VJHemOnc Podcast

The armamentarium of therapeutic modalities in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has taken several strides in the last few years as a result of a greater understanding of the genomic landscape disease as well as how resistance to conventional therapies can develop.

At the virtual 62nd American Society of Hematology 2020 Annual Meeting and Exposition (ASH 2020), we spoke with key opinion leaders in AML who shared the novel classes of drugs currently investigated in this disease area, which provide the field new opportunities for effective combination strategies.

In this podcast, Marina Konopleva, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, David Sallman, of Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL, and Naval Daver, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discuss some of the latest updates in AML presented at this year’s virtual American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting.

The post Latest therapies in AML: IMGN632, magrolimab & gilteritinib appeared first on VJHemOnc.

The 3rd European CAR T-cell Meeting, organized by the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), and the European Haematology Association (EHA), and shed light on the current and future indications of CAR T-cell therapies in hematological oncology. The nursing program highlighted key questions in the management of patients treated with cellular therapies including communication within multidisciplinary teams, the use of immune effector cells in solid tumors, the importance of treatment settings as well as survivorship considerations following CAR T-cell therapy.

In this roundtable discussion, Erik Aerts of the Hematology Nurses and Healthcare Professionals Group, Winterthur, Switzerland, leads an exciting discussion on key learnings and takeaways from the 3rd European CAR T-cell Meeting and is joined by John Murray, of the Christie Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK, Michelle Kenyon, of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK, and Rose Ellard, of the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.

The post VJSession: EBMT/EHA CAR-T Nursing Session appeared first on VJHemOnc.

Over the last decades, a deeper understanding of multiple myeloma’s complex pathobiology has transformed the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment paradigm, resulting in significant improvements in patient outcomes. Despite advances in treatment and outcomes, multiple myeloma is still considered an incurable disease. The management of newly diagnosed transplant-eligible patients and treatment approaches for relapsed/refractory myeloma remain hotly debated topics among the experts. The development of targeted and immune agents represents an important therapeutic strategy that can potentially translate into myeloma’s eventual cure.

In this exclusive podcast, María-Victoria Mateos, MD, PhD, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain, Thomas Martin, MD, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, CA, and Nina Shah, MD, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, discuss the critical data presented at the ASH 2020 virtual Annual Meeting and how they might influence the treatment paradigm in myeloma.

The post The Myeloma Sessions: key updates from ASH 2020 appeared first on VJHemOnc.

Mechanistically, myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), comprising primary myelofibrosis (MF), polycythemia vera (PV) and essential thrombocythemia (ET), were a mystery for many decades. The breakthrough discovery of near-universal upregulation of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway as the driving force in MPNs triggered a wave of research that has drastically improved our understanding, and consequently broadened treatment options. Developing targeted therapies, particularly in settings of unmet need such as early-stage disease and second-line options, is an extensive area of investigation, with many novel classes in trials.

The annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) consistently highlights biological and clinical updates in the MPNs field. The virtual 2020 ASH meeting was no exception, with emphases on significant genomic advances and emerging therapies.

In this latest exclusive, MPNs Session, we welcome Ruben Mesa, MD, UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, San Antonio, TX; Claire Harrison, MD, FRCP, FRCPath, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK; Srdan Verstovsek, MD, PhD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX; and Naveen Pemmaraju, MD, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX. Our leading experts debate key updates in the treatment and management of MPNs following the ASH 2020 virtual meeting. In particular, they explore clonal evolution discoveries, as well as promising therapeutic strategies for PV, MF, ET and rarer MPNs.

The post The MPN Sessions: Rapidly advancing genomic discoveries and treatment strategies in MPNs appeared first on VJHemOnc.

During the 62nd American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2020 Annual Meeting and Exposition, several abstracts provided important updates for the management of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), including clinical trial data for emerging therapeutic options for MDS.

In this podcast, we hear from three leading experts in MDS, who discuss the key updates presented at this year’s virtual ASH Annual Meeting. Uwe Platzbecker, MD, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, shares the results from the ongoing Phase II IMerge trial of imetelstat for transfusion-dependent patients with lower-risk MDS. We are also joined by Jacqueline Garcia, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, who discusses the results of a Phase Ib study evaluating venetoclax in combination with azacitidine for patients with higher-risk MDS requiring treatment and not immediately undergoing transplantation at the time the study started. Additionally, Daniel DeAngelo, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, outlines the results of a Phase I trial investigating whether decitabine, a hypomethylating agent, increased the efficacy of CTLA-4 blockade with ipilimumab in patients with relapsed/refractory MDS or acute myeloid leukemia with or without prior allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

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