 trial (NCT04150497) of UCART22 and a Phase I/IIa trial of PBCAR0191 (NCT03666000). Dr Jain additionally presents preliminary results from a Phase I/II trial of ADCT-602 (NCT03698552), an antibody drug conjugate composed of an anti-CD22 antibody and a pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) dimer cytotoxin. This interview took place at the 63rd ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition Congress, Atlanta, GA, 2021.

With high rates of relapse in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), there is a great unmet need for novel treatments that are effective and tolerable, despite the heterogeneous nature of MDS. A recent shift in personalized medicine has resulted in a number of clinical trials investigating the combination of hypomethylating agents with novel therapies which likely have a significant impact on the standard of care in MDS. For patients who fail conventional chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and other immunotherapies represent promising therapies.

In this exclusive podcast, David Sallman, MD, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, and Andrew Brunner, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, discuss the limitations of current standards of care for MDS and explore emerging treatment targets and strategies for this condition, including drug combinations and cell therapies, especially in TP53-mutated MDS. This interview took place at the 63rd ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition Congress, Atlanta, GA, 2021.