ASH 2011

Jeffrey Wasser, MD, from the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, and colleagues report at the 53rd American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition that romiplostim may have greater effects on platelet responses than standard of care (SOC) + rituximab or SOC alone in immune thrombocytopenia (ITP).

Investigators at the 53rd American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition presented study data demonstrating high response rates of lenalidomide and rituximab for the initial treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Low-dose alemtuzumab in combination with fludarabine and cyclophosphamide (FCA) induced a higher rate and higher quality of complete remission (CR) than fludarabine and cyclophosphamide (FC) alone in a high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) population, analysis of the HOVON68 trial presented at the 53rd Annual Meeting and Exposition of the American Society of Hematology concluded.

Combination therapy of lintuzumab and low-dose cytarabine did not improve overall survival (OS) in older patients with untreated acute myeloid leukemia (AML) when compared with placebo and low-dose cytarabine, according to study results presented at the American Society of Hematology’s 53rd Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Minimal maternal complications and fetal detriment were observed in pregnant patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL) or non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) who received standard chemotherapy (without anti-metabolites) during their 2nd and 3rd trimesters, according to data from one of the largest studies conducted in this patient group. These results were presented at the American Society of Hematology’s 53rd Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Ruxolitinib demonstrated a significant reduction in spleen volume (SV) and improvements in myelofibrosis (MF)-related symptoms in the COMFORT-I study, reported upon at the American Society of Hematology 53rd Annual Meeting and Exposition.

In patients with low or intermediate-1 (int-1) risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and thrombocytopenia, use of the thrombopoietin (TPO)-receptor agonist, romiplostim, resulted in a 15-fold increase in platelet response as defined by the International Working Group’s (IWG) 2006 criteria for hematologic improvement-platelets (HI-P). The data from this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was presented at the 53rd American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Alisertib, an ATP-competitive, orally available inhibitor of aurora A kinase (AAK), was well-tolerated, with responses observed in heavily pretreated patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), including after autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), noted study investigators at the 53rd Annual Meeting and Exposition of American Society and Hematology.

Clinical findings presented at the American Society of Hematology’s 53rd Annual Meeting and Exposition demonstrated fractionated radioimmunotherapy (RIT) using 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan to be effective as initial chemotherapy of advanced-stage follicular lymphoma (FL) in patients with high tumor burden. Dr. Timothy M. Illidge, MD, PhD, of the School of Cancer and Enabling Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK and colleagues conducted an international, multicenter Phase 2 trial to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of fractionated 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan RIT as a first-line treatment of relapsed FL.

“In patients with previously untreated, advanced follicular lymphomas (FL),” Joseph Oliver W. Press, MD, PhD, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, states, “CHOP chemotherapy plus rituximab or CHOP chemotherapy plus 131iodine-tositumomab have produced outstanding progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates.” Dr. Press presented the findings from SWOG-0016, a Phase 3, randomized, intergroup trial at the 53rd American Society of Hematology Meeting and Exposition.