January Research Review: Promising Results in HemOnc Clinical Trials

This episode is Research Review, a quarterly review of the research you may have missed. Today, we are covering the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting highlights. First Up, results from the ECOG-ACRIN E1910 Randomized Phase III clinical trial showed that blinatumomab improved overall survival in newly diagnosed adult patients with b-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia. First author of this new research, Mark Litzow, MD, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, talked with journalist Peter Goodwin at the ASH Annual Meeting. They discussed the use of blinatumomab in patients whose initial therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia had achieved minimum residual disease—MRD (Abstract LBA-1). Next, researchers explored the potential of using genomic DNA and RNA profiles in a machine-learning algorithm to predict which patients with acute myeloid leukemia or advanced myelodysplastic syndrome will respond to venetoclax-based therapy (Abstract 2789). Maher Albitar, MD, discussed the findings. Moving on, the downside of curative therapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma was under discussion at ASH. The conference heard about “epigenetic age” and neurocognitive function in young adults previously treated for Hodgkin's disease. OncTimes Talk correspondent Peter Goodwin asked first author of a report on this, Annalynn M. Williams, PhD, from the University of Rochester, in New York, about the impact of standard treatments on the subsequent lives of children (Abstract 902). Finally, we interviewed James McCloskey, MD, from the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, about the results of the V-Mast study showing the value of combining CPX-351 with midostaurin for high-risk acute myeloid leukemia. In this Phase III study in older adults with newly diagnosed, high-risk/secondary AML, CPX-351 significantly improved overall survival and remission rates versus conventional 7+3 chemotherapy, with a comparable safety profile (Abstract 1436).