Oncology

Mario Sznol, MD, professor of medicine, co-director, Yale SPORE in Skin Cancer, Yale Cancer Center, discusses patient selection for combination therapy in metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Healthcare is very comfortable with treating a disease, but it’s not as good with handling cures. However, the advent of gene therapy and precision medicine means more and more expensive cures are coming down the pipeline, said panelists on the last day of Asembia’s 15th annual Specialty Pharmacy Summit, held April 29 to May 2 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Christine N. Duncan, MD, discusses the current components of CAR T-cell therapy in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Dozens of doctors and other medical professionals have been charged with exchanging opioids and other drugs for sex and cash; the first 2 patients in the United States have been treated with CRISPR; doctors have cured infants of immunodeficiency syndrome using gene therapy made from HIV.

Sergio A. Giralt, MD, discusses recent data with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell therapy and why this long-standing modality remains an integral part of treatment for patients with relapsed myeloma.

Noopur Raje, MD, discusses the current treatment landscape of multiple myeloma, with a specific focus on available triplet regimens and the recent data with chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy.

Two abstracts presented at the Transplantation and Cellular Therapy Meetings analyzed the detection of minimal residual disease during and after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Real-world data on the use of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy in large B-cell lymphoma bear out the pivotal results from ZUMA-1 and demonstrate not only that the treatment approach is here, but also that it’s time to address issues of efficacy, safety, cost, and moving this approach into earlier lines of therapy.

B-cell maturation antigen-specific chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy is delivering impressive results in multiple myeloma, demonstrating durable responses and acceptable toxicities.

This week, the top managed care news included CMS' proposal to cover chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy; a study faulting the FDA’s handling of fentanyl oversight; and breast surgeons calling for genetic testing for all patients with breast cancer.

Deepu Madduri, MD, discusses the status of transplant for eligible patients and the developments that are being made with CAR T-cell therapy in multiple myeloma.

As new, innovative therapies with high price tags, such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, come to market, the US health system will have to start looking at different approaches for reimbursement, said Ted Okon, MBA, executive director of the Community Oncology Alliance.

C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, discusses the role of minimal residual disease negativity and the emergence of CAR T-cell therapy in multiple myeloma.

Deepu Madduri, MD, assistant professor, Mount Sinai Hospital, discusses treatment after CAR T-cell therapy in patients with myeloma.

A multitude of BCMA-targeted CAR T-cell therapies are currently in development, each demonstrating different efficacy and safety profiles and each with different constructs.

While new therapies like chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, can have amazing results, the innovation of these treatments has outstripped the United States’ ability to pay for them, said Michael Kolodziej, MD, vice president and chief innovation officer at ADVI Health, Inc.

The anti-BCMA CAR T cell therapy bb21217 demonstrated an objective response rate of 83.3%, with a very good partial response or better rate of 75% in patients with heavily pretreated relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Two-year maintenance therapy with ixazomib led to a 39% improvement in progression-free survival compared with placebo in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who achieved a partial response to induction treatment with a proteasome inhibitor and/or an immunomodulatory agent following autologous stem cell transplant.

Treatment with the CD19-targeted CAR T-cell therapy tisagenlecleucel demonstrated sustained rates of relapse-free survival and overall survival at 24 and 18 months for pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

After being treated for his chronic lymphocytic leukemia with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, Brian Koffman, MDCM, DCFP, DABFM, MS Ed, medical director, CLL Society, is being followed for 15 years to better understand if there are any undiscovered adverse events that pop up and how durable the response is.

Eric Smith, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell persistence in patients with multiple myeloma.

Loyola University Chicago and Loyola Medicine announced plans this week to develop their own chimeric antigen receptor T-cells that would have less toxic side effects.

Javier A. Pinilla-Ibarz, MD, PhD, senior member, Moffitt Cancer Center, discusses the FDA approval of moxetumomab pasudotox for the treatment of adult patients with hairy cell leukemia who have received at least 2 prior lines of therapy.

The FDA has approved moxetumomab pasudotox for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory hairy cell leukemia following at least 2 prior lines of therapy.

Kenneth H. Shain, MD, PhD, discusses the evolution of treatment for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma and how physicians are leveraging data with chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy and minimal residual disease negativity to improve outcomes.