Haematology

The risk for clinically significant bleeding during concurrent treatment with VEGFR–tyrosine kinase inhibitors and factor Xa inhibitors is doubled when compared with factor Xa inhibitors alone, research shows.

The direct oral anticoagulant apixaban is noninferior to subcutaneous dalteparin for the treatment of cancer-related venous thromboembolism, without an associated increase in the risk for major bleeding, suggest phase 3 trial results.

Updated clinical practice guidance on the prophylaxis and treatment of venous thromboembolism in patients with cancer is now available from ASCO.

The results of the randomized CASSINI and AVERT trials support the prophylactic use of the direct oral anticoagulants rivaroxaban and apixaban in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy who are at risk for venous thromboembolism events.

The 2-year follow-up results from the phase I/II ZUMA-1 trial of patients with refractory large B-cell lymphoma show that the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel remains efficacious and manageable in the long term.

Treatment with ibrutinib either alone or in combination with rituximab significantly delays disease progression or death compared with bendamustine plus rituximab in older patients with untreated chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, phase III trial data show.

Heavily pretreated adults with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma respond well to treatment with the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy tisagenlecleucel, show results of the pivotal JULIET trial.

Patients with follicular lymphoma who achieve a positron emission tomography-determined complete response to induction immunochemotherapy have a significantly better prognosis than those with a non-complete response, research shows.

The oral, dual inhibitor of phosphoinositide 3-kinase-δ and –γ duvelisib significantly delays disease progression or death compared with ofatumumab in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma, data from the DUO trial show.

The US FDA announcement is reported here

This month we round-up four hematologic cancer trials, two looking at treatment options for older and younger patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, and two evaluating treatments for smoldering and relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Read on to find out more.

Phase III trial data have highlighted the value of antimüllerian hormone as a biomarker of ovarian toxicity associated with different chemotherapy regimens for advanced Hodgkin lymphoma.

Persistent disease-associated mutations detected in the bone marrow 30 days after stem cell transplantation are associated with an increased risk for disease progression among patients with myelodysplastic syndrome, research shows.

A US research team has found that end-of-life care among individuals who undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can often be medically intense.

Pretreatment levels of circulating tumor DNA, as well as changes during therapy, are independently prognostic of outcomes in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and can add to established risk factors, findings indicate.

Treatment-naïve follicular lymphoma patients have similar outcomes regardless of whether they receive lenalidomide or chemotherapy in combination with rituximab, suggest phase III trial findings published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Lenalidomide offers the best overall and progression-free survival among novel agent-based maintenance regimens in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, according to a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Phase II trial results suggest that the Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor ibrutinib has high activity and is well tolerated in symptomatic, treatment-naïve patients with Waldenström macroglobulinemia.

Read more on this US FDA decision here

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