Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Renier J. Brentjens, MD, PhD, associate professor, chief, Cellular Therapeutics Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the differences between the CAR-modified T cells of three institutions.

The FDA approval of two anti-CD20 antibodies—ofatumumab (Arzerra) and, just recently, obinotuzumab (Gazyva)—has greatly advanced the outlook for managing chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Idelalisib is a potent and highly selective PI3K inhibitor that promotes apoptosis in primary cells from patients with different B-cell malignancies. Idelalisib has been shown to affect microenvironmental signaling and cell survival both in vitro and in vivo.

Richard R. Furman, MD, Richard A. Stratton Assistant Professor in Hematology and Oncology, Weill Cornell Medical College, gives an overview of the efficacy and safety of idelalisib and rituximab for previously treated CLL.

A combination of rituximab (Rituxan) and the PI3K-delta inhibitor idelalisib was associated with a >70% improvement in overall survival (OS) in patients with high-risk relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

At the 55th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), several trials of ibrutinib both alone and in combination with currently used therapies for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) were presented.

In patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who are considered inappropriate for fludarabine, the addition of ofatumumab to chlorambucil improves clinical outcomes and is tolerable irrespective of patient age or fitness.

According to preliminary results of a phase I clinical trial, nearly half of patients with relapsed or refractory CLL attained objective responses when treated with IPI-145, an oral inhibitor of PI3K-delta and -gamma.

An orally bioavailable selective inhibitor of the Bcl-2 protein induced remissions in patients with relapsed/refractory CLL and SLL.

A randomized trial showed that patients with CLL and major comorbidities had significantly better outcomes when treated with obinutuzumab, an anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, instead of rituximab.

Jennifer Brown, MD, PhD, discusses final stage 2 results of the CLL11 trial at the 2013 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting.

Results of a small clinical study showed that in patients with posttransplant relapsed B-cell malignancies, treatment with engineered donor T cells led to substantial tumor regression.

Mark J. Levis, MD, PhD, discusses the difficulty of treating a patient with a FLT3-ITD mutation in acute myeloid leukemia.

Marcel R.M. van den Brink, MD, PhD, Head, Division of Hematologic Oncology, Alan N. Houghton Chair, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, highlights two studies that will be presented at the 2013 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting.

Jae Park, MD, attending physician, Leukemia Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, comments on the treatment of patients with hairy cell leukemia.

Renier J. Brentjens, MD, PhD, discusses the potential of using CAR-modified T cells to treat hematologic cancers.

Mark J. Levis, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins University, discusses the background and future of quizartinib for FLT3-ITD acute myeloid leukemia at the 2013 Chemotherapy Foundation Symposium, which took place from November 6-8.

Obinutuzumab (Gazyva) plus chlorambucil has been approved by the FDA as a first-line treatment for patients with CLL, based on clinical trial data demonstrating that the combination more than doubled median PFS over the chemotherapy agent alone.

A phase III EPIC trial exploring ponatinib (Iclusig) in untreated patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has been discontinued. The decision comes following a high occurrence of arterial thrombotic events, according to a statement released by Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the company developing the drug.

A Q&A with Jennifer Brown MD, PhD, director of the Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.

Mark Weiss, MD, from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson, gives an overview of agents in development for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

The monoclonal antibody ofatumumab (Arzerra) has received Breakthrough Therapy designation from the FDA that could allow for earlier use in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), according to a joint announcement released by GlaxoSmithKline and Genmab, who are developing and distributing the drug.

Following a positive interim analysis, a phase III study of the PI3K-delta inhibitor idelalisib in combination with rituximab (Rituxan) has been stopped.

The FDA has placed a partial hold on the clinical development of the BCR-ABL inhibitor ponatinib (Iclusig), following the high occurrence of arterial thrombosis in patients treated with the drug.

Volasertib (BI 6727) is a potent and selective inhibitor of PLK1 in vitro that is currently being evaluated for its therapeutic potential to target the cell cycle.