Acute Leukemia News

• CAR T-Cell Therapy for Pediatric Leukemia Is Cost-effective A new analysis shows that, despite its exorbitant price tag, the CAR T-cell therapy tisagenlecleucel for pediatric leukemia appears to be cost-effective.
  Medscape Medical News, October 2018
• Affimed Puts on Hold Cancer Drug Trial After Patient Death Drug developer Affimed N.V. on Monday put on hold the testing of its experimental cancer drug following the death of a patient and two life-threatening events.
  Reuters Health Information, October 2018
• Low Research Participation, Shorter Therapy Tied to ALL Relapse in Young Adults Acute lymphoblastic anemia (ALL) is more likely to relapse in adolescents and young adults (AYAs; ages 15-39) than in children, and lower clinical trial enrollment and shorter therapy course are associated factors, researchers say.
  Reuters Health Information, October 2018
• Rare Manufacturing Glitch Raises Concern Over CAR-T Therapies: Study A single leukemia cell inadvertently got mixed in with a batch of a patient's immune cells that were being manufactured into a CAR-T cell therapy and it acquired resistance to the treatment with deadly results, University of Pennsylvania researchers reported on Monday.
  Reuters Health Information, October 2018
• New Guidelines: Antimicrobial Prophylaxis for Cancer Patients ASCO and IDSA have jointly issued updated guidelines for antimicrobial prophylaxis for adult patients with immunosuppression associated with cancer and its treatment.
  Medscape Medical News, September 2018
• Oral Contraceptive Use Link to Childhood Leukemia Maternal use of combined estrogen/progestin oral contraception near or during pregnancy was significantly associated with an increased risk for non-lymphoid-type leukemia in offspring.
  Medscape Medical News, September 2018
• Double the Risk for Neurotoxicity for Hispanic Kids From ALL Rx Minority children, notably Hispanics, are more susceptible to developing methotrexate-induced neurotoxicity than non-Hispanic children during treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
  Medscape Medical News, September 2018
• First CAR T Cells Approved in Europe The European Commission has approved the first CAR T-cell product, tisagenlecleucel, for the treatment of certain leukemias and lymphomas.
  International Approvals, August 2018
• Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Ups Early Mortality Risk for Decades Recipients of donor blood or marrow transplants (BMTs) during childhood remain at increased risk of premature death for 25 years or more after the procedure, researchers say.
  Reuters Health Information, August 2018
• Cancer Care for Adolescents Costs More in Pediatric Institutions Costs of cancer care for adolescents are significantly higher in pediatric institutions than in adult institutions, researchers from Canada report.
  Reuters Health Information, July 2018
• Low-Dose Radiation Exposure Early in Life Tied to Higher Leukemia Risk Cumulative exposure to low levels of ionizing radiation is associated with an increased risk of developing leukemia, according to a new analysis.
  Reuters Health Information, July 2018
• Alert FDA OKs Targeted Agent Ivosidenib for Relapsed/Refractory AML The FDA has approved the first-in-class agent ivosidenib, which targets mutations in the IDH1 gene in acute myeloid leukemia.
  FDA Approvals, July 2018
• New Findings Illuminate 'Black Box of Leukemia' Researchers have identified genetic mutations that may occur years before acute myeloid leukemia actually develops, giving new clues as to how the disease begins.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2018
• EHA 2018FLT3 Inhibitor Quizartinib Improves Survival in AML For the first time, a single agent has produced a survival benefit when compared to standard chemotherapy in a subgroup of patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2018
• Alert First Two CAR T-Cell Therapies Get Thumbs Up From EMA Panel In a momentous evaluation, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) also recommended marketing authorization of two products that represent a new generation of cancer treatments.
  International Approvals, June 2018
• Chemotherapy May Alter Brain Activity in Survivors of Childhood ALL Chemotherapy for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is associated with alterations in brain activation during attention and executive-function tasks, researchers report.
  Reuters Health Information, June 2018
• EHA 2018Novel CD22 CAR-T Works After CD19 Product Failed A novel CAR T-cell therapy directed against CD22 worked in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who had previously progressed after receiving CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2018
• 'Too Clean' Could Be a Trigger for Childhood Acute Leukemia A lack of microbial exposure among children in industrialized countries may contribute to the development of childhood B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, say researchers.
  Medscape Medical News, May 2018
• ASCO 2018'Best Survival Data Ever' in Young T-Cell Leukemia Patients Moving nelarabine to the front line and combining it with methotrexate improved 4-year disease-free survival in young patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
  Medscape Medical News, May 2018
• T-Cell Biomarker Predicts Response to CAR T-Cell Therapy in CLL Only a subset of patients with advanced CLL achieve a complete and durable response to CAR T-cell therapy, and now researchers may have discovered the reason for that.
  Medscape Medical News, May 2018