LYMPHOMAS

MCD with David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, Msc

Goals of "Project Impact: A Campaign to Defeat Pediatric Brain Tumors" include improving clinical outcomes for pediatric brain tumor patients and informing the development of the first-ever standard of care for treating pediatric high-grade gliomas.

As therapeutic approaches with more efficacy and less toxicity are still highly needed, researchers are currently working to identify new targets in the MB field.

The management of medulloblastoma, the most common malignant brain cancer in children, has not changed in decades but breakthroughs are on the horizon.

Data from the phase I HD7 through HD11 trials proves promising enough to move on to phase II.

Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is associated with an exceptional overall response rate (ORR) in patients with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma.

A majority of patients (66%) with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) who had progressed after receiving autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) and brentuximab vedotin (adcetris) experienced a response to nivolumab (Opdivo) monotherapy, findings from the phase II CheckMate-205 trial showed when presented at the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Treatment options are limited for patients with Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (WM), says Morie A. Gertz, MD. Combination therapies offer a potential solution, but the rarity of the disease is an obstacle.

The FDA has granted an accelerated approval to nivolumab for patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma following relapse or progression after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and post-transplantation brentuximab vedotin.

The FDA has granted a breakthrough therapy designation to pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL).

The FDA has granted nivolumab (Opdivo) a priority review for use in previously treated patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL), giving the drug the potential to become the first PD-1 inhibitor approved for a hematologic malignancy.

Expanding on the efficacy shown in numerous single-group studies, a phase II study published in The Lancet Oncology showed lenalidomide significantly increased progression free survivalin patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma.

Six ongoing clinical trials investigating several idelalisib (Zydelig) combinations have been halted due to reports of increased adverse events such as death for patients with hematologic malignancies, according to an alert issued by the FDA.

Obinutuzumab (Gazyva) plus bendamustine, followed by obinutuzumab alone has been approved by the FDA as a treatment of patients with follicular lymphoma who were not responsive to a rituximab regimen, or who relapsed after rituximab-based therapy.

In this article, Shipra Gandhi, MD, Pallawi Torka, MD, and Francisco J. Hernandez Ilizaliturri, MD summarize the current clinical development of these novel agents in lymphoid malignancies.

Peter Martin, MD, discusses the evolving paradigm of treatment for mantle cell lymphoma. Martin says the evolution of the paradigm currently includes Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor, phosphoinositide 3-kinase inhibitor, immunomodulatory treatments, and immunotherapies.

​John McCarty, MD, medical director, Bone Marrow Transplant Program, Virginia Commonwealth University Health, discusses advice physicians can give to patients with lymphoma seeking stem cell mobilization.