Acute Leukemia News

• '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
• Alert Risk of Methotrexate Dosing Errors Prompts EMA Review A recent routine assessment found that serious adverse events related to overdose, including fatalities, are still occurring, despite measures already in place to reduce dosing errors.
  News Alerts, April 2018
• FDA Expands Use of Amgen Leukemia Drug Blincyto to Patients With Relapse Risk The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday expanded the use of Amgen Inc's leukemia drug Blincyto (blinatumomab) to include patients who are in remission but still have residual signs of the disease.
  Reuters Health Information, March 2018
• New Approach to Assessing MRD in Acute Leukemia Minimal residual disease, a benchmark for identifying patients who are at risk for relapse, is typically done using flow cytometry. Next-generation sequencing now refines the process with additional mutations thrown into the mix.
  Medscape Medical News, March 2018
• Chemotherapy Pioneer James Holland, MD, Dies at 92 Holland was known for his involvement in developing groundbreaking cooperative clinical trial protocols for the treatment of leukemia and pioneering combination cancer chemotherapy.
  Medscape Medical News, March 2018
• AACR 2018Successful CAR T-Cell Tx Needs Good T Cells to Begin With Starting with poor-quality T cells may be a key problem in the manufacturing of effective and functional CAR T cells, which may explain why it has been difficult to apply this approach to all cancers.
  Medscape Medical News, March 2018
• FDA Panel Gives Nod to New Blincyto Use in ALL Blinatumomab would become the first treatment for which minimal residual disease positivity would be a selection criterion and MRD negativity an endpoint for acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
  Medscape Medical News, March 2018
• Alert EU Says Yes to Mylotarg for AML, No to Adjuvant Sunitinib Gemtuzumab ozogamicin (Mylotarg) has been recommended for approval in Europe for use in acute myeloid leukemia, but adjuvant sunitinib after kidney cancer surgery was turned down.
  International Approvals, February 2018
• Romiplostim Not Tied to Leukemic Progression in Myelodysplastic Syndromes Contrary to initial reports, romiplostim treatment of thrombocytopenia does not appear to increase the risk of progression from myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) to acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
  Reuters Health Information, February 2018
• New CAR T Cell for Adult ALL, 'Game Changer' in Pediatric ALL A new CAR T cell has shown efficacy in adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), as the first of these products is hailed as a 'game changer' in pediatric ALL.
  Medscape Medical News, February 2018
• Clinical Cancer Advance of the Year Is CAR T Cells In its annual review of clinical cancer advances, the American Society of Clinical Oncology highlights CAR T cells as having 'historical significance.'
  Medscape Medical News, January 2018
• Enasidenib Can Cause Serious Symptoms in Some With Leukemia A substantial minority of patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) show potentially deadly symptoms after treatment with enasidenib, according to a new analysis of data from an open-label trial.
  Reuters Health Information, January 2018
• Venetoclax for Older Patients With AML? 'Remarkable' Response Older patients with AML, who are not eligible for intensive induction chemotherapy, can hope that combinations with venetoclax may eventually be viable options.
  Medscape Medical News, January 2018
• Novartis's Kymriah Wins Speedy Reviews in U.S., Europe Novartis has been granted fast-track reviews of its cell therapy Kymriah for blood cancers in the United States and Europe, the Swiss drugmaker said on Wednesday, as it seeks to expand the pool of patients eligible for the costly treatment.
  Reuters Health Information, January 2018
• Few Patients Get CAR T Cells Because of 'Insurance Snags' Reimbursement problems related to the very high cost of therapy are causing delays in patients' receiving CAR T-cell therapy. Several experts relate their experiences.
  Medscape Medical News, January 2018
• ASHCAR T Cells: Exciting, but Who Is Going to Cover Costs? An analysis of Medicare reimbursement shows that even with a 400% markup, hospitals will be hit with a financial loss.
  Medscape Medical News, December 2017
• ASHCAR T Cells in Advanced R/R Lymphoma: Keeping Patients Alive New longer-term data on CAR T cells in patients with refractory and relapsed (R/R) lymphoma show that responses are durable, with about half of patients alive after a year or more.
  Medscape Medical News, December 2017
• ASHBlood Transfusions in Leukemia a Deterrent to Hospice Care Among patients with leukemia, transfusion dependence at end of life can be a deterrent to timely access to hospice care.
  Medscape Medical News, December 2017