HEMATOLOGY

Treating Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia in Elderly Patients

The National Cancer Institute-designated UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center has chosen Primo Nery Lara, Jr., MD, to serve as director. His position will include leading a team of over 300 scientists in their annual research, with an estimated annual research funding of $90 million. The clinical enterprise also serves over 10,000 regional patients annually.

Based on data from the ongoing phase III ADMIRAL study, Astellas Pharma, the manufacturer of&nbsp;gilteritinib, has announced the submission of a new drug application to the FDA seeking approval for the FLT3 inhibitor as a treatment for adult patients with <em>FLT3</em> mutation&ndash;positive relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia.

Two poster presentations at the 2018 BMT Tandem Meetings of the Center for International Blood &amp; Marrow Transplant Research and the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, provided a compelling&nbsp;extension of the recent phase III clinical trial that demonstrated the efficacy of prophylactic therapy with letermovir (Prevymis) for the prevention of cytomeg&nbsp;alovirus (CMV) infection in patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).

While relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is considered an aggressive disease, new findings show patients may benefit from adding chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy to their treatment regimen. ZUMA-2, a currently ongoing trial, aims to understand the potential benefits with axicabtagene ciloleucel, an&nbsp;anti-CD19 CAR T-cell product, for&nbsp;patients with relapsed/refractory MCL.

Voxtalisib (XL765) monotherapy induced objective responses in 41.3% of patients with follicular lymphoma, but displayed minimal efficacy in patients with other lymphomas, according to results from a phase II trial of patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma or chronic lymphocytic leukemia that were recently published in the Lancet Haematology.

Enrollment has been halted by the FDA on clinical trials of&nbsp;tazemetostat in patients with various solid tumors and hematologic malignancies,&nbsp;according to Epizyme, the manufacturer of the EZH2 inhibitor.