Acute Leukemia News

• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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
• 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