Acute Leukemia News

• Maternal Obesity Linked to High Risk for Childhood Leukemia Infants born to obese mothers are more likely to develop childhood cancer, especially leukemia.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2019
• Alert PRAC Proposes New Measures to Avoid Methotrexate Dosing Errors The measures aim to prevent misunderstandings of the dosing schedule that have led to patients taking the medicine daily instead of weekly for inflammatory diseases.
  News Alerts, July 2019
• New Cancer Drugs and Diagnostics in WHO Essential 2019 Lists New cancer drugs and, for the first time, cancer diagnostic tests have been added to the 2019 WHO essentials lists.
  Medscape Medical News, July 2019
• EHA 2019Venetoclax for Myeloma: Trial on Hold, Now Details of Benefit Although the BELLINI trial was put on partial hold, the trial was allowed to continue for patients for whom the addition of venetoclax showed benefit. New data now identify this subgroup.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• EHA 2019Measurable Residual Disease in AML Ups Post-HSCT Relapse Risk Measurable residual disease, detected with next-generation genomic sequencing, is associated with a significantly increased risk for relapse. Experts question the prognostic ability of other assessment tools.
  Medscape Medical News, June 2019
• 'How Can She Have HIV?': Pakistan Town Struggles With Surge in Infections Doctors in a town in Pakistan are struggling to cope with a surge in patients infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, with nearly 700 cases since April, most of them children.
  Reuters Health Information, May 2019
• Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents Sometimes Appropriate for Cancer-Associated Anemia Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) may be appropriate for treating cancer-associated anemia in patients whose cancer treatment is not curative in intent, according to updated guidelines.
  Reuters Health Information, May 2019
• AACR 2019Gilteritinib: 'Paradigm Shift' to Treat FLT3-Mutated AML The final readout of ADMIRAL shows significantly improved survival and remission rates with gilteritinib vs standard chemotherapy in relapsed/refractory FLT3-mutated AML, ushering in a new standard of care.
  Medscape Medical News, April 2019
• BSH 2019Genome Sequencing Shows Clinical Promise in AML and ALL Whole genome sequencing could soon be used clinically to better characterise tumour profiles in leukaemia patients, potentially improving genomic stratification and therapy choices, say UK scientists.
  Medscape News UK, April 2019
• EBMT 2019Stem Cell Transplant Patients Face Lifelong Cancer Risk Patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant should be counseled that they have an ever-increasing risk for further malignancies, although their survival may not be affected, say experts.
  Medscape Medical News, March 2019
• EBMT 2019HSCT Remains Standard in Childhood ALL, Despite CAR T-Cells Clinicians should continue to rely on matched donor stem cell transplants to treat childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, while more data on novel CAR T-cell therapies is gathered, says German expert.
  Medscape Medical News, March 2019
• Alert Clinical Trials With Venetoclax on Hold Because of Deaths The FDA issued a partial hold on all ongoing clinical trials evaluating venetoclax in multiple myeloma because of an excessive number of deaths seen in the BELLINI study.
  News Alerts, March 2019
• ASBMT 2019Treosulfan Better Than Busulfan in Prep for HSCT Older and sicker patients with acute myeloid leukemia undergoing stem cell transplant may fare better if they are given a treosulfan- rather than busulfan-based regimen, German scientists have shown.
  Medscape Medical News, March 2019
• Medicare Moves Closer to CAR-T Coverage Policy A new national policy for paying for the costly therapy includes a requirement to monitor patients for at least 2 years, as well as other conditions; the proposal is now open for comments.
  Medscape Medical News, February 2019
• Allogeneic Transplants No Benefit in Hypodiploid ALL Children with hypodiploid acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a rare form of the disease with a poor prognosis, have no survival benefit from allogeneic transplant and should not undergo it, say US doctors.
  Medscape Medical News, January 2019
• FDA Approved Record Number of Drugs in 2018 The FDA approved 59 novel drugs last year, including 19 first-in-class agents, 34 novel drugs for rare diseases, and a record seven biosimilars.
  Medscape Medical News, January 2019
• Alert FDA Approves First-Ever Drug for Rare Cancer For the first time, the FDA has approved a drug for use specifically for the treatment of blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), a rare disease with skin and leukemic involvement.
  FDA Approvals, December 2018
• Alert FDA Approves New Enzyme Product for ALL The FDA has granted approval for a new enzyme product, calaspargase pegol-mknl, to be used in acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
  FDA Approvals, December 2018
• After Chemo, Risk of Tx-Related Blood Cancer Higher Than Thought Risk of therapy-related blood cancers is exponentially higher than previously supposed, says researchers from the National Cancer Institute.
  Medscape Medical News, December 2018
• ASH 2018Model Improves Predictions of Myelodysplastic Syndrome Prognosis For patients with myelodyplastic syndrome, a machine-learning model provides a look into the future and can predict outcomes for each individual.
  Medscape Medical News, December 2018