Christine Cserti-Gazdewich, BSc, MD, Blood Transfusion Laboratory, Toronto General Hospital, and colleagues wanted to address the burgeoning concern that the longer blood units are stored, the likelier it may be to introduce harm or simply not work as well.
Seth Karol, MD, St. Jude's Children's Research Center and his team focused their research on the 10-20 age group, the "sweet spot" where the bones are still finishing up development and thus going to be susceptible to therapy.
Romiplostim has been indicated for adults with chronic immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), but what about for kids? A phase three study examined the notion during a presentation at the 57th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting (ASH 2015) in Orlando, Florida.
Patients suffering from the most common hereditary bleeding disorder von Willebrand disease (VWD) also undergoing surgical procedures are recommended specific treatment methods to manage perioperative anticoagulation.
During the 51st ASH Annual Meeting, several new data from the PROPEL trial were released, including updates on the ORR and safety of pralatrexate in patients with PTCL and data on the correlation between baseline methylmalonic acid status and mucositis severity in this population. While the data reinforce pralatrexate as a viable treatment in patients with relapsed or refractory PTCL, some question whether the drug confers enough of a benefit to warrant its $30,000 per month cost.
Several studies have been examining various 3- and even 4-drug regimens in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. Paul G. Richardson, MD, and colleagues from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, conducted a phase I/II study investigated the novel combination of lenalidomide (Revlimid), bortezomib (Velcade), and dexamethasone (Decadron). In an interview with Oncology & Biotech News/Oncology NetGuide, Dr Richardson said response was “unprecedented.” In presenting data from the studies, Dr Richardson said, “Partial responses or better were seen in all of the 66 patients treated with the drug combination…with 74% having a VGPR rate in the phase II portion.” He added that the 54% rate of CR/near CR in patients enrolled in the phase II study “was also encouraging.”
Single-agent pixantrone, an investigational agent, showed encouraging third-line responses, duration of responses, and progression-free survival (PFS) compared with other single-agent chemotherapies in patients with relapsed aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in the phase III, randomized, open-label, multicenter EXTEND trial. In the study, patients with relapsed/refractory NHL treated with pixantrone achieved significant increases in complete response (CR) and overall response (ORR) and demonstrated a positive trend in overall survival (OS) compared with other chemotherapy agents, according to Ruth Pettengell, MD, of St. Georges Hospital in London, who presented these results at a poster session. “An anthracycline with reduced cardiotoxicity that can be used for salvage therapy of aggressive NHL meets a significant unmet medical need,” she said.