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Jeffrey Wong – What does a Pharmacy Techinician do at NSHOA? brought to you by The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) and The COA Patient Advocacy Network (CPAN)

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Ola Landgren (Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY) discusses the final results from the NCI phase II pilot study of carfilzomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone in 12 patients with high-risk smouldering multiple myeloma. He assesses the risks and benefits of this therapeutic approach in clinical practice.

Irene Trelfa Clinical Trial Participant: Breast Cancer I feel lucky to be a patient at NSHOA brought to you by The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) and The COA Patient Advocacy Network (CPAN)

Lynn Fitzpatrick – Nurse Educator North Shore Hematology Oncology brought to you by The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) and The COA Patient Advocacy Network (CPAN)         north shore hematology oncology, the community oncology alliance (coa), coa, the coa patient advocacy network (cpan), cpan

Humberto Castro – Given Six Months to Live Now Tells Others Not to Give Up brought to you by The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) and The COA Patient Advocacy Network (CPAN)

Diana Youngs – Everyone the Patient Meets in Community Oncology has Compassion for Patients brought to you by The Community Oncology Alliance (COA) and The COA Patient Advocacy Network (CPAN)

Prof Paul Richardson (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA) summarises of results of clinical trials in the management of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma presented at the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting. Investigational agents discussed include: proteasome inhibitor, carfilzomib; anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody, daratumumab: anti-SLAMF7 monoclonal antibody, elotuzumab; histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, panobinostat; HDAC6 inhibitor, ricolinostat; immunomodulatory agent, pomalidomide.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Maria-Victoria Mateos discusses an open-label, multicentre, phase Ib study of the safety, tolerability and dose regimen of the anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody, daratumumab, in combination with backbone regimens in patients with multiple myeloma. Backbone regimens include bortezomib-dexamethasone, bortezomib-thalidomide-dexamethasone, bortezomib-melphalan-prednisone and pomalidomide-dexamethasone.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Jeffery Matous ((Colorado Blood Cancer Institute, Denver, CO) discusses the randomised, open-label, multicentre phase III ASPIRE study of carfilzomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone versus lenalidomide and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed multiple myeloma.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Jeffery Matous (Colorado Blood Cancer Institute, Denver, CO) discusses combination approaches and novel monoclonal antibodies in multiple myeloma. The phase I MM-008 study is assessing the pharmacokinetics and safety of pomalidomide and low-dose dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and renal impairment.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Jeffery Matous (Colorado Blood Cancer Institute, Denver, CO) discusses results of recent clinical studies of brentuximab vedotin (BV) in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). The phase III AETHERA trial is a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of BV in the treatment of patients at risk of progression following autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) for HL. A single-arm, two-stage, open-label, phase I/II study is evaluating the safety and efficacy of BV in combination with bendamustine for the treatment of HL in first relapse or refractory patients, prior to ASCT.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Prof Gareth Morgan (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR; The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK) discusses high-throughput genetic profiling with an all-molecular diagnostic test for recurrent structural aberrations in multiple myeloma. It is hoped this approach will enable molecular risk-stratified clinical trial design and risk-adapted precision medicine for high-risk patients.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Maria-Victoria Mateos provides an update of a randomised, phase III study, which was initiated in 2007, of lenalidomide plus low-dose dexamethasone versus observation in high-risk smouldering multiple myeloma.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Jean-Jacques Kiladjian (Hôpital Saint-Louis & Université Paris Diderot, Paris, France) discusses a post-hoc analysis of the phase III RESPONSE trial, which compared ruxolitinib and best available therapy in patients with polycythaemia vera and splenomegaly who were intolerant of or resistant to hydroxyurea, to determine if treatment outcomes were influenced by baseline spleen volume.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Barbara Eichhorst (University Hospital, Cologne, Germany) discusses the BCL-2 inhibitor, ABT-199, which has shown high efficacy as monotherapy in high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) patients. Dose-scheduling modifications address the risk of tumour lysis syndrome. Prospective trials will evaluate ABT-199 in a wider range of CLL patients.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Jean-Jacques Kiladjian (Hôpital Saint-Louis & Université Paris Diderot, Paris, France) discusses using a next-generation sequencing approach to assess the mutational patterns of prognostically-relevant mutations (previously identified in myeloproliferative neoplasms) in calreticulin gene-mutated essential thrombocythaemia (ET) patients during interferon alpha (IFN-?) therapy.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Barbara Eichhorst (University Hospital, Cologne, Germany) discusses the final analysis of the international, randomised, phase III CLL10 study. Frontline chemoimmunotherapy with fludarabine, cyclophosphamide and rituximab (FCR) has superior efficacy (higher complete response rates, more minimal residual disease [MRD] negativity, longer progression-free survival) versus bendamustine and rituximab in previously untreated and physically fit patients with advanced chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

At the Thirteenth International Kidney Cancer Symposium, Dr Sumanta Pal (City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, CA) discusses papillary renal cell carcinoma (pRCC) and a phase 2 clinical trial on the MET inhibitor, volitinib, in patients with pRCC. Although pRCC comprises 1015% of renal cell carcinoma, current understanding and management of this disease is relatively limited. Inappropriate MET activation in cancer cells may be important in pRCC progression. Volitinib is a novel, selective and potent MET inhibitor. Preliminary clinical trials on volitinib in pRCC are promising. This new phase 2 trial aims to further evaluate the efficacy and safety of…

At ESMO 2014, Prof Tom Powles (Barts Cancer Institute, UK) discusses strategies in the management of kidney cancer. Recent clinical trials have increased interest in immunotherapy for kidney cancer. Results from a phase II study investigating the tyrosine kinase inhibitor, cediranib, in VEGF-resistant metastatic kidney cancer suggests a need for improved biomarkers, but developing clinically relevant biomarkers is challenging. Knowledge in the treatment of common kidney cancer subtypes have been applied in the rare papillary renal cell carcinoma subtype.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr David Avigan (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA) discusses recent investigational advances in the management of multiple myeloma. Novel biological therapies, including proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs, have improved patient outcomes, but disease progression remains an issue. An integration of existing approaches, including autologous stem cell transplantation, with newer approaches is recommended. Highlight presentations include topics in anti-CS1 humanized monoclonal antibody, elotuzumab, anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody, daratumumab, PD1-pathway inhibition, tumour vaccines and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapy.

Prof Claire Harrison (Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK) discusses highlights on myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) from the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting. A molecular-based approach in MPN studies, which has improved understanding of driver mutations, has rapidly increased recent advances in clinical management. Combinational therapies are in preliminary stages and focus is on the Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor, ruxolitinib, in combinations that enhance overall patient response. Long-term studies, such as the Evaluation of Xagrid Efficacy and Long-term Safety (EXELS) study, are providing insight in high-risk patients with essential thrombocythemia (ET). Quality of life in…

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Denis-Claude Roy (University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada) discusses a phase II trial that evaluated selective photodepletion of recipient-alloreactive T-cells (ATIR) for haploidentical haematopoietic stem cell transplant in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). ATIR does not cause any grade III/IV graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and demonstrates promising treatment-related mortality and overall survival rates.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Prof Keith Stewart (Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ) discusses recent advances in the treatment of multiple myeloma. The phase III ASPIRE study showed that adding the proteasome inhibitor, carfilzomib, to the standard doublet therapy of lenalidomide and dexamethasone resulted in a higher progression-free survival for relapsed multiple myeloma patients. CD38 represents a promising target for monoclonal antibody-based immunotherapy. Novel anti-CD38 monoclonal antibodies, daratumumab and SAR650984, are undergoing clinical investigation.

Stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes(S-TILs): In the alliance N9831 trial S-TILs are associated with chemotherapy benefit but not associated with trastuzumab benefit

SABCS 2014: ECOG 1199 Trial Commentary by Dr. Sunil Verma: Ten year update of E1199: Phase III study of doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel or docetaxel given every 3 weeks or weekly in patients with axillary node-positive or high-risk node-negative breast cancer

SABCS 2014: TNT Trial Commentary by Dr. Sunil Verma: A randomized phase III trial of carboplatin (C) compared with docetaxel (D) for patients with metastatic or recurrent locally advanced triple negative or BRCA1/2 breast cancer (CRUK/07/012)

SABCS 2014: SOFT Trial Commentary by Dr. Sunil Verma: Randomized comparison of adjuvant tamoxifen (T) plus ovarian function suppression (OFS) versus tamoxifen in premenopausal women with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) early breast cancer (BC): Analysis of the SOFT trial

The FERGI phase II study of the PI3K inhibitor pictilisib (GDC-0941) plus fulvestrant vs fulvestrant plus placebo in patients with ER+, aromatase inhibitor (AI)-resistant advanced or metastatic breast cancer Part I results, presented by Dr. Verma

A randomized phase III trial comparing neoadjuvant chemotherapy with weekly nanoparticle-based paclitaxel with solventbased paclitaxel followed by anthracyline/ cyclophosphamide for patients with early breast cancer presented by Dr. Sunil Verma

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Catherine Bollard (Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC), Dr Philippe Armand (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA), Dr Craig Moskowitz (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY), Dr Nicola Gökbuget (University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany) and Dr Stephan Grupp (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA) answer questions from the press.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Stephan Grupp (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA) presents the results of a study that suggests chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells targeting CD19 (CTL019) can elicit durable remissions in paediatric relapsed or refractory acute lymphocytic leukaemia.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Joseph Alvarnas (City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA) presents data from the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN 0803)/AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC-071) trial, which prospectively evaluated overall survival after autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with chemotherapy-sensitive, relapsed or refractory HIV-associated lymphoma, including diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, plasmablastic lymphoma, Burkitt/Burkitt-like lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Craig Moskowitz (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY) presents results from the phase III AETHERA trial, which evaluated the safety and efficacy of brentuximab vedotin in preventing post-autologous stem cell transplant disease recurrence in Hodgkin lymphoma patients.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr David Steensma (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA), Dr Brent Wood (University of Washington, Seattle, WA), Prof Wendy Stock (University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, IL), Dr Christoph Röllig (Universitätsklinikum Dresden, Dresden, Germany), Dr Oliver Ottmann (Goethe-University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany), Dr Eytan Stein (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY) and Prof Farhad Ravandi (The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX) answer questions from the press.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Prof Farhad Ravandi (The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX) discusses the phase III double-blind randomized controlled multinational VALOR study, which evaluated vosaroxin plus cytarabine versus placebo plus cytarabine in patients with first-relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Eytan Stein (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY) discusses a phase I study of AG-221, an oral, selective, first-in-class, potent inhibitor of the IDH2 mutant metabolic enzyme, in IDH2-mutant acute myeloid leukaemia or pre-leukeamia (including myelodysplastic syndromes, chronic myelomonocytic leukeamia, and myeloproliferative neoplasms).

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Oliver Ottmann (Goethe-University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany) discusses a Trial of the European Working Group for Adult ALL (EWALL-PH-02), which evaluated nilotinib and chemotherapy for first-line treatment in elderly patients with de novo Philadelphia chromosome/BCR-ABL1-positive acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Christoph Röllig (Universitätsklinikum Dresden, Dresden, Germany) discusses the phase II Study Alliance Leukemia (SAL)-Soraml trial, which evaluated sorafenib versus placebo in addition to standard therapy in younger patients (1860 years old) with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukaemia.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Prof Wendy Stock (University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, IL) discusses the intergroup trial C10403, which showed that adolescent and young adult patients (1639 years old) with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) had better overall and event-free survival with paediatric regimens compared to historical controls.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Brent Wood (University of Washington, Seattle, WA) discusses the phase III Children’s Oncology Group (COG) study AALL0434, which evaluated a standard 4-drug induction followed by response-based risk stratification, as determined by measured levels of minimal residual disease (MRD), in patients with T-lymphocytic leukaemia. Intermediate and high-risk patients were randomised to receive or not receive additional nelarabine chemotherapy and all patients except those who were low-risk received additional radiation therapy.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Nicola Gökbuget (University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany) presents the results of the single-arm phase II study that evaluated the Bispecific T-Cell Engager (BiTE) antibody construct (anti-CD19) blinatumomab in patients with minimal residual disease B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Craig Moskowitz (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY) discusses the preliminary results of a phase Ib study evaluating the PD-1 inhibitor, pembrolizumab, in patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma after brentuximab vedotin failure.

At the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Brad Kahl (University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison, WI), Dr Craig Moskowitz (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY), Dr Joseph Alvarnas (City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA), Prof Keith Stewart (Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ), Dr María-Victoria Mateos (Hospital Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain) and Prof Thomas Martin (University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA) answer questions from the press.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr Philippe Armand (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA) discusses the results of a phase I study evaluating the preliminary efficacy and safety of programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor, nivolumab, in patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Prof Thomas Martin (University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA) discusses a phase Ib dose escalation trial of SAR650984 (anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody) in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Dr María-Victoria Mateos (Hospital Universitario de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain) discusses the open-label, multicentre, phase 1b study of daratumumab in combination with standard regimens in patients with multiple myeloma. Standard regimens included bortezomib-dexamethasone, bortezomib-thalidomide-dexamethasone, bortezomib-melphalan-prednisone and pomalidomide-dexamethasone.

At a press conference during the 2014 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting, Prof Keith Stewart (Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ) discusses the randomised, open-label, multicentre phase III ASPIRE study. The results of this study suggest carfilzomib combined with standard multiple myeloma therapy (combination of lenalidomide and dexamethasone) improves treatment responses in patients with relapsed or treatment-resistant multiple myeloma.

Dr Hans Hammers (Johns Hopkins, MD) discusses highlights from the Thirteenth International Kidney Cancer Symposium. Immunotherapies have received significant interest: immune checkpoint inhibitors have the potential to durably control disease. Although significant progress has been made in the clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) subtype, research in therapies for non-clear cell RCC (nccRCC) has been relatively neglected.

At the Thirteenth International Kidney Cancer Symposium, Dr James Brugarolas (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX) discusses the clinical significance of biologically classifying kidney cancer. Advances in genome sequencing methods allowed the identification of a range of mutations in kidney cancer and accordingly, mutation-defined subtypes. Some mutation-defined subtypes are associated with distinct clinical outcomes and therefore support the use of a molecular classification for treatment decisions. This molecular information may also improve clinical trial design through identification of patients who are more likely to benefit from investigational agents.

At the Thirteenth International Kidney Cancer Symposium, Dr James Hsieh (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, NY) discusses the progress in cancer understanding that has improved clinical management. Advances in technologies, including next-generation sequencing methods, have revolutionised research and clinical approaches.