Acute Leukemia News

• No Survival Gain From High-Dose Cytarabine Consolidation in AML The real-world registry data backup findings from randomized trials comparing high vs intermediate doses. The study was published as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed.
  First Look, June 23, 2022
• ASCO 2022 Forget Moonshot: Cancer Patients Right Now Need 'Groundshot' While the "Moonshot" aims at the future, a "groundshot" initiative could address the issues facing cancer patients right now by making better use of services that are already available.
  Medscape Medical News, June 21, 2022
• EHA 2022 Quizartinib Doubles Overall Survival in FLT3-ITD-Positive AML The FLT3 inhibitor, taken during chemotherapy and continued as a single agent for up to 3 years, significantly improved survival compared with standard chemotherapy.
  Medscape Medical News, June 13, 2022
• EHA 2022 Similar Survival, Less Toxicity With Decitabine vs Chemo in AML For patients with acute myeloid leukemia, treatment with decitabine prior to stem cell transplantation had similar overall survival and much less toxicity compared with intensive chemotherapy.
  Medscape Medical News, June 12, 2022
• AYA Leukemia Survivors: 'Cure Is Not Enough' Adolescent and young adult (AYA) survivors of leukemia have a life span that is about 10% lower than that of their peers in the general population.
  Medscape Medical News, May 20, 2022
• Venetoclax Add-On Promising in Newly Diagnosed AML Adding venetoclax to the conventional induction with daunorubicine and cytarabine led to high rates of complete remission in adults with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia in a study conducted in China.
  Reuters Health Information, May 11, 2022
• Lab Algorithm Cancels Same-Day Redundant Orders Automatically A lab algorithm canceled more than 5% of whole-blood cell differentials every month with no additional effort from clinicians and lab technologists.
  Medscape Medical News, May 06, 2022
• Alert EMA Begins Review of Rucaparib After Finding of Shorter Survival Recently published results from the ARIEL4 trial show a significantly longer progression-free survival; but new results show a shorter overall survival.
  News Alerts, April 26, 2022
• Inhibiting the LSD1 Enzyme Renders Some Leukemia Cells Sensitive to TKI Treatment A laboratory study suggests that inhibition of LSD1 (lysine-specific demethylase) renders some patient-derived acute myeloid leukemia cells sensitive to the MEK inhibitor trametinib.
  Reuters Health Information, April 25, 2022
• Adding Ivosidenib to Azacitidine Improves Survival in IDH1-Mutated AML Survival was more than twice as long when the Servier drug ivosidenib was added to azacitidine in 146 patients with newly diagnosed IDH1-mutated acute myeloid leukemia, according to results of the phase 3 AGILE trial.
  Reuters Health Information, April 20, 2022
• COVID Vaccine Response Varies by Blood Cancer Type, Treatment Patients with AML and high-risk MDS had stronger immune responses after two vaccine doses than patients with ALL. This study was published as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed.
  First Look, April 20, 2022
• AACR 2022 Biomarker Predicts Nonresponse to CAR T in Pediatric ALL Alternative strategies could be offered to children and young adults with advanced acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) identified as being unlikely to respond to the expensive therapy.
  Medscape Medical News, April 18, 2022
• Bridging Oceans, Docs Rally to Save a Ukrainian Cancer Patient For the cancer patients among the 4 million refugees who have now left war-torn Ukraine, continuing care can be fraught with logistics problems, including problems with language.
  Medscape Medical News, March 31, 2022
• Newly Characterized Mutation May Define Leukemia Subtype in Kids Researchers have discovered a new mutation found in a relatively high proportion of relapsed cases of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia that they think may define a new subtype of the disease.
  Reuters Health Information, February 23, 2022
• CROI 2022 Third Transplant Patient Cured of HIV Marks Important Firsts A third person who has been 'cured' of HIV through a unique transplant of stem cells has given hope for a larger-scale way to beat back the HIV epidemic that has plagued the world for four decades.
  WebMD Health News, February 16, 2022
• Venetoclax Add-On Improves Complete Remission in AML A phase 2 study found 91% complete remission in patients with AML who received venetoclax plus standard therapy. The study was published as a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed.
  First Look, February 15, 2022
• Blast Counts Not Enough to Distinguish MDS From AML, Experts Say Oncologists argue that in differentiating myelodysplastic syndrome from acute myeloid leukemia, more than just bone marrow blast cutoff should be considered.
  Medscape Medical News, February 14, 2022
• Pandemic-Fueled Shortages of Home Health Workers Strand Patients Without Necessary Care Pandemic-Fueled Shortages of Home Health Workers Strand Patients
  Kaiser Health News, February 03, 2022
• Alert EMA Gives Green Light to New CAR-T Cell Therapy The European body has recommended approval of a new CAR-T cell therapy, as well as two generic version of dasatinib and a biosimilar of pegfilgrastim.
  International Approvals, February 01, 2022
• Surrogate Endpoints Acceptable in AML Trials, Says FDA In the case of drugs used for newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML), surrogate endpoints have been validated, says the US Food and Drug Administration.
  Medscape Medical News, January 31, 2022