ASH 2015

ASH 2015: Highlights

Peter Goodwin - ecancer

There are plenty of hot topics here at the American Society of Haematology Annual Meeting; let me start with one of them. CAR T-cell therapy, that’s chimeric antigen receptor T-cells, ones that are targeted to CD19, these are now doing very well in the setting of multiple myeloma, getting long remissions with no graft versus host disease.

And FLT3 inhibition could well be the way to go for acute myeloid leukaemia, provided you have that mutation, mutated FLT3. According to the investigators this could be the new standard of care for patients who have the FLT3 mutation.

A new oral proteasome inhibitor, ixazomib, is being used together with IMiDs to improve progression free survival in multiple myeloma. The study suggests that it could change practice.

You may want to treat your patient with relapsing or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukaemia with bendamustine and rituximab but if you do then you could now consider adding the PI3 kinase inhibitor, idelalisib. In patients with ultra-high risk chronic lymphocytic leukaemia a new Bcl-2 inhibitor, venetoclax, has obtained deep remissions, complete remissions and even minimum residual disease.

In patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia whole exome sequencing can bring you a harvest. You can understand how the disease works, what causes it and you might also find new targets.

Children who have acute lymphocytic leukaemia need to take long maintenance therapy but they don’t necessarily report correctly that they’re taking the drug; you get over-reporting. This is a problem and according to investigators doctors need to be aware of it.

Newly diagnosed multiple myeloma in younger patients could be treated by transplant or by some of the new medical approaches. But according to investigators transplant seems to be the way to go. Furthermore, when you’ve transplanted the patient and you’re into maintenance then you don’t need prednisone, this new report says, you can go straight ahead just using the IMiD.