Latest Conference Articles

Results from the ALPINE trial were presented Tuesday at a late-breaking session of the 64th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, held in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Consolidation therapy with blinatumomab significantly improves overall survival (OS) in adult patients newly diagnosed with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) who had no measurable residual disease (MRD negative) following initial treatment.

Third-line ponatinib is the optimal treatment option for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia in chronic phase (CML-CP) without T3151 mutation, said Elias Jabbour, MD, professor of medicine, Department of Leukemia, MD Anderson Cancer Center.

About 10% of patients with blood cancer, especially those with B-cell lymphomas, who did not make anti-spike antibodies after vaccination experienced breakthrough COVID-19 infection, said Lee Greenberger, PhD, chief scientific officer, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Nicole Gormley, MD, acting director of the Division of Hematology Products at FDA, explained that the agency wants to maintain momentum gained during the pandemic that moved clinical trials beyond the walls of academic centers.

Results of a phase 3 study presented Sunday found efgartigimod allowed a third of patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) to quickly achieve platelet levels that signal an ability to avoid sudden bleeding events.

Federico Stella, MD, University of Milan, explains why it was important to challenge the idea that the low-microbial protective diet is more beneficial than a nonrestrictive diet in patients with neutropenia.

Results from a phase 3 study of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are being presented at the 64th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Results for talquetamab presented at the 64th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition showed that about 70% of patients with multiple myeloma had responses.

Building equitable clinical trials means being thoughtful about trial design and criteria, said Matthew J. Maurer, DSc, statistician at Mayo Clinic, director of the statistics and informatics core of the Lymphoma Epidemiology of Outcomes (LEO) cohort.

The ongoing multicenter open-label adaptively randomized phase 2 I-SPY2 trial is currently investigating dual immune blockade with cemiplimab plus the investigational agent REGN3767 as neoadjuvant therapy for early-stage, high-risk breast cancer, and new data were presented yesterday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Babytam is the 5-mg daily dose of tamoxifen being studied in the ongoing TAM-01 study, which is investigating incidence of invasive breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ among high-risk women who have received the treatment regimen for 3 years.

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) within breast cancer settings can be instrumental in helping patients feel heard and improving their overall quality of care, said Oluwadamilola "Lola" Fayanju, MD, MA, MPHS, FACS, chief of breast surgery at Penn Medicine.

Abstracts from the American Epilepsy Society (AES) display potential benefits of cannabidiol (CBD) on pediatric patients with epilepsy in tertiary care centers and highlight areas where further research is needed.

William Jacout, MD, a medical oncologist and researcher at the Institut du Cancer de Montpellier Val d'Aurelle in France, shares what providers should keep in mind when using genomics as a diagnostic and treatment decision-making tool for patients with breast cancer.

The utility of annual MRI plus mammogram was investigated in a new meta-analysis delivered at this year’s San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, with the goal of optimizing use of MRI by considering potential for overdiagnosis and tailoring to age and risk group.

As they headed home Thursday from the 2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition in Las Vegas, pharmacists pitched in to help a man having a medical emergency aboard a United flight bound for Newark, New Jersey.

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-low breast disease has a number of new treatments available, and more providers need to be aware of how it differs from other forms of breast cancer, according to Adam Brufsky, MD, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

With human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)–low breast cancer still a relatively newly classified disease subtype, research is increasingly focused on the disease, in which cells express lower levels of the HER2 protein than are adequate to classify a patient as having HER2-positive disease.

Jose P. Leone, MD, director of the program for breast cancer in men at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, shares why patients and providers need to pay more attention to how breast cancer impacts male patients.

A highlight of day 2 at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium was the morning presentation of a pair of studies highlighting the ongoing survival benefit associated with trastuzumab deruxtecan in metastatic breast cancer.

Dawn L. Hershman, MD, an oncologist from Columbia University, shared insight into the current challenge of ensuring drug adherence within clinical trials and how this adherence can impact the quality of care for patients in real-world settings.

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are on the rise in the United States and have significant health and economic impacts, but pharmacists can help combat the spread as they work with affected patients.

The 64th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting & Exposition will run Saturday through Tuesday in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

Irene M. Kang, MD, from City of Hope, shared some of the results from her analysis of cognitive impairment in women with breast cancer who participated in the RxPonder study, which assessed which patients would benefit most from chemotherapy.

A session at the 2022 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition reviewed some trends in the 340B drug pricing programs and Medicaid.

There is new data coming out on complementary and alternative therapies for dementia, including supplements, mindfulness techniques, exercise, music therapy, and more, said Kalin Clifford, PharmD, BCGP, BCPS, FASCP, associate professor, Geriatrics Division, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy.

Emma Searle, PhD, consultant hematologist, The Christie Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, touches on key points learnt from MajesTEC-2 data and other data to look forward to at the 64th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Some of the latest trends in the health-system pharmacy space are ones that have already been around for a while, and organizations will need to understand how to address them at the local level, explained Marie A. Chisholm-Burns, PharmD, PhD, MPH, MBA, FCCP, FASHP, FAST, executive vice president and provost at Oregon Health and Science University.

Costs are an adverse effect of treatment just like any other adverse effect, with slightly more patients worried about the financial impact of their cancer diagnosis than they are about actually dying from their disease, noted Fumiko Chino, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center.