HEMATOLOGY

Umbralisib was granted a breakthrough therapy designation by the FDA for the treatment of adult patients with marginal zone lymphoma who have received 1 prior anti-CD20 regimen.

Brian T. Hill, MD, PhD, discusses data from a retrospective trial looking at the use of axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Mohamad Mohty, MD, PhD, discusses the promise of CAR T-cell therapy in hematologic malignancies. He says CAR T cells were the superstar of the 2018 ASH Annual Meeting.

Treatment for Relapsed Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Jordan Gauthier, MD, MSc, discussed the results presented at the 2018 ASH Annual for this clinical trial and where the research is headed for patients with CLL. He also highlights another promising combination for this patient population that was presented at the meeting as well.

A triplet regimen consisting of chlorambucil and rituximab in combination with an individualized dose of lenalidomide can potentially be used as a frontline treatment for patients with advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia who are older or unfit for standard treatment with fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and rituximab.

The FDA-approved CAR T-cell therapies have instituted a new era of effective cancer therapies for patients and are the most expensive treatments to date. Now, physicians are faced with financial implications before introducing these novel agents into clinical practice.

Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Stephan Grupp, MD, PhD, discusses updated findings from the phase II ELIANA trial of tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah), a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, in pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia with high disease burden.

Jordan Gauthier, MD, MSc, discusses the rationale for combining ibrutinib with CD19-targeting chimeric antigen receptor T cells for the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Eli Lilly and Company will acquire Loxo Oncology for an estimated $8 billion in cash, the company has announced.