Author: Editor

Nathan Pennell, MD of Cleveland Clinic discusses his experience with Nivolumab and Pembrolizumab in the second line therapy of your NSCLC patients

Omid Hamid, MD of the Angeles Clinic discusses the phase III NEMO trial and the novel MEK inhibitor Binimetinib

Petros Grivas, MD of Cleveland Clinic discusses the efficacy of Atezolizumab within cohort 2 of IMvigor210

Arjun V. Balar, MD of NYU Langone Medical Center discusses the percentage of patient with urothelial cancer that are cisplatin ineligible

Dr. Fadi Braiteh, MD of Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada describers the differences in Squamous Cell Carcinomas versus the Non-Squamous Cancers when using Atezolizumab

Dr. Ramaswamy Govindan, MD of the Washington University Medical School gives an update on BRAF in NSCLC from ASCO 2016

Dr. Heather Wakelee, MD of the Stanford School of Medicine outlines the best way to test newly diagnosed NSCLC in the community setting

Jeffrey Jones, MD, MPH from the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH discussing the characteristics and mode of action of Ibrutinib. Ibrutinib targets the B-cell receptor signalling pathway, specifically inhibiting the Brutons tyrosine kinase (BTK). BTK is mutated in patients with X-linked agammaglobulinemia and consequently born without mature B-cells. From this knowledge it was hypothesised that pharmacological inhibition of BTK could eradicate abnormally functioning B-cells, and so ibrutinib was developed. Ibrutinib is orally bioavailable and only needs to be taken once a day, with a lasting effect of 24 hours. According to Dr Jones most patients see improvement in symptoms soon…

Jeffrey Jones, MD, MPH from the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH discusses the current thought on treating relapsed and refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). This is an area where one can see a tremendous revolution in CLL treatment. Treatment has moved from once being mostly chemotherapy to more specifically targeting the abnormal biology of CLL. In order to do this there needs to be a fundamental understand of CLL, specifically what drives CLL growth and survival. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark

Mohamad Mohty, MD, PhD from Saint-Antoine Hospital, Paris, France discussing treatment options for relapsed and refractory myeloma at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. Due it is current high prevalence in the research field the physician’s role is becoming harder as there is a wider choice of therapies. When choosing these therapies practitioners need to consider age, comorbidities, prior history, bone-marrow reserves, organ dysfunction, as well as disease features and manifestations. When putting these components together management and sequence of treatments becomes complex, however Prof Mohty is confident that on a case by case basis…

Giuseppe Saglio, MD from University of Turin, Turin, Italy discusses the influence of TKI therapy on the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Over the past few years it has been shown that patients can achieve a status called operational cure, where it is possible for them to stop therapy- however the number of patients holding this status is low. Dr Saglio holds hope that in the future this number will rise and mentions the potential of using a stronger TK inhibitor to increase the number of patients holding an operational cure. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016…

Antonio Palumbo, MD from the University of Turin, Turin, Italy talks about when daratumumab will be available in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone or lenalidomide and dexamethasone. Daratumumab is approved as a single agent by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA). According to Dr Palumbo, the submission for the three agent submission will be started and it should be available within 12-18 months. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Haifa Kathrin Al-Ali, MD from University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany discusses research into JAK inhibitors specifically Ruxolitinib, Pacritinib, and Momelotinib. Ruxolitinb demonstrated positive results in the COMFORT-II trials (NCT00934544), reducing splenomegaly and symptom improvement. Similar results were also seen with pacritinib. There is still no to data on momelotinib from the most recent clinical Phase III trial. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Antonio Palumbo, MD from the University of Turin, Turin, Italy discusses the place of daratumumab in the current treatment landscape of multiple myeloma (MM). According to Dr Palumbo, daratumumab will change the treatment paradigm and will be combined to bortezomib and dexamethasone or lenalidomide and dexamethasone. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Niels van de Donk, MD, PhD from the University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands discusses three trials of daratumumab in multiple myeloma (MM). First, Dr van de Donk outlines the results of the Phase III POLLUX trial of daratumumab combined with lenalidomide and dexamethasone (DRd) vs lenalidomide and dexamethasone (Rd) (NCT02076009). The trial was perfomed in the relapsed/refractory setting. There was an increase in response rate, complete response rate and further progression-free survival (PFS) was improved in the DRd vs the Rd arm. According to Dr van de Donk, this is the best triplet combination tested so far. He also discusses…

Haifa Kathrin Al-Ali, MD from University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany discusses janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. There is only one drug approved, at present, for the treatment of polycythemia vera (PV) and myelofibrosis (MF) – ruxolitinib a JAK 1/JAK 2 inhibitor. Prof Kathrin also discusses pacritinib a JAK 1 inhibitor and momelotinib a JAK 1 and JAK 2 inhibitor. Fedratinib is a JAK 2 inhibitor however developed has been halted due to safety concerns as some patients have developed Wernicke’s encephalopathy.

Josep-Maria Ribera, MD, PhD from Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain outlines the importance of blinatumomab and inotuzumab ozogamicin in treating acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Both blinatumomab and inotuzumab ozogamicin are very effective in a relapsed refractory settings. Dr Ribera believes that these agents are best used earlier in the disease, specifically in first remission, when there is still minimal residual disease (MRD) to be eliminated. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Shaji Kumar, MD from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN discusses the current research on immunotherapy in multiple myeloma (MM). The biggest advance so far is daratumumab according to Dr Kumar. Daratumumab is a monoclonal antibody targeting CD38 and its has been to shown to have high efficacy as single agent and in combination with lenalidomide and bortezomib. Elotuzumab, which targets SLAMF7, has also been shown to be active in combination with bortezomib and pomalidomide. Dr Kumar further discusses CAR T-cell therapy, which is in early clinical development and has shown efficacy in leukemia with some reports that it might also…

Josep-Maria Ribera, MD, PhD from Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain outlines his talk on minimal residual disease (MRD) and how MRD is assessed by different European groups treating adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The talk confirmed the crucial role of MRD and highlighted the importance of standardization of MRD methods. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Antonio Palumbo, MD from the University of Turin, Turin, Italy gives an overview of the results of the Phase III CASTOR trial of daratumumab with bortezomib and dexamethasone (NCT02136134). This combination reduces the risk of progression by 60% compared to the current standard of care according to Dr Palumbo. Daratumumab is a novel monoclonal antibody, which targets a specific tumor antigen for myeloma plasma cells (CD38), which leads to an increase of the response rate with a doubling of the rate of complete remission (CR) and very good partial response (VGPR). Further, five times as many patients achieve minimal residual…

Josep-Maria Ribera, MD, PhD from Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain outlines the clinical practice of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Although treatments are individualised due to the number and complexity of the diseases, there are several principles which are followed worldwide. These include the notion that chemotherapy is provided first, that adults should be considered for transplant and the minimal residual disease (MRD) is of high importance. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Shaji Kumar, MD from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN discusses venetoclax and the future of treatment of multiple myeloma (MM). Venetoclax is an inhibitor of BCL-2, which is generally highly expressed on multiple myeloma cells. According to Dr Kumar, pre-clinical studies show that venetoclax is active against myeloma cells and he further discusses the results of the Phase I trial of venetoclax as a single agent (NCT01794520) and the Phase I trial of venetoclax with bortezomib and dexamethasone (NCT01794507). Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Simon Rule, MD from Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, UK discusses current mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) news, including the novel results from clinical trials using ibrutinib and front-line allogeneic transplant. Allogeneic transplant is often not the first-line of treatment due to its toxicity. Instead, treatment for younger patients involves chemotherapy then an autologous stem cell transplant, however patients often still relapse. Prof Rule discusses his clinical trial (NCT00720447) of 25 patients undergoing an allogeneic transplant with a transplant rate of mortality of 8% and progression-free survival 3 years rate of 70%. This suggests that there may be a potential application for patients…

Valeria Santini, MD from University of Florence, Florence, Italy outlines the mode of action of hypomethylating agents – azacitidine and decitabine – in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Hypomethylating agents were derived by cytidine analogues and originally synthesized to be similar to ara-C. However it was found that these agents acted through hypomethylating DNA. This is demonstrated when looking at patients DNA who have been given azacidine, it is possible to see a decrease in methylation after single-treatment. Recent research according to Dr Santini has shown that methylation occurs throughout the DNA and not just at the promoter. Therefore…

Michael Hallek, MD from the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany discusses the debate around whether chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is curable. Prof Hallek argues that it is possible to cure CLL patients and points out that allogeneic stem cell transplants cure approximately 30-40% of patients. In terms of non-transplant therapies, there is evidence that long-term remission is achievable. Some patients who have received FCR (fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, rituximab) remain in remission after many years and can be categorized according to their IGHV mutation status, whereby IGHV-mutated patients have a good prognosis. Within the group of IGHV-mutated patients, patients with trisomy 12,…

Marek Trneny, MD, PhD from Charles University General Hospital, Prague, Czech Republic gives an overview of his talk on the unmet need for follicular lymphoma for a subgroup of patients resistant to immunotherapy. The outcome for these patients is poor with a median progression-free survival (PFS) between 6-10 months. Prof Trneny then discusses the results of the Phase III GADOLIN trial (NCT01059630), which looked at the whole spectrum of indolent lymphoma and in particular, patients resistant to ritxuimab. Patients were randomly assigned to the standard treatment of bendamustine or to an experimental arm of bendamustine plus obinutuzumab. According to Prof…

Katja Weisel, MD from University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany discusses the slowly progressing myeloma and outlines how there are clear benefits to receiving lenalidomide and dexamethasone based backbone therapy for patients who have not had success with a proteasome inhibitor based first line of treatment. Patients receiving this treatment show a sustained and durable responses with a progression-free survival of 15-19 months. Dr Weisel continues to discuss the potential of combining lenalidomide and dexamethasone with a combination treatment. For instance carfilzomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone combinations (NCT01080391). Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Valeria Santini, MD from University of Florence, Florence, Italy discusses the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). In Europe azacitidine is prescribed and is proving to be effective in prolonging survival, despite the fact that 50% of MDS patients do not respond to the drug. However these patients who show positive results with azacitidine lose this response after 6-26 months. Practitioners are now facing the issue of attending to patients who again need treatment, and consequently need to delay the progression to acute leukemia. New agents are being added to azacitidine in the hopes of increasing the duration of its efficacy,…

Simon Rule, MD from Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, UK outlines his presentation on his work with ibrutinib. Prof Rule discusses the outcome of a compilation of three trials involving the single-agent ibrutinib in 307 patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma. In these trials the response by baseline criteria, characteristics, progression free-survival (PFS) and complete survival were analyzed. It was known previously that ibrutinib has a 70% response rate, consequently instead these trials concentrated on progression-free survival and complete survival. Results showed that if ibrutinib is used at first relapse the results are hugely more significant in comparison to use in second…

Anna Schuh, MD, PhD, from the University of Oxford, discusses the importance of genomic analysis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in the clinic. According to Dr Schuh, the mutation analysis of TP53 in addition to a FISH analysis are important. She further discusses which other markers will become relevant in the future, which includes looking for subclonal TP53 mutations with next-generation sequencing (NGS) and whole genome sequencing. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH), held in Glasgow, Scotland.

Charles Craddock, CBE, FRCP, FRCPath, DPhil, from Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, UK provides an overview of his talk on allogeneic stem cell transplantation in eldery patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) held at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH) in Glasgow, Scotland. According to Prof Craddock, the focus was on the recent finding that reduced intensity transplants improve overall survival (OS) and the importance of patient co-morbidities. A substantial number of patients over the age 60 are at risk of relapse if they are treated with chemotherapy alone, according…

Gail Roboz, MD from Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY outlines the limited progress in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) research over the past decades. Standard care is still conventional chemotherapy or lower-intensity therapy generally with a lower dose cytarabine regimens. Practitioners can look at molecular genetics however its application has yet to have a positive influence on the treatment of older AML patients, according to Dr Roboz. Nonetheless, she says there is light on the horizon in the form of improvements to standard care as well as novel agents. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the…

Charles Craddock, CBE, FRCP, FRCPath, DPhil, from Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, UK discusses when a transplant is the most suitable option in elderly acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients and what alternatives are open to these patients. Prof Craddock first explains how one can determine the quality of remission using minimal residual disease (MRD) testing, cytogenetic and molecular analysis. He then further explains how patients with a predicted risk of relapse higher than 40% will benefit from an allograft, as well as how co-morbidities scores should be considered when determining whether an allograft is suitable. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting…

Charles Craddock, CBE, FRCP, FRCPath, DPhil, from Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, UK explains how epigenetic drugs may have a capacity to modulate the immune system post-transplant in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). By demethylating the FOXP3 promoter it may be able to accelerate Treg reconstitution post-allograft and thereby potentially suppressing graft versus host disease. Prof Craddock also discusses the clinical trial RICAZA (ISRCTN36825171) in which 40 patients post-transplant azacidine was well-tolerated. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH), held in Glasgow, Scotland

Anna Schuh, MD, PhD, from the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK, gives an overview of the CLL pilot run by Genomics England to test the robustness of the sample pathway for liquid cancers. Dr Schuh outlines the project, which has recruited over 300 chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients from clinical trials. The aim is to identify new predictors of response to treatment, understanding the significance of non-coding regions and changes in the germline that might be important for drug metabolism. She further explains how more patients need to be recruited in order to draw conclusions from the data. Recorded at…

Dr. Alexander Spira, MD of Virginia Cancer Specialists goes over the risk and benefit to blocking PD-L2

Dr. Robert Dreicer, MD of the University of Virginia highlights small molecule inhibitor trials within urothelial cancer

Dr. Arjun V. Balar, MD of NYU Langone Medical Center discusses using deficient mismatch repair in PD-L1 therapy for urothelial cancer

Dr. Evan Yu, MD of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance notes that some patient populations may respond better to atezolizumab and other checkpoint inhibitors

Dr. Omid Hamid, MD of The Angeles Clinic discusses new predictive markers in immunotherapy for melanoma

Dr. Petros Grivas, MD of Cleveland Clinic outlines how the higher levels of PD-L1 expression correlates with higher response rates

Dr. Ramaswamy Govindan, MD of Washington University Medical School gives an update on ALK+ lung cancer agents at ASCO 2016

Dr. Fadi Braiteh, MD of Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada notes that autoimmune can be delayed in immunotherapy

Dr. Nathan Pennell, MD of Cleveland Clinic describes the safety and efficacy differences between PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors

Dr. Alexander Spira, MD of Virginia Cancer Specialists discusses the durable response of atezolizumab

Anna Schuh, MD, PhD, from the University of Oxford, discusses the importance of genomic analysis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in the clinic. According to Dr Schuh, the mutation analysis of TP53 in addition to a FISH analysis are important. She further discusses which other markers will become relevant in the future, which includes looking for subclonal TP53 mutations with next-generation sequencing (NGS) and whole genome sequencing. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH), held in Glasgow, Scotland.

Gail Roboz, MD from Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY discusses the availability of commercially available genetic molecular testing in which approximately 200 mutations can be evaluated. However current practice is exclusively guided by FLT3, NPM1, CEBPA double mutations. Availability of clinical trials for other specific mutations, for instance IDH1 and 2 , is making molecular genetic testing for these mutations more common practice in both prognosticating and driving treatment. Dr Roboz also discusses the application of molecular genetic testing in older acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society…

George Follows, MA, BM, BCh, PhD, FRCP, FRCPath from Cambridge University Hospitals, Cambridge, UK gives an overview of the session on the evolution of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) management held at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr Follows outlines Dr Paolo Ghia’s presentation on how our understanding of the genetics of CLL is having an impact on clinical practice. He further discusses Prof Stephan Stilgenbauer’s talk on new first-line data and how practice is moving away from chemotherapy and potentially towards a chemo-free era. Dr Follows also talks about the potential of ibrutinib, which…

Anas Younes, MD from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY discusses the cost of new drugs in lymphoma. Prof Younes argues that the impact of these drugs on the lives of young patients outweighs concerns around their cost. Recorded at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting, in Chicago, IL.

Dr. Heather Wakelee, MD of Stanford School of Medicine outlines the best way to test newly diagnosed NSCLC in the community setting

Petros Grivas, MD discusses anti PD-1 versus anti PD-L1 in urothelial carcinoma

Dr. Omid Hamid, MD of The Angeles Clinic presents updated results of KEYNOTE-001 006 and 029 for advanced melanoma

Robert Dreicer, MD of the University of Virginia answers the question why urothelial cancer for checkpoint inhibitor therapeutics

Dr. Fadi Braiteh, MD of Comprehensive Cancer Centers discusses the POPLAR results show statistic significant improvement in overall survival

Paolo Ghia, MD, PhD from the San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy discusses the research activities of the European Research Initiative on CLL (ERIC), which held a General Assembly at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr Ghia mentions a study that is collecting data on chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients treated with bendamustine plus rituximab in second line. He also discusses the creation of a data set of CLL patients in Europe called Minimum Data Set Project, with the aim to map the number of patients in Europe.

Paolo Ghia, MD, PhD from the San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy discusses the side effects of novel drugs in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). According to Dr Ghia, the toxicity profile of novel drugs is better compared to immunochemotherapy but neverthless, side effects are to be expected. Therefore, the rules to start treatment remain the same, i.e. the disease has to be progressive. In order to manage patient expectations about receiving novel drugs, it is important to inform patients about these side effects as Dr Ghia explains. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Paolo Ghia, MD, PhD from the San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy discusses drug combinations for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In particular, Dr Ghia talks about the combination of ibrutinib and venetoclax, as well as ibrutinib and venetoclax in combination with obinutuzumab (GA-101) (NCT02758665). Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Kostas Stamatopoulos, MD, PhD from CERTH Institute of Applied Biosciences, Thessaloniki, Greece gives an overview of the European Research Initiative on CLL (ERIC), which held a General Assembly at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. The aim of ERIC is to promote research that will improve patient management, strengthen collaboration and disseminate good practice. One of the projects is to complete a census of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients throughout Europe. Dr Stamatopoulos also discusses the deletion of chromosome 17p or aberrant TP53 and the work ERIC has done to improve the treatment of affected…

Paolo Ghia, MD, PhD from the San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy talks about venetoclax for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Venetoclax has recently been approved by the FDA to treat relapsed CLL patients with the 17p deletion. According to Dr Ghia, the drug showed great efficacy in the Phase I and II trials; it was able to achieve minimal residual (MRD) negativity in a large fraction of patients. He also discusses the risk of tumor lysis syndrome associated with venetoclax and how this has been adressed. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Noopur Raje, MD from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA gives an overview of the Phase III POLLUX trial on (NCT02076009) on combining daratumumab with lenalidomide and dexamethasone vs lenalidomide and dexamethasone in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM) presented at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. According to Dr Raje, patients who received daratumumab with lenalidomide and dexamethasone had more than a doubling in response rate; progression-free survival (PFS) and duration of response are also striking. The future is going to be drug combinations according to Dr Raje. She also highlights the CASTOR trial (NCT02136134) presented…

Kostas Stamatopoulos, MD, PhD from CERTH Institute of Applied Biosciences, Thessaloniki, Greece discusses the issues associated with the rapid development of new drugs in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). One key issue is affordability and access according to Dr Stamatopoulos. The other issue is linked to the high pace of development of novel drugs concerns adverse events or late events. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Gareth Morgan, MD, FRCP, FRCPath, PhD from the UAMS Myeloma Institute, Little Rock, AR discusses the use of FISH in multiple myeloma (MM). According to Dr Morgan, it is important to consider that there are many subtypes of MM and a precision or personalized medicine approach is therefore important. The problem about FISH is that it is slow, expensive and prone to error. When compared to molecular diagnostics and next-generation sequencing (NGS), FISH therefore becomes obsolete according to Dr Morgan. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Andrew Spencer, MD, PhD from the Monash University, Melbourne, Australia discusses the side effects of panobinostat in multiple myeloma (MM). Most patients did not tolerate the initial dose 45 mg/m2 but with a dose reduction to 30 mg/m2 or 20 mg/m2, most patients tolerated the drug well for the six month duration. The main side effects were gastrointestinal (GI) related and included diarrhoea. There was no relevant myeloid suppression and fatigue was not observed. Recorded at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Paolo Ghia, MD, PhD from the San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy talks about the stratification of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. As the biology of CLL is better understood, this allows for the better stratification of CLL patients. Dr Ghia mentions how patients can be stratified based on the presence or absence of a 17p deletion and p53 gene mutation. According to Dr Ghia, the way patients are stratified will probably remain the same in the next couple of years despite the development of new therapies. He…

Philippe Moreau, MD from the University Hospital of Nantes, Nantes, France gives an overview of his session on how monoclonal antibodies will change therapy in multiple myeloma (MM) held at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. In Europe, elotuzumab is approved in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone in the relapsed setting and this combination shows progression-free survival (PFS) benefit. The most interesting monoclonal antibody in Prof Moreau’s opinion is daratumumab, which targets CD38. Daratumumab can be used in very advanced patients in Europe. Prof Moreau also outlines the results of the POLLUX and CASTOR trials…

Paolo Ghia, MD, PhD from the San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy discusses minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr Ghia explains that MRD is a hot topic due to the multitude of new therapies that have become available. As it is still in early stages of development, it should only be used in the context of research according to Dr Ghia.

Noopur Raje, MD from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA gives an overview of the Phase Ib/II study of ricolinostat (ACY-1215) in multiple myeloma (MM) (NCT01997840) presented at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. The trial looks at the combination of ricolinostat with pomalidomide and low-dose dexamethasone in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients. Ricolinostat has a tendancy to be more selective for HDAC6 and according to Dr Raje, it is believed that it is has less off-target toxicity. Dr Raje further explains the rationale of combining with ricolinostat with lenalidomide and discusses data of the Phase…

Kostas Stamatopoulos, MD, PhD from CERTH Institute of Applied Biosciences, Thessaloniki, Greece discusses the progress of research in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Dr Stamatopoulos points out how novel drugs are different from traditional chemotherapy or immunotherapy as they target fundamental processes, which can translate into better response rates and in future, a cure. Recorded at the at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Gareth Morgan, MD, FRCP, FRCPath, PhD from the UAMS Myeloma Institute, Little Rock, AR provides an overview of his talk on ‘Treatment strategies at first relapse’ held at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr Morgan discusses why there are many trials and data sets available looking at first relapse in myeloma and the evidence that is available for making decisions. Treatment options include revlimid and dexamethasonse, the proteasome inhibitors velcade, carfilzomib and ixazomib, as well as the monoclonal antibodies elotuzumab and daratumumab. According to Dr Morgan, the triplet combinations on a backbone of velcade…

Anna Schuh, MD, PhD, from the University of Oxford, UK, gives an overview of her talk on the advances in the molecular stratification of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The focus of the talk was to make sense of the biological and clinical heterogeneity of CLL patients. The fludarabine, cyclophosphamide and rituximab (FCR) therapy is still the standard of care frontline treatment and while data shows that many patients respond very well or have even shown to be cured, around 25% of patients will relapse within the first two years of having received chemoimmunotherapy according to Dr Schuh. Molecular markers may…

Francesco Forconi, MD, PhD from the University of Southampton, Southampton, UK gives an overview of his talk on the structure and function of the B-cell receptor in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) held at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr Forconi also outlines why changes in the characteristics of the B-cell receptor affect the function and behavior of the tumor as well as how to target the receptor.

Andrew Spencer, MD, PhD from the Monash University, Melbourne, Australia provides an overview of his talk on epigenetics and HDAC inhibitors in multiple myeloma (MM) held at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2016 Annual Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark. Prof Spencer talks about the methylation of DNA, translational changes in histones and the abnormalities present in myeloma. According to Prof Spencer, there is a marked abnormality in the methylone in myeloma and a number of histone deacetylase (HDACs) are overexpressed, whereby the overexpression of HDAC1 is associated with poor outcome. He further discusses the rationale behind combining HDAC inhibitors with proteasome…

As part of our coverage from the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, MPN experts Dr. Srdan Verstovsek, Dr. Elias Jabbour, Dr. Brady Stein and patient advocate, Andi Malitz, gathered to discuss the latest news and research in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). The experts reviewed promising results of recent studies, including telomerase inhibitors, antifibrotic treatments, the long-term benefit of the JAK inhibitor, ruxolitinib, as well as news about the promise of early intervention. Also discussed were observational studies and how these studies are providing experts with better understanding of the disease. The experts stressed the importance of balancing treatment…

As part of our coverage from the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting, MPN experts Dr. Srdan Verstovsek, Dr. Elias Jabbour, Dr. Brady Stein and patient advocate, Andi Malitz, gathered to discuss the latest news and research in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). The experts reviewed promising results of recent studies, including telomerase inhibitors, antifibrotic treatments, the long-term benefit of the JAK inhibitor, ruxolitinib, as well as news about the promise of early intervention. Also discussed were observational studies and how these studies are providing experts with better understanding of the disease. The experts stressed the importance of balancing treatment…

Expert Dr. Russell Szmulewitz of the University of Chicago Medical Center describes the endocrinology of prostate cancer and provides an overview of hormonal therapies. Dr. Szmulewitz examines the changing treatment paradigm including risks and benefits. Get email alerts | http://www.patientpower.info/alerts Subscribe on YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/patientpower Like on Facebook | http://www.fb.com/patientpower.info Follow on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/patientpower Follow on Google+ | http://www.google.com/+patientpowerinfo

Evan Yu, MD of Seattle Cancer Care Alliance goes over next steps after FDA approval for Atezelozimab

Even though there is a tremendous access to new drug therapies, doctors have yet to determine the best way to use these new therapies. The doctors conclude that some of the most exciting therapies are monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, small molecules, cellular therapies, CAR- T cell therapy, and more. IMWG Myeloma Experts debate the latest trends in treatment June 9, 2016 Copenhagen, Denmark

Discussed are the new IMWG Criteria in MRD testing in multiple myeloma, which is to be published in Lancet Oncology. Attention is given as to how to use the testing going forward with patient care. IMWG Myeloma Experts debate the latest trends in treatment June 9, 2016 Copenhagen, Denmark

Heather Wakelee, MD of Stanford Medicine discusses genetic heterogeneity and genomic alterations in KRAS mutated NSCLC

The doctors consider mSMART classification to look at high-, intermediate-, and standard-risk myeloma. They discuss, with the increasing depth of response in myeloma with the newer drugs, how doctors should evaluate the use of these drugs with the higher-risk disease groups. IMWG Myeloma Experts debate the latest trends in treatment June 9, 2016 Copenhagen, Denmark

The third question of the series is Are you proactive regarding your patients possible comorbidities? In particular, the doctors consider patient characteristics such as age, performance status, and other health problems. They talk about when to consider stem cell transplant with frailer patients. IMWG Myeloma Experts debate the latest trends in treatment June 9, 2016 Copenhagen, Denmark

The first question of the series is What is the impact of the new diagnostic criteria? The criteria to which the doctors are referring is the SLiM CRAB criteria, which expands the former CRAB criteria. IMWG Myeloma Experts debate the latest trends in treatment June 9, 2016 Copenhagen, Denmark

Alexander Spira, MD of Virginia Cancer Specialists discusses PD-L1 expression in tumor and immune cells in the microenvironment from the POPLAR trial

Nathan Pennell, MD of Cleveland Clinic talks about the future of genotypical NSCLC immunotherapy

Dr. Omid Hamid, MD of The Angeles Clinic outlines the evidence that uveal melanoma is responsive to immunotherapy

Dr Arjun V. Balar, MD of NYU Langone Medical Center discusses how upper tract disease did better in IMVigor210 trial

At the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC), held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 9 to 11 March 2016, Oleg Gluz, MD, from the West German Study Group, Mönchengladbach, Germany, discusses the development of evidence-based gene expression profiling to better classify breast cancer subtypes for optimising therapeutic decisions in patients with breast cancer. This content is supported by Genomic Health, Inc. European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

An expert panel, led by Dr. Tomasz Beer, explores research discussed at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago. The group explains updates related to biomarkers, chemotherapy and hormonal approaches. Get email alerts | http://www.patientpower.info/alerts Subscribe on YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/patientpower Like on Facebook | http://www.fb.com/patientpower.info Follow on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/patientpower Follow on Google+ | http://www.google.com/+patientpowerinfo

Is there hope for lung cancer patients with genetic alterations who have become resistant to therapies? On location at ASCO 2016, lung cancer expert Dr. Liza Villaruz announces new information that includes advances in the field of lung cancer focused on overcoming resistance to novel inhibitors. Get email alerts | http://www.patientpower.info/alerts Subscribe on YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/patientpower Like on Facebook | http://www.fb.com/patientpower.info Follow on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/patientpower Follow on Google+ | http://www.google.com/+patientpowerinfo

Does knowing your molecular mutation in earlier stage lung cancer have any significance in selecting a treatment modality? Is there any difference between external and internal factors that lead to gene mutations in lung cancer? Live from the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, Drs. Liza Villaruz and Charu Aggarwal sat down with host, John Ratzenberger, for an Ask the Lung Cancer Expert discussion that covered questions submitted by lung cancer patients and their families. Get email alerts | http://www.patientpower.info/alerts Subscribe on YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/patientpower Like on Facebook | http://www.fb.com/patientpower.info Follow on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/patientpower Follow…

Does knowing your molecular mutation in earlier stage lung cancer have any significance in selecting a treatment modality? Is there any difference between external and internal factors that lead to gene mutations in lung cancer? Live from the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, Drs. Liza Villaruz and Charu Aggarwal sat down with host, John Ratzenberger, for an Ask the Lung Cancer Expert discussion that covered questions submitted by lung cancer patients and their families. Get email alerts | http://www.patientpower.info/alerts Subscribe on YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/patientpower Like on Facebook | http://www.fb.com/patientpower.info Follow on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/patientpower Follow…

An expert panel, led by Dr. Tomasz Beer, explores research discussed at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago. The group explains updates related to biomarkers, chemotherapy and hormonal approaches. Get email alerts | http://www.patientpower.info/alerts Subscribe on YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/patientpower Like on Facebook | http://www.fb.com/patientpower.info Follow on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/patientpower Follow on Google+ | http://www.google.com/+patientpowerinfo

What is the latest news on lung cancer immunotherapies? On location at ASCO 2016, lung cancer expert Dr. Charu Aggarwal of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital gives an update. Dr. Aggarwal gives a brief glimpse at the results of combination immunotherapy data, including crizotinib (Xalkori) and alectinib (Alecensa). Get email alerts | http://www.patientpower.info/alerts Subscribe on YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/patientpower Like on Facebook | http://www.fb.com/patientpower.info Follow on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/patientpower Follow on Google+ | http://www.google.com/+patientpowerinfo

Dr. Laura Chow discusses new combination therapies and molecularly targeted therapies, specifically in head and neck cancers.

At the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC), held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 9 to 11 March 2016, Oleg Gluz, MD, from the West German Study Group, Mönchengladbach, Germany, discusses the development of evidence-based gene expression profiling to better classify breast cancer subtypes for optimising therapeutic decisions for patients with breast cancer. This content is supported by Genomic Health, Inc. European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

Robert Dreicer, MD at University of Virginia Health System talks about how the Atezolizumab FDA approval will spur more studies in the future

Heather Wakelee, MD at The Stanford University Medical Center outlines the therapeutic options currently available for RET altered NSCLC from ASCO 2016

Alexander Spira, MD of Virginia Cancer Specialists goes over the future of Next-Gen sequencing and who will respond and who will not to therapy

Nathan Pennell, MD at Cleveland Clinic discusses how to chose the most effective second line PD-1 or PD-L1 therapy in lung cancer

At the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC), held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 9 to 11 March 2016, Oleg Gluz, MD, from the West German Study Group, Mönchengladbach, Germany, discusses the development of evidence-based gene expression profiling to better classify breast cancer subtypes for optimising therapeutic decisions for patients with breast cancer. This content is supported by Genomic Health, Inc. European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

Omid Hamid, MD at The Angeles Clinic Combi-d and BRIM7 trials and the extended follow-up results

Arjun Balar, MD of NYU Langone gives an overview of IMvigor 210 cohort one data and results

Justin Stebbing, MD, MA, FRCP, FRCPath, PhD from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK discusses developments in anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 drugs presented at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL. Prof Stebbing discusses a study on nivolumab and ipilimumab in 220 patients with small cell lung cancer and how these drugs might change the outlook for this disease. He further discusses the presentation on the OX40 agonist MOXR0916 and the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab in patients with advanced solid tumors and what this might mean for the future use of chemotherapy.

Dr. Evan Yu, MD of University of Washington School of Medicine notes that smoking does not predispose higher response rate to Atezolizumab according to the IMvigor210 data. ASCO 2016

Dr. Heather Wakelee, MD of The Stanford University Medical Center Wakelee_MET in NSCLC including its over expression increased copy number and MET exon 14 alterations

Bruce Johnson, MD, from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, discusses the challenges associated with developing effective treatments for patients with solid tumors. Prof Johnson discusses the efforts that are being made in terms of defining subgroups of patients and relevant therapy approaches for common tumors such as breast cancer, lung cancer and colon cancer. He also talks about how for unusual tumors, the challenge is to identify therapy targets and recruit sufficient numbers of patients for trials. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Rafael Fonseca, MD from the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ discusses the cost of drugs in multiple myeloma (MM) and the debate around the issue. According to Prof Fonesca, the costs associated with drug development have to be accounted for and a more data-driven and free market approach are needed to solve the issue of drug affordability. Recorded at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL.

Rafael Fonseca, MD from the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ discusses highlights in multiple myeloma (MM) at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL. Prof Fonesca mentions presentations looking at the role of stem cell transplant vs conventional therapy, a meta-analysis on the use of maintenance with lenalidomide and a presentation on a dynamic approach to monitoring patients with smouldering myeloma.

Anas Younes, MD from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY discusses the place of nivolumab and pembrolizumab in the current treatment landscape for relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma. According to Prof Younes, the approval by the FDA is very specific and requires that patients have had a failed autologous stem cell transplant and brentuximab vedotin. He further discusses how the new combinations may change the treatment landscape. Recorded at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting, in Chicago, IL.

Bruce Johnson, MD of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA and recently elected president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), discusses the increasing cost of drugs and how he plans to address the issue as the president of ASCO. He mentions one of the abstracts presented at the ASCO 2016 Annual Meeting, in Chicago, IL, which showed that the cost of drugs can vary more than 5-fold from one country to another. Prof Johnson further discusses new developments, in particular biosimilars.

Constantine Tam, MBBS, MD from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia gives an overview of the preliminary results of the Phase II AIM study of ibrutinib and venetoclax (ABT-199) in relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (NCT02471391) presented at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. Dr Tam outlines how of the eight patients who have completed a four month course, five are in complete remission (CR), two patients in partial remission, and one patient did not respond. Dr Tam further discusses the promise of this drug combination and the associated toxicities.

Alexander Spira, MD of Virginia Cancer Specialists discusses mutation load and gene profiles appear to have a significant impact on response rates and survival

Dr. Robert Dreicer, MD of the University of Virginia Health System gives an overview of PD-L1 expression on cancer cells and how they impact the endpoints and ability to respond in the IMvigor210 study

Arjun Balar, MD of New York University Langone comments on deficient mismatch repair within urothelial cancer

Dr. Evan Yu, MD of the University of Washington School of Medicine outlines the IMvigor210 trial design and patient populaiton

Dr. Heather Wakelee, MD at The Stanford University Medical Center remarks on the E1505 trial results from ASCO 2016

Alexander Spira, MD of Virginia Cancer Specialist remarks on the many different combinations of immunotherapy drugs that are being being tested due to the low toxicity of these drugs

Omid Hamid, MD Director of the Melanoma Center at The Angeles Clinic goes over the advantages and disadvantages with Binimetinib combined with Encorafenib

Dr Robert Dreicer, MD of University of Virginia Health System highlights the importance of the FDA approval of Atezolizumab at ASCO 2016

Dr. Arjun Balar, MD of NYU Langone Medical Center discusses Bevacizumab in combination with chemotherapy in metastatic urothelial cancer at ASCO 2016

William Wierda, MD, PhD from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX discusses his highlights for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) from the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL. Dr Wierda mentions the update on venetoclax in patients who have relapsed or are intolerant to ibrutinib or idelalisib, the idelalisib plus ofatumumab as well as the bendamustine plus rituximab and idelalisib randomized trials.

Bruce Johnson, MD of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA and recently elected president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), discusses one of his goals of bringing precision medicine from the academic centers to community practices. As part of this, physicians will need to be provided with the right tools that will allow them to transform the care patients receive around the world. Recorded at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting, in Chicago, IL.

William Wierda, MD, PhD from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX discusses the safety of idelalisib for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Dr Wierda outlines the risk of infection for previously untreated patients and discusses the higher incidences of deaths observed in patients treated with idelalisib in randomized trials comparing idelalisib with chlorambucil. According to Dr Wierda, idelalisib is probably not an appropriate first-line treatment but has a place in salvage therapy. In terms of infections, he discusses the need to give prophylaxis for herpes virus and pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) as well as the need for monitoring…

Bruce Johnson, MD of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA and recently elected president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), discusses the challenge of balancing the needs of the society’s national and international members. Prof Johnson discusses how ASCO has to be accountable to its US members in terms of implementing treatments, reimbursement, and ensuring federal and state policies are followed. For the international members, the challenge is to make sure that they feel integrated and that they have a voice within the society. Recorded at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting, in Chicago,…

Keith Stewart, MB, ChB from the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ discusses the issue of drug affordability and access in multiple myeloma (MM). Prof Stewart talks about how it is becoming more of a challenge to get access to novel drugs and how the situation differs between the US and other countries. Recorded at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL.

William Wierda, MD, PhD from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX gives an overview of his poster on the ‘Management of transaminase elevations in patients receiving idelalisib’ in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) presented at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL. According to Dr Wierda, transaminitis can be seen in patients who are initiating on idelalisib after approximately 2-4 weeks and is usually reversible. The management of this side effect is important in order to avoid damage to the liver.

Ruben Mesa, MD from the Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ talks about his highlights from the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL. In particular, Dr Mesa discusses why he is looking forward to hearing about key drugs in disease areas that are relevant to myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), which include acute leukemias and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). According to Dr Mesa, the data on immunotherapy and intercellular therapy in these areas is of interest. For MPNs, he highlights the five year update on the safety and efficacy of ruxolitinib.

Keith Stewart, MB, ChB from the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ summarizes the results of two Phase III trials of daratumumab in multiple myeloma (MM) reported at ASCO and EHA. The CASTOR study (NCT02136134) reported at ASCO 2016 looks at the combination of daratumumab with bortezomib and dexamethasone vs bortezomib and dexamethasone. The results show that the addition of daratumumab to bortezimib in relapsed patients, improves reponse rate and progression-free survival (PFS). The POLLUX trial (NCT02076009) looking at daratumumab with lenalidomide and dexamethasone vs lenalidomide and dexamethasone reported at EHA 2016, also show improved response and PFS. Recorded at the American…

Michael Thompson, MD, PhD of the Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, WI shares some key Twitter tips for hematologists. Some of the tips Dr Thompson gives include staying authentic, deciding on what kind of presence you would like to establish and providing full disclosure on any potential conflicts of interest. Dr Thompson also mentions that Twitter may not be right for everyone and suggests other formats such as blogging. Recorded at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL.

Sagar Lonial, MD from the Emory University Winship Cancer Institute, Atlanta, GA gives an overivew of the session ‘Are We Ready for Personalized Therapy?’ in multiple myeloma (MM) held at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. According to Prof Lonial, the focus was on the assessment of risk and disease status as well as new treatment options. Some of the topics covered were risk assessment using new genetics and genomics information, use of minimal residual disease (MRD) assessment through next-generation sequencing (NGS) or flow cytometry and the use of new drugs in the relapse…

Ruben Mesa, MD from the Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ discusses updates to the Phase III PERSIST-1 trial of pacritinib for myelofibrosis presented at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL. Pacritinib is an oral JAK2/FLT3 inhibitor and the PERSIST-1 study (NCT01773187) looks at pacritinib vs best alternative therapy in patients who are JAK inhibitor naive and could have any platelet count at trial entry. Dr Mesa talks about the long-term data, which show improvements in splenomegaly and symptoms. He further discusses the concerns around the safety of the drug, in particular the number of…

Michael Thompson, MD, PhD of the Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, WI discusses why hematologists should use social media. First Dr Thompson addresses some of the common reservations medical professionals might have about using social media. He then talks about its benefits, such as receiving highly curated information from other Twitter users, discussing opinions and influencing other people to affect change. Recorded at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL.

Michael Thompson, MD, PhD of the Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, WI talks about the quality of the ASCO and ASH conference social media networks and how this might make them valuable to medical professionals. Dr Thompson discusses the quality of the ASCO and ASH networks in terms of 9 metrics such as connectivity and diversity and how they are expanding. Apart from Twitter, he also mentions the use of Snapchat, Periscope and Instagram. Recorded at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL.

Jennifer Brown, MD, PhD from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA outlines the side effects that may occur in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients treated with idealisib and how to manage them. Side effects to look out for include neutropenia, bacterial infections, immunologic toxicitiy and diarrhea colitis. Recorded at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL.

Keith Stewart, MB, ChB from the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ gives an overview of his talk on the management and treatment of high-risk multiple myeloma (MM) patients. According to Prof Stewart, high-risk features can be found in approximately 15-25% of patients and include the 17p deletion, serum translocations, and the alleviation of LDH in the peripheral blood. Prof Stewart further discusses how to treat high-risk patients and this includes triplet therapy, the importance of achieving a molecular complete remission (CR), the role of a second transplant and the promise of immunotherapy. Recorded at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016…

Jennifer Brown, MD, PhD from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA gives an overview of her talk on targeted therapy in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) held at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. Dr Brown adresses unanswered questions such as how to salvage patients who relapse on the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib and how to optimize the management of toxicities some patients experience. Dr Brown further discusses the issues around the trial of the PI-3 kinase inhibitor idelalisib, in particular infections in the setting of neutropenia.

Elias Jabbour, MD from the The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX gives an overview of the results of the INO-VATE trial of inotuzumab ozogamicin (InO) for relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) presented at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2016 Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL. Dr Jabbour explains the mechanism of action inotuzumab ozogamicinm, which is a monoclonal antibody that targets CD22 and the design of the INO-VATE trial (NCT01564784), which is a randomized Phase III trial. Patients received either standard of care or inotuzumab and the primary endpoint was response to therapy and overal survival…

Anas Younes, MD of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY talks about Checkmate 205, a registrational trial of nivolumab for the treatment of relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma, which lead to the approval of this treatment by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Checkmate 205 was initiated based on a previous Phase I study with 23 patients that showed response rates of 70%, contrasting with other studies that presented lower response rates (2030%). Based on the promising data from the Phase I trial, two registrational trials were initiated, one with nivolumab, and one with pembrolizumab, seeking potential FDA approval. Checkmate…

Noopur Raje, MD from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA discusses highlights on the in vivo drug screening session in multiple myeloma (MM) held at the Myeloma 2016 meeting in Boston, MA with Constantine Mitsiades, MD, PhD from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA and Caroline Heckman, PhD from the University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. Dr Heckman provides an overview of her talk on stratifying myeloma by in vivo drug response. According to Dr Heckman, it is important to work with real patient samples as the disease is very hetergenous. With a high throughput screening assay it is possible to…

Chng Wee Joo, MB, ChB, PhD, FRCP, FRCPath, FAMS from the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore discusses the current status of genomics in multiple myeloma (MM) at the Myeloma 2016 meeting in Boston, MA with Gareth Morgan, MD, FRCP, FRCPath, PhD of the UAMS Myeloma Institute, Little Rock, AR and Michele Cavo, MD from the University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy. First, they discuss how the data on genomics in MM might be used in clinical practice. According to Prof Morgan, it has implications for treatment as it shows the need to use combinations of drugs to overcome interclonal heterogeneity. Also,…

Ray Comenzo, MD from the Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA discusses the practical applications of genomics in multiple myeloma (MM) at the Myeloma 2016 meeting held in Boston, MA with Pieter Sonneveld, MD, PhD from Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands and Leif Bergsagel, MD from the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ. First, Prof Sonneveld discusses the participation of patients in clinical trials, in particular in regard to obtaining patient specimen and why these specimen are important. Prof Bergsagel then discusses the importance of MYC and the potential role in prognosis and therapy of this gene. Prof Sonneveld further discusses the…

Nelson Leung, MD from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN gives an overview of the common kidney problems in multiple myeloma (MM). The proteins produced by the myeloma cells are toxic to the kidney in various ways. Prof Leung disccuses light chain cast nephropathy (LCCN), which is the most common complication and is a myeloma defining event, as well as immunoglobulin light chain (AL) amyloidosis, monoclonal immunoglobulin deposition disease (MIDD) and light chain proximal tubulopathy (LCPT) with or without Fanconi syndrome. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

Evangelos Terpos, MD, PhD, University of Athens, Athens, Greece gives an overview of the session on imaging and disease assessment in multiple myeloma (MM) held at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France. Dr Terpos explains that even though the standard criteria of reponse (complete response, partial response and progressive or stable disease) are defined by the International Myeloma Working Group, there are responses beyond the complete response (CR). He outlines the role of imaging in defining myeloma and complete response as well as the role of minimal residual disease (MRD) and the criteria…

In this Best of the Day interview from the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, Dr. Anne S. Tsao and Ramaswamy Govindan discuss the latest updates in thoracic malignancies presented during the meeting. Earn CME credit for this activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Specialty-Search.aspx?search=7216 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this Best of the Day interview from the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, Dr. Anne S. Tsao and David H. Ilson discuss the latest updates in gastrointestinal malignancies presented during the meeting. Earn CME credit for this activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Specialty-Search.aspx?search=7216 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this Best of the Day interview from the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, Dr. Anne S. Tsao and Bernard Escudier discuss the latest updates in renal cell carcinoma and bladder cancer presented during the meeting. Earn CME credit for this activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Specialty-Search.aspx?search=7216 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

This Best of the Day activity serves to provide a brief synopsis of the key points presented on thoracic oncology at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting held in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Ramaswamy Govindan and Dr. Anne S. Tsao discuss clinical updates for the therapy and management of patients with lung cancer. This expert review and conversation covers recent developments in molecular targets, immunotherapy, and management strategies for patients with early and advanced stage lung cancer. Earn CME credit for this activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Specialty-Search.aspx?search=7213 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

How do I participate in a clinical trial? Patient Power Founder and Host, Andrew Schorr, and head and neck cancer expert Dr. William William, Jr. of MD Anderson Cancer Center explore the variables related to head and neck cancer clinical trials. Together, they discuss trial types, novel approaches, variations between trials, and how to identify and overcome barriers to clinical trial participation. Get email alerts | http://www.patientpower.info/alerts Subscribe on YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/patientpower Like on Facebook | http://www.fb.com/patientpower.info Follow on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/patientpower Follow on Google+ | http://www.google.com/+patientpowerinfo

From our Ask the Expert series, MPN expert Dr. John Mascarenhas of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, answers Patient Power community member, Kathys question about the connection between depression and interferon therapy. Dr. Mascarenhas takes a serious approach to depression, the effect on quality of life, and the need for treatment Depression needs to be discussedmonitoredand treated. Get email alerts | http://www.patientpower.info/alerts Subscribe on YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/patientpower Like on Facebook | http://www.fb.com/patientpower.info Follow on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/patientpower Follow on Google+ | http://www.google.com/+patientpowerinfo

MPN specialist Dr. Mark Heaney discusses his role at Columbia University Medical Center and his approach to patient care. As a clinical investigator, Dr. Heaney provides insight into new and exciting treatments in development such as new JAK inhibitors, telomerase and others. He stresses the importance of understanding the disease to allow patients to live longer and better. Get email alerts | http://www.patientpower.info/alerts Subscribe on YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/patientpower Like on Facebook | http://www.fb.com/patientpower.info Follow on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/patientpower Follow on Google+ | http://www.google.com/+patientpowerinfo

The Oncotype DX® 21-gene Recurrence Score® result stratifies patients with breast cancer into low-, intermediate- and high-risk groups that correspond to the likelihood of recurrence after the initial diagnosis. At the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC), held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 9 to 11 March 2016, Oleg Gluz, MD, from the West German Study Group, Mönchengladbach, Germany, discusses the evidence of the predictive value of the Recurrence Score® result to guide decision making for adjuvant chemotherapy. This content is supported by Genomic Health, Inc.

Bruce Johnson, MD, from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, explains the challenges associated with developing clinical trials for patients with rarer solid tumors, including defining subgroups of patients for specific therapeutic approaches and recruiting sufficient numbers of participants. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

At the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Bruce Johnson, MD, from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, talks about the increasing cost of drugs, and how he, as President-Elect of ASCO plans to tackle the issue. He references one of the abstracts presented at the meeting, which showed that the cost of drugs can vary more than 5-fold form one country to another.

Bruce Johnson, MD of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA has recently been elected as President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). At the 2016 Annual Meeting, he discussed one of his main goals to bring precision medicine from the academic centers to community practices, and provide physicians with the tools that will allow them to offer the best possible care to the patients that need it.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has recently elected Bruce Johnson, MD of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA as President. At the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting, Prof. Johnson discusses how it will be a challenge to balance the needs of national and international members. On one hand, ASCO has to be accountable to its members in terms of implementation of treatments, reimbursement, and ensuring Federal and Estate policies are followed. On the other hand, its important to make sure international members feel integrated and that they have a voice within the Society.

Eric Low, Chief Executive at Myeloma UK, discusses how global collaboration is key in multiple myeloma research. According to Eric Low, it is important to be more strategic within these collaborations and academia can improve access to novel drugs by designing different studies. For example, studies need to be designed so they are commissionable and adaptive. He further highlights how Myeloma UK has focused on building research infrastructure, assets and capabilities in the UK, and how the organization is planning on expanding its collaborations globally. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

Eric Low, Chief Executive of Myeloma UK, explains the evolving strategies for improving the drug development process for therapies for patients with multiple myeloma so that the right therapies are delivered to the right patients. One such strategy is the Myeloma UKs Clinical Trial Network, which comprises of experts, hospitals and research centres across the UK aimed at accelerating the testing of and access to new myeloma therapies. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

Eric Low, Chief Executive of Myeloma UK, discusses recent advances in the development of new drugs for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma and emphasises the importance of determining the cost effectiveness of new therapeutic approaches to ensure patient access. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

At the 6th European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC), held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1316 April 2016, Keith Kerr, BSc, MB ChB, FRCPath, FRCPE, from the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, summarises future research directions for biomarkers in the management of patients with lung cancer, including the opportunities and challenges associated testing for multiple biomarkers and liquid biopsies.

At the 6th European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC), held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1316 April 2016, Keith Kerr, BSc, MB ChB, FRCPath, FRCPE, from the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, discusses the 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) Classification of Tumors of the Lung, Pleura, Thymus and Heart. Significant changes include the new classification for small biopsies and cytology and use of immunohistochemistry throughout the classification.

At the 6th European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC), held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1316 April 2016, Suresh Ramalingam, MD, from The Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, discusses mechanisms of acquired resistance, including the C797S mutation, to third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that inhibit EGFR with T790M in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

At the 6th European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC), held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1316 April 2016, Niki Karachaliou, MD, from the Dr Rosell Oncology Institute, Quirón Dexeus University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain, highlights the development of targeted cancer therapeutic agents in combination as an important approach for the treatment of patients with lung cancer.

La Dra Enriqueta Felip explica las principales cuestiones que se han tratado en el 6º Congreso Europeo de Cáncer de Pulmón que tuvo lugar en Ginebra en abril de 2016. El tratamiento con inmunoterapia y el abordaje a pacientes con resistencia al tratamiento fueron algunos de los temas más destacados del congreso.

Professor Joseph Mikhael, MD from Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ talks to us about the use of social media during medical congresses, focussing on his experience from #ASCO16. He discusses the importance of expanding the conversation to those who can’t make it to congress and highlights that introducing new opinions will improve the content that comes out of these meetings. Patients are becoming a bigger part of things these days and with many data and presentations being published or presented online, in an open-access format where anyone can contribute, are we risking diluting ‘expert’ conversation? Prof. Mikhael tells us what he…

At the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC), held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 9 to 11 March 2016, Oleg Gluz, MD, from the West German Study Group, Mönchengladbach, Germany, discusses the impact of the outcomes from PlanB on adjuvant decision-making for patients with early breast cancer. PlanB is a prospective phase 3 trial evaluating the Oncotype DX® 21-gene Recurrence Score® result for defining a low-risk subgroup of patients with node-negative disease and high-risk clinicopathological factors as well as patients with node-positive disease who could be treated with adjuvant endocrine therapy alone. This content is supported by Genomic Health, Inc.…

Eric Klein, MD from the Glickman Urology & Kidney Institute, Cleveland, OH discusses biopsy-based genomic testing in men with early-stage prostate cancer. It has been recognised that many men with with early-stage have indolent tumors that do not need to be treated. Tests have been developed that determine how aggressive a specific tumor is and whether or not the patient requires treatment, or how frequently they need to be followed. It is hoped that these tests may be used to help physicians make an informed decision about what is best for each individual patient a precision-medicine approach applied to early-stage…

At the 6th European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC), held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1316 April 2016, David Carbone, MD, PhD, from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, discusses a phase 1b trial of the anti-mesothelin vaccine CRS-207 plus chemotherapy as frontline treatment for malignant pleural mesothelioma.

David Steensma, MD of the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA discusses the arrival of a new splicing modulator called H3B-8800 into clinic later this year for patients with myeloid neoplasms. Dr Steensma discusses how a subset of patients with IDH mutations are potentially eligible for treatment with the IDH inhibitors AG-221, AG-120 and AG-811. Further, Dr Steensma discusses developments for some biomarkers signatures, such as the super enhancer signature, that may predict response to retinoid therapy and bromodomain inhibitor therapy. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH), held…

Sahra Ali, MD from Queen’s Centre Castle Hill Hospital, Hull, UK discusses the need to set up a registry for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in pregnancy. According to Dr Ali, a registry will become more important in future as women are getting pregnant later in life, which means that the risk of developing AML is greater. The registry will not only register the incidence of acute leukemia in pregnancy but also the management of the cases, which will help inform guidelines. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH)…

David Steensma, MD of the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA discusses the recurrent mutation in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). There are over forty mutations and the most common are epigenetic patterning or chromatin remodelling genes such as TET2, DNMT3A, ASXL1, as well as splicing modulators such as SF3B1, SRSF2 and U2AF1 and further, p53 mutations, which are found in 5-10% of patients and are enriched in those who have previously been treated for another malignancy. Other mutations include those that activate tyrosine kinases and mutations that alter cohesions. Dr Steensma also speaks about the difficulty in targeting these mutations,…

Sonja Zweegman, MD, PhD from the VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands gives an overview of her talk on risk stratification in older multiple myeloma (MM) patients held at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH) in Glasgow, Scotland. According to Prof Zweegman, a key question that needs to be answered is which patients will benefit from novel drugs. According to Dr Zweegman, performance score and age are not sufficient to answer this question. Prof Zweegman then discusses the frailty score introduced by the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG), which…

Sahra Ali, MD from Queen’s Centre Castle Hill Hospital, Hull, UK gives an overivew of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in pregnancy and the guidance that is available for such cases. According to Dr Ali, AML in pregnancy is a great challenge as the wellbeing of both the mother and the fetus has to be considered. The guidance for acute leukemia in pregnancy can be applied to other hematological and non-hematological malignancies and covers chemotherapy administration, management of sepsis and timing as well as type of delivery. According to Dr Ali, chemotherapy can be adminstered relatively safely during the second and…

Peter Dreger, MD from Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany gives an overview of his talk on the current role of allogeneic stem cell transplantation in lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) held at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH) in Glasgow, Scotland. The context of the talk was the new era of lymphoma and CLL treatment, which changes the role of transplant. According to Prof Dreger, transplant will continue to be the only curative treatment option for CLL while for lymphoma, it is less clear.

David Steensma, MD of the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA gives an overview of his talk on how to treat patients with difficult forms of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) held at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH) in Glasgow, Scotland. Dr Steensma discusses how for some of these patients, there is no prescribed algorithm or obvious approach for treatment. This includes lower risk patients for whom erythropoietin and lenalidomide have failed and high-risk patients who have been failed by azacitidine or decitabine, as well as post-transplant relapses and patients whose…

Chng Wee Joo, MB, ChB, PhD, FRCP, FRCPath, FAMS from the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore discusses how next-generation sequencing (NGS) will change clinical practice in multiple myeloma (MM) and other cancers. According to Prof Chng, cancer treatment will move away from disease specific treatment to treatment based on molecular defects. There are still a number of gaps that need to be addressed before NGS can be applied in practice, such as the meaning of the individual genes and mutations and how doctors can interpret those to choose the right treatment. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British…

Mark Caulfield, MD from Genomics England and Queen Mary University, London, UK gives an overview of the 100,000 Genomes Project, which is about sequencing the genomes of patients with rare inherited diseases, cancer and infections. The focus is on transforming the National Health Service (NHS) making the UK a world leader in the application of genomic medicine to healthcare. Prof Caulfield explains the challenges associated with analyzing tissue from tumors. He further discusses a programme that sequenced 150 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and plans for working on acute myeloid leukemia (AML), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and multiple myeloma…

Gail Roboz, MD from Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY gives an overview of her talk on ‘How I use molecular genetics to guide treatment in AML’ held at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH), in Glasgow, Scotland. In the US, the standard of care in terms of molecular genetics for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is to order FLT3, NPM1 and CEBP tests. According to Dr Roboz, it is now becoming more common to order up to 200 gene panels. In terms of treatment, FLT3 guides…

David Steensma, MD of the Dana-Faber Cancer institute, Boston, MA gives an overview of his talk on precision medicine for myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) held at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH) in Glasgow, Scotland. Dr Steensma discusses how precision medicine can be interpreted differently and more specifically, what drug therapies could be targeted to which patients with MDS. Dr Steensma discusses what is being learned about the genetics of MDS and how to refine treatment algorithms in the future. He further talks about the discovery that molecular diagnostic testing…

Chng Wee Joo, MB, ChB, PhD, FRCP, FRCPath, FAMS from the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore gives an overview of his talk on the utility of next-generation sequencing (NGS) in multiple myeloma (MM) held at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH) in Glasgow, Scotland. According to Prof Chng, a lot of progress has been made in NGS but its clinical use in MM is not well established yet. There is great potential in helping to target treatment and understanding prognosis as well as drug resistance. Further, a key point…

At the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC), held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 9 to 11 March 2016, Oleg Gluz, MD, from the West German Study Group, Mönchengladbach, Germany, discusses the 5-year disease-free survival, defined as relapse, secondary malignancy or death, of patients with node-positive and high-risk node-negative early breast cancer who omitted adjuvant chemotherapy based on an Oncotype DX® 21-gene Recurrence Score® result of 11 or less in PlanB, a prospective phase 3 trial evaluating the Recurrence Score® result. This content is supported by Genomic Health, Inc. European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

At the 10th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC), held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from 9 to 11 March 2016, Oleg Gluz, MD, from the West German Study Group, Mönchengladbach, Germany, explains the rationale and design of PlanB, a prospective phase 3 trial evaluating the Oncotype DX® 21-gene Recurrence Score® result for defining a low-risk subgroup of breast cancer patients with node-negative disease and high-risk clinicopathological factors as well as patients with node-positive disease who could be treated with adjuvant endocrine therapy alone. This content is supported by Genomic Health, Inc. European Medical Journal Website: http://emjreviews.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/EMJReviews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emjreviews

This Expert Perspectives activity features the clinical faculty from a symposium held at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Oncology Nursing Society sharing highlights from the symposium and additional relevant clinical commentary. Significant advances have elevated breast cancer care to new levels of success and complexity. In particular, for women with estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) metastatic breast cancer (MBC), the availability of cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 (CDK 4/6) inhibitor therapy is a notable recent advance. As such, clinicians who treat breast cancer need ongoing education on this topic to ensure safe and effective use of this therapy. Earn accreditation for…

In this presentation from the “CDK 4/6 Inhibitor Therapy for ER+ Metastatic Breast Cancer – Advancing Nursing Care to Improve Patient Outcomes” symposium held during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Oncology Nursing Society, Austin Kershner discusses how to council ER+ metastatic breast cancer patients on the safety expectations and side effects of CDK 4/6 inhibitors. Earn accreditation for this activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7208 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the “CDK 4/6 Inhibitor Therapy for ER+ Metastatic Breast Cancer – Advancing Nursing Care to Improve Patient Outcomes” symposium held during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Oncology Nursing Society, Meg Trewhitt Discusses how to council ER+ metastatic breast cancer patients on efficacy expectations for CDK 4/6 inhibitors.

In this presentation from the “CDK 4/6 Inhibitor Therapy for ER+ Metastatic Breast Cancer – Advancing Nursing Care to Improve Patient Outcomes” symposium held during the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Oncology Nursing Society, Dr. Ruth O’Regan discusses the biological rationale, development history, and dosing and administration of CDK 4/6 inhibitors in the ER+ metastatic breast cancer setting. Earn accreditation for this activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7208 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

Mohamad Mohty, MD, PhD, from Saint-Antoine Hospital, Paris, France, and President of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), talks about the a symposium hosted at the 2016 Annual Meeting of EBMT, held in Valencia, Spain, focusing on the role of proteosome inhibitors in multiple myeloma (MM). In the last 15 years, we have lived with the 1st generation proteosome inhibitors for the treatment of MM, mainly bortozemib. However, in the recent years the research community has developped 2nd generation proteosome inhibitors, such as carfilzomib and ixazomib. This symposium focused on the mechanistic aspects of these inhibitors in…

At the 42nd Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), held in Valencia, Spain, John Murray, a Nurse Clinician at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK, discusses the importance of information availabilty for patients. With the advent of the internet patients are becoming more empowered. By learning about different treatment options, their side effects, and ongoing clinical trials patients can make informed decisions and better cope with their disease.

Chiara Bonini, MD, from San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy, gives an overview of the ongoing randomised Phase III trial TK008 (NCT00914628), which looks at the ability of donor lymphoctyes to recognise and kill leukemia cells and the control of graft-versus-host-disease (GvHD) via the use of a suicide gene in high-risk leukemia patients who underwent haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation. The aim is immunoreconstitution, a reduced relapse rate and control of GvHD. According to Prof Bonini, the killing of the gene modified cells and the control of GvHD has been reported as efficient in several studies.

Bruno Paiva, PhD, from the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain discusses open questions in the assessment of response in multiple myeloma (MM). According to Dr Paiva, we should see overall response rates of around 70-80% in a relapsed/refractory setting and complete remission (CR) rates of around 20-30%. In future, a deep response, including minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity, may be a goal for fit relapsed/refractory patients. Other areas that require research are biomarkers and ultra chemotherapy-resistant MRD cells. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) in Valencia, Spain.

Bruno Paiva, PhD, from the University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain discusses the current status of novel treatments in multiple myleoma (MM). According to Dr Paiva, the last three years have seen important advances for transplant eligible and ineligible MM patients. There are two questions that need to be addressed: how to combine the new agents with the current backbone therapy and how to combine the various individual novel drugs. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) in Valencia, Spain.

Arnon Nagler, MD, from Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, discusses why immunotherapy is his highlight from the 2016 Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), held in Valencia, Spain. Prof Nagler explains the importance of chemotherapy in clinical practice at the moment but also, that it is a very crude treatment. Then he discusses the new developments in immunotherapy, such as monoclonal antibodies and chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and their promise for the future of cancer therapy.

Ali Bazarbachi, MD, from the American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon explains his research into the use of FLT3 inhibitors in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). FLT3 inhibitors are tyrosine kinase inhibitors and in the first-line treatment of AML combined with chemotherapy, they have shown a survival advantage. Further, they can be used in relapsed AML in transplanted and non-transplanted patients. The most promosing setting for FLT3 inhibitors is in maintenance therapy after allogeneic stem cell transplantation to avoid relapse. Prof Bazarbachi further discusses the implications of these results and the ongoing clinical trials in this area. According to Prof Bazarbachi,…

Arnon Nagler, MD, from Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, discusses the use of drugs and transplantation in acute leukemias. Prof Nagler describes how drug therapy and transplantation are used together in order to achieve the best outcomes for the patients. For example, with the help of the drugs, the mass of a tumor can be reduced pre-transplant, which in turn means, that less chemotherapy may be required. Recorded at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), held in Valencia, Spain.

Ann Leen, PhD, from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, US, provides an overview of the safety and effectivness of virus-specific T cells and their use in transplant patients. According to Dr Leen, there is a lot of research focusing around the use of algorithms to help phyisicans choose the right product for their patients and the next step would be a registration trial. She further describes how referrals usually come from transplant physicians. In order to provide the virus-specific T cells to the patients, they require the HLA characteristics of the patient and the details of their infection. Recorded…

Ali Bazarbachi, MD, from the American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon provides an overview of FLT3 mutations in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) in Valencia, Spain. FLT3 is a tyrosine kinase and FLT3 mutations are seen in over 30% of AML patients according to Prof Bazarbachi. FLT3 mutations are associated with a poor prognosis and currently, researchers are investigating the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors to target FLT3 mutations.

Ivan Borello, MD from the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Batlimore, MD discusses the highlights in immunotherapy and in particular CAR T-cells for multiple myeloma (MM) from the Myeloma 2016 meeting held in Boston, MA with Edward Stadtmauer, MD from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, James Kochenderfer, MD from the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD and Michael Hudecek, MD from the University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany. Prof Stadtmauer discusses his talk on the CD19 targeted T-cells and the rationale behind targeting tumors that are not expressing CD19. They further talk about the B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) and…

Stephen Russell, MD, PhD from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN discusses highlights from the session ‘Environment biology insights’ in multiple myeloma (MM) held at the Myeloma 2016 meeting in Boston, MA with Dirk Hose, MD from the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany and Suzanne Lentzsch, MD, PhD from the Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY. Prof Russell first highlights the talk by Madhav Dhodapkar from the Yale Cancer Center on monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). Dr Hose then discusses his talk on the evolution of MGUS to multiple myeloma (MM). According to Dr Hose, the main factors driving…

Philippe Moreau, MD from the University Hospital of Nantes, Nantes, France gives an overview of the Cassiopeia trial on daratumumab in transplant eligible multiple myeloma (MM) patients. The trial compares bortezomib, thalidomide, dexamethasone (VTD) followed by stem cell transplantation, followed by two cycles of consolidation therapy with VTD with or without daratumumab (NCT02541383). The primary endpoint is stringent complete remission (CR). Within the same study, there is a second randomization with daratumumab maintenance for two years versus no maintenance. The goal is to show that the addition of daratumumab will improve the quality of response and therefore progession-free survival and…

Paul Richardson, MD from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA discusses his talk on ‘Perspectives on future paths to cure’ in multiple myeloma (MM) held at the Myeloma 2016 meeting in Boston, MA. Dr Richardson discusses monoclonal antibodies, proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs), HDAC inibitors as well as the role of transplants. He first discusses daratumumab, which is considered a breakthrough drug in MM. While daratumumab is used in monotherapy, elotuzumab needs to be combined with proteasome inhibitors or IMiDs. Further isatuximab, which targets CD38, appears to very promising. In terms of the new proteasome inhibitors, Dr Richardson discusses ixazomib,…

Ola Landgren, MD, PhD from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY gives an overview of his talk on the applications of minimal residual disease (MRD) testing in multiple myeloma (MM) held at the Myeloma 2016 meeting in Boston, MA. Dr Landgren outlines how two years ago, around 30% of institutions conducted flow based MRD testing while now, it is 60%. He further discusses the work that remains to be done in this field. According to Dr Landgren, MRD has arrived in MM due to the various new therapies that are now available. In terms of applications for…

Nikhil Munshi, MD from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA gives an overview of the data presented on the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) genomics program in multiple myeloma (MM) at the Myeloma 2016 meeting held in Boston, MA. The summary of the DNA data shows many mutations whereby no single mutation is more frequent that 20%. The data provides information on potential new targets, such as in the RAS, RAF and p53 pathway. Further, there are multiple clones in myeloma, which change over time which means that genomic analysis at diagnosis may not be adequate. Moreover, Dr Munshi discusses the…

At the Myeloma 2016 meeting held in Boston, MA, Daniel Auclair, PhD, from the Multiple Myeloma Research foundation (MMRF) discusses highlights from the meeting for patients with Kenneth Anderson, MD from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, Keith Stewart, MB, ChB from the Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ and Sagar Lonial, MD from the Winship Cancer Institute, Atlanta, GA. Prof Anderson highlights immune therapies and in particular, check-point inhibitors, CAR T-cell therapy and immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) such as pomalidomide and lenalidomide. According to Prof Anderson, the main message is that there are many immune therapies now and drug combinations will play…

Lawrence Boise, PhD, from the Winship Cancer Institute, Atlanta, GA, discusses the mechanism of action of venetoclax and next steps for the drug in multiple myeloma (MM). Venetoclax is an inhibitor of BCL-2 and has recently been approved for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). According to Prof Boise, only a small fraction of multiple myeloma patients appear to be sensitive to venetoclax and the next step is to find a marker that can identify those patients. Another area of research concerns drug combinations, i.e. finding drugs such as dexamethasone, that can be combined with venetoclax. Recorded at the…

Jesús San Miguel, MD, PhD, from the University of Navarra, Navarra, Spain gives an overview of his talk on ‘Immunotherapy checkpoint inhibitor trials’ presented at the Myeloma 2016 meeting in Boston, MA. First, Prof San Miguel discusses the lenalidomide and pembrolizumab KEYNOTE-023 trial (NCT02036502). The treatment was well tolerated and the response rate was 76% for the overall population and 50% for the double refractory population. Then, he discusses the trial of pembrolizumab plus pomalidomide (NCT02289222); the response rate was 60% for the overall population and 50% for the double refractory population. Recorded at the Myeloma 2016 meeting held in…

Michel Delforge, MD, PhD from the University Hospital Leuven, Leuven, Belgium gives an overview of the mechanism of action of proteasome inhibitors. Prof Delforge gives a detailed outline of how the proteasome is targeted. He further discusses the different classes of proteasome inhibitors, i.e. the boronic acid derivatives (bortezomib, ixazomib), epoxyketone derivatives (carfilzomib, oprozomib)and salinosporamide derivatives (marizomib). Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

Carlos Fernandez de Larrea, MD, PhD from the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain discusses the definition of complete remission (CR) in multiple myeloma (MM). The current definiton of CR requires a negative serum and IFE and less than 5% bone marrow plasma cells (BMPCs). However, two-thirds of patients with CR still relapse and the aim is to be able to identify those patients who are really cured. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

María-Victoria Mateos, MD, PhD, from the University Hospital of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain gives an overview of the challenges associated with assessing and treating smouldering myeloma. Smouldering myeloma is a heterogeneous disease and Dr Mateos explains how the difficulty in assessing whether a patient is at risk of progressing to symptomatic myeloma, can vary from case to case. She explains the use of the Mayo Clinic model and monitoring strategies in case of low, intermediate and high risk of progression to myeloma. For high risk patients, Dr Mateos suggests that in future, they will be offered an early treatment. Recorded at…

Michel Delforge, MD, PhD from the University Hospital Leuven, Leuven, Belgium gives an overview of the two trials on second generation proteasome inhibitors. First, Prof Delforge discusses the ENDEAVOUR trial (NCT01568866), which compared carfilzomib plus dexamethasone (Kd) with bortezomib plus dexamethasone (Vd). Progression-free survival doubled in the Kd arm compared to the Vd arm and further, the depth of response was superior in the Kd arm. Prof Delforge also discusses the occurence of side effects such as peripheral neuropathy and cardiovascular toxicity. Prof Delforge further discusses the ASPIRE trial (NCT01080391) comparing carfilzomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone (CRd) vs lenalidomide and dexamethasone…

Thierry Facon, MD, PhD, from Hospital Claude Huriez, Lille, France provides an overview of the topics and sessions covered at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) held in Paris, France. Some of the areas covered at the meetings were the biology and genetics of the disease as welll as imaging techniques and minimal residual disease assessment. Prof Facon further discusses the approval of new drugs for multiple myeloma (MM), which include pomalidomide, panastinomab, ixazomib, elotuzumab and daratumumab. According to Prof Facon, it may be possible to cure patients with MM in future. He further discusses PD-1…

Michel Delforge, MD, PhD from the University Hospital Leuven, Leuven, Belgium discusses the role of bortezomib in relapsed/refractroy multiple myeloma (MM). Prof Delforge, discusses the various trials that showed the superiorty of the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib in terms of response and time to progression. According to Prof Delforge, bortezomib is an ideal backbone and is combined with dexamethasone alone, or dexamethasone and a third agent, for example chemotherapy or immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) such as thalidomide, lenalidomide, pomalidomide. Bortezomib can further be combined with histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors like vorinostat and panobinostat. Prof Delforge discusses trials results for the various combinations.…

Sagar Lonial, MD, from Emory University Winship Cancer Institute, Atlanta, GA, USA provides an overview of monoclonal antibodies and checkpoint inhbitors for multiple myeloma at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) held in Paris, France. Currently, two antibodies are approved for routine use in the USA: elotuzumab, which targets SLAMF7 and is combined with lenalidomide and dexamethasone, and daratumumab, which is currently approved as a single agent. Checkpoint inhibitors are another important class of drugs according to Prof Lonial. Several trials have been launched looking into nivolumab and pembrolizumab, which target PD-1, in combination with lenalidomide…

Paula Rodríguez, MD, PhD from the University Clinic of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain gives an overview of her talk on anticancer immunity in multiple myeloma (MM) held at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France. Cancer cells have varied mechanisms to evade immune control and the basis of anticancer immunity is to disrupt these mechanisms. According to Dr Rodríguez, there are four approaches to disrupt these mechanisms: monoclonal antibodies, boosting the effector cells with adoptive therapy such as CAR T-cells, vaccination or using drugs like checkpoint inhibitors to overcome the immune suppression. Dr Rodríguez further…

Hervé Avet-Loiseau, MD, PhD from the Cancer Research Center of Toulouse, Toulouse, France talks about the progress that has been made in treatment of multiple myeloma (MM). According to Prof Avet-Loiseau, in five years from now, it may be possible to cure around 50% of patients with MM with intensive therapy. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

Jean-Luc Harousseau, MD, from the University of Nantes, Nantes, France gives an overview of his talk on the access to novel drugs in multiple myeloma (MM) held at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France. Prof Harousseau argues that it is important to take into consideration, that several new drugs have been approved in recent years and life expectancy for patients has improved. He further discusses the issue of drug prices and the sustainability of healthcare systems as well as the strategies employed by various countries, such as Germany and France, to assess the…

Hervé Avet-Loiseau, MD, PhD from the Cancer Research Center of Toulouse, Toulouse, France discusses the impact of next-generation sequencing (NGS) on the treamtment of multiple myeloma (MM). First, NGS may be used to assess the prognosis for patients in future. It may also be used to identify molecular targets for individual patients and help physicians choose the right drug for their patient. According to Prof Avet-Loiseau, it may also be used for the assessment of minimal residual disease (MRD). Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

Evangelos Terpos, MD, PhD, University of Athens, Athens, Greece discusses the open issues in the use of imaging techniques for the assessment of response in multiple myeloma (MM). One question concerns the MRI and how to better define complete response and further how often the MRI needs to be repeated. The same questions apply to PET-CT. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

Jean-Luc Harousseau, MD, from the University of Nantes, Nantes, France discusses the role of the patient in the debate around the access to and affordability of novel drugs in multiple myeloma (MM). Prof Harousseau argues that patients should be aware of novel drugs and their benefit, which may not always be significant. He further argues that like doctors, patients should take into consideration the cost-effectiveness ratio and further, that patients should be involved in the evaluation of novel drugs. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

Evangelos Terpos, MD, PhD, from the University of Athens, Athens, Greece discusses the limitations and challenges associated with using various imaging techniques to assess disease response in multiple myeloma (MM). According to Dr Terpos, with MRI it is possible to decide which patients to treat at diagnosis based on focal lesions while the PET-CT has the advantage of being able to better depict the living cells. Dr Terpos further discusses the benefits of diffusion weighted imaging MRI. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

Antonio Palumbo, MD, from the University of Turin, Turin, Italy provides an overview of the diagnostic criteria for smouldering myeloma. According to Dr Palumbo, hematological test plus a M-protein evaluation are the starting point and if indicated, this is followed by a bone marrow biospy and low-dose CT scan. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

Carlos Fernandez de Larrea, MD, PhD from the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain discusses which techniques can be used to establish disease response in multiple myeloma (MM). For the detection of minimal residual disease (MRD), the most established technique is flow cytometry. In terms of imagng, clear criteria for the evaulation of PET/CT are required. Dr de Larrea further discussses the importance of standardizing the various techniques. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

Antonio Palumbo, MD, from the University of Turin, Turin, Italy provides treatment advice for smouldering myeloma. The key message, according to Dr Palumbo, is that today, smouldering myeloma is defined by the presence of 3g/dL of M-component and at least 10% bone marrow plasma cells. Further, Dr Palumbo discusses ultra high-risk smouldering myeloma and high-risk smouldering myeloma. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.

Antonio Palumbo, MD, from the University of Turin, Turin, Italy provides advice on how to treat multiple myeloma (MM). For patients younger than 75, autologous transplantation remains the standard of care and Dr Palumbo also suggests a three-drug combination induction therapy. For patients who are not eligible for a transplant, the advice is also a three-drug combination, which includes proteasome inhibitors plus an alkylating agent or a proteasome inhibitor plus IMiDs. For frail patients who are not transplant eligible and also have co-morbidities, Dr Palumbo suggests a two-drug combination therapy. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple…

In this introductory video on head and neck cancer, radiation oncologist Dr. Carryn Anderson of the University of Iowa defines head and neck cancers. Listen as Dr. Anderson explains typical symptoms and common causes. She also describes treatment standards and lists the customary members of your healthcare team. Get email alerts | http://www.patientpower.info/alerts Subscribe on YouTube | http://www.youtube.com/patientpower Like on Facebook | http://www.fb.com/patientpower.info Follow on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/patientpower Follow on Google+ | http://www.google.com/+patientpowerinfo

Mohamad Mohty, MD, PhD, from Saint-Antoine Hospital, Paris, France and Arnon Nagler, MD, from the Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, discuss the highlights from the second day of the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) held in Paris, France. First, Prof Nagler highlights the presentations that focused on the current situation in Asia and how therapies for multiple myeloma (MM) all around the world are improving. Prof Mohty also discusses the trials that are being run in China. Prof Nagler and Prof Mohty then discuss the Patient Advocate Meeting and the importance of the patient voice…

Jesús San Miguel, MD, PhD, from the University of Navarra, Navarra, Spain gives an overview of immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) thalidomide, lenalidomide and pomalidomide for multiple myeloma (MM). According to Prof San Miguel, these drugs have reinforced the value of the immune system. The tumor cells use various mechanisms to evade immune system control, such as the PD-1/PDL-1 pathway. The monoclonal antibody pembrolizumab can release this particular break on the immune system. Prof San Miguel explains how preliminary data shows, that at the time of minimal residual disease (MRD) and relapse, the PD-1 is expressed on the T-cells and PDL-1 on…

Philippe Moreau, MD from the University Hospital of Nantes, Nantes, France gives an overview of a prospective comparison on PET-CT and MRI in multiple myeloma (MM). The primary endpoint of the trial (NCT01309334) was to compare MRI and PET-CT in regard to the number of bone lesions at diagnosis and the secondary endpoint was to look at the prognostic impact of both imaging techniques. According to Prof Moreau, both techniques are equally effective at identifying the number bone lesions and PET-CT was able to predict progression-free survival (PFS). Prof Moreau argues that PET-CT is a very important imaging technique. Recorded…

Jean-Luc Harousseau, MD, from the University of Nantes, Nantes, France gives two message to stakeholders, such as pharmaceutical companies, the payers, such as healthcare providers, and doctors concerning the access to and affordability of novel drugs in multiple myeloma (MM). According to Prof Harousseau, the stakeholders should find a fair price for the drugs and act transparently. The payers should focus on the patient pathway and healthcare organization. Further, doctors should not only consider the efficacy but also the efficiency. His second message to the stakeholders, payers and doctors is to work together rather than against each other. Recorded at…

Paula Rodríguez, MD, PhD from the University Clinic of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain gives an overview of the two main PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors, nivolumab and pembrolizumab. A Phase I trial of nivolumab as a single agent for a group of hematological malignancies, showed an overall response rate of around 40% for diffuse large B-cell and follicular lymphoma (NCT02038933 and NCT02038946) and an overall response rate of 87% in Hodgkin lymphoma (NCT01592370). In multiple myeloma (MM), nivolumab as a single agent only achieved a stabilization of the disease and according to Dr Rodríguez, these drugs need to be combined in MM. Dr…

Michel Delforge, MD, PhD from the University Hospital Leuven, Leuven, Belgium provides an overview of the approval of proteasome inhibitors in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM) since 2003. Prof Delforge first discusses bortezomib, which was first approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2003 and later, was approved for the use as upfront therapy in Europe and the US. Based on the success story of bortezomib, second generation proteasome inhibitors such as carfilzomib in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone, have been approved. Ixazomib, an oral proteasome inhibitor, has also been approved. Recorded at the 2016 World Congress on…

Hervé Avet-Loiseau, MD, PhD from the Cancer Research Center of Toulouse, Toulouse, France discusses his talk on prognostic factors in multiple myeloma (MM) held at the 2016 World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France. According to Prof Avet-Loiseau, it is important to categorize the prognostic factors. Some prognostic factors, such as age and co-morbidities, are related to the patient. He further discusses prognostic factors related to the tumor clone, such as cytogenetics, and prognostic factors that are only identified after treatment, i.e. response to treatment. Prof Avet-Loiseau argues that in light of minimal residual disease (MRD)…

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Alessandro M. Vannucchi discusses the use of novel agents and combination therapies in the treatment of myelofibrosis (MF). A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Nicolaus Kröger discusses the influence of mutational status on the timing, outcome and post-transplant management of patients with myelofibrosis (MF). A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Mary F. McMulllin discusses how to manage side effects of JAK inhibitors in the treatment of myelofibrosis (MF). A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Srdan Verstovsek provides an update on several JAK inhibitors in development for use in the treatment of myelofibrosis (MF). A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Eilliot Winton examines whether there is any real clinical utility in utilizing mutation-based risk stratification approaches in the treatment of patients with myelofibrosis. Earn accreditation for a related activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7221 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Theo De Witte discusses novel strategies to prevent relapse of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) after allogeneic transplantation has been performed. A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Michael Pfeilstöcker discusses newer therapeutic agents for use in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) when hypomethylating agents (HMAs) fail. A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Martin Jädersten provides an update on the use of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents and other growth factors in the treatment of low-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Fabio Efficace discusses quality of life as a treatment goal in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Torsten Haferlach discusses whether mutational profiling in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) is ready for everyday use in the clinic. A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Ruben A. Mesa discusses the pros and cons of therapy for “early” myelofibrosis. Earn accreditation for a related activity at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7221 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Gunnar BirgegÃ¥rd discusses what we have learned so far regarding the use of JAK inhibitors in the treatment of essential thrombocythemia (ET) and polycythemia vera (PV). A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Jean-Jacques Kiladjian provides and update on long-acting interferons for the treatment of myeloproliferative neoplasms. A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 US Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes, held August 26-27 in Alexandria, VA, Dr. Michael Kroll discusses the diagnosis and treatment of splanchnic vein thrombosis and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN).

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Tiziano Barbui discusses the updated World Health Organization (WHO) diagnostic criteria for myeloproliferative neoplasms. A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Rajko Kuec discusses the interplay of somatic and germline variants in myeloproliferative neoplasms. A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Marie-Caterine Le Bousse-Kerdilès discusses cytokines, cells, and inflammation in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Mario Cazzola discusses somatic mutations of RNA splicing machinery in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Carol Gambacorti-Passerini discusses the genetic basis of atypical chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.

In this presentation from the 2016 “European Focus on Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Myelodysplastic Syndromes”, Dr. Eric Solary discusses the genetic basis of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). A continuing education program related to this video is offered at the following location: http://elc.imedex.com/ELC/Activity-Search.aspx?search=7210 © 2016 Imedex, LLC.