At SIOG this year I presented the haematology plenary focussing on updates in haematology. Specifically I talked about how aging is a major risk factor for the development of haematologic malignancies. Importantly, we talked about how haematopoietic stem cell aging has a lot of overlap with other aging hallmarks. So, as such, the topic of my presentation focussed on new FDA drugs and indications, particularly for older adults with blood cancer.

One of the studies that I featured was focused on the IMerge data which was a randomised controlled trial looking at imetelstat for patients newly diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndromes and the benefits specifically for older adults with this debilitating condition. We talked about clonal haematopoiesis and the relevance of new calculators that could help identify patients who are at risk for transformation to myelodysplastic syndrome and acute leukaemia.

I talked about new risk stratifications, particularly for patients newly diagnosed with AML. For those that are receiving lower intensity therapies we talked about how the BAML study was available for patients with newly diagnosed AML that are receiving lower intensity therapies to be able to better risk stratify those patient populations. We moved on and talked about for patients that are receiving allogeneic transplants there is a new CHARM study which identifies geriatric risk factors that identify patients who are at risk for 1-year non-relapse mortality following allogeneic transplant. 

We moved on and talked about for patients who are newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma, particularly for those patients newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma and the IMROZ data, a phase III randomised controlled trial looking at patients who receive isatuximab in combination with bortezomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone and having a benefit over a three-drug regimen for patients not going on to transplant.

I also talked about for patients with relapsed follicular lymphoma that there is a new CAR T indication for patients who can benefit from CAR T. I also outlined many of the new models for CAR T, particularly clinics that are being developed to be able to optimise therapy for patients with CAR T. Also that the CAR T modality is well tolerated in older adults and how we can be able to use this modality as a new option for patients with mostly relapsed disease.

That was my conclusion of all of the novel therapies and new drug indications for patients this year, over the past year, for patients with haematological malignancies.