BJH - volume 14, issue 1, february 2023
K. Beel MD, PhD
Many patients with an aggressive lymphoma will be cured with frontline therapy. However, relapsed patients cannot always be cured and die as a result of their disease. Fortunately, many trials in frontline and relapsed setting address the medical need of patients with a high risk of inferior survival. Especially immunotherapies have shown promising results and some of these therapies have already become standard of care, or will be in the near future. This paper provides a summary of the most interesting clinical trials in aggressive lymphoma, presented at the 2022 ASH meeting.
(BELG J HEMATOL 2023;14(1):4–9)
Read moreBJH - volume 14, issue 1, february 2023
B. Sciot MD
This article will give an overview of the key studies in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (iNHL) that were presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology. In CLL, topics mainly focused on the combination of novel agents and there are new data from head-to-head comparison of different Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase inhibitors (BTKi). In follicular lymphoma, bispecific T-cell engagers continue to make their introduction in the therapeutic landscape, whereas CAR-T cells are showing durable responses.
(BELG J HEMATOL 2023;14(1):16–8)
Read moreBJH - volume 14, issue 1, february 2023
J. Blokken PhD, PharmD, T. Feys MBA, MSc
In this overview, we present what was new in the field of haematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) at ASH 2022. Key messages were that all AML patients – even those without complete remission – are eligible for HCT and that there is a donor for (virtually) everybody thanks to the use of post-transplant cytarabine and abatercept. Furthermore, first-line acute graft-versus-host disease treatment in standard risk patients is feasible without corticosteroids or with low-dose corticosteroids. Finally, it was reported that a non-restrictive diet does not increase infections in patients with neutropenia after stem cell transplantation.
(BELG J HEMATOL 2023;14(1):26–9)
Read moreBJH - volume 14, issue 1, february 2023
J. Blokken PhD, PharmD, T. Feys MBA, MSc
During the 64th annual meeting of ASH, again hundreds of interesting oral abstracts and poster presentations in the field of acute myeloid leukaemia were discussed. In this article, we will highlight some of the most promising data in the field of novel therapeutic agents, with interesting studies on gilteritinib and quizartinib. Furthermore, several trials assessed new induction strategies and reported on biomarker and/or minimal residual disease investigations. Finally, we discuss some practice-changing data from the ASAP and VIALE-A trials.
(BELG J HEMATOL 2023;14(1):30–5)
Read moreBJH - volume 14, issue 1, february 2023
T. Feys MBA, MSc
Over the last decades, we have witnessed tremendous advances in the management of patients with multiple myeloma (MM). Not surprisingly, also the 2022 annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) featured a wide range of abstracts dedicated to this plasma cell disorder. This article will discuss some of the most important MM related abstracts presented at this years’ meeting, including promising data generated with bispecific antibodies and CAR-T cell therapy and results of clinical trials evaluating ‘curative strategies’ in patients with high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM). In addition, this summary discusses someinteresting observations from the Icelandic iSTOPMM initiative and touches upon two innovative techniques to assess minimal residual disease (MRD) on peripheral blood in patients with MM. Finally, results of a study assessing a dexamethasone-sparing treatment regimen in frail patients with newly diagnosed MM (NDMM) will be addressed.
(BELG J HEMATOL 2023;14(1):19–25)
Read moreBJH - volume 13, issue 5, september 2022
D. Selleslag MD
Very important changes in the field of AML and MDS have been presented at the meeting and have very recently been published in top journals. First of all, the new M-IPSS integrating molecular analysis in a prognostic score for MDS was discussed by Elli Papaemmanuil and published by Elsa Bernard in June 2022 in NEJM Evid.1 Secondly, the fifth edition of the World Health Organization Classification of Haematolymphoid Tumours: Myeloid and Histiocytic/Dendritic Neoplasms was published by J. Khoury.2 It introduced new entities in MDS and AML. Finally, the updated ELN (European Leukemia Net) guidelines for diagnosis and management of AML were published in Blood in July 2022 by Hartmut Döhner.3 The impact of these three 2022 publications on the management of MDS and AML cannot be overestimated. They are not part of this report but we strongly recommend reading these papers as a background. This report is focussing on the abstracts with potential clinical impact on the treatment of AML or MDS.
(BELG J HEMATOL 2022;13(5):190–9)
Read moreBJH - volume 13, issue 5, september 2022
N. Granacher MD
The treatment landscape of chronic myeloid leukaemia in chronic phase (CP-CML) is continuously changing. During the annual congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA 2022), new strategies to improve the management of CP-CML were presented. These novel strategies include new drugs, alternative treatment strategies to reduce toxicity without affecting efficacy, and new techniques to help identify the best patient subpopulation for treatment-free remission. The highlights of these new strategies are addressed in this article.
(BELG J HEMATOL 2022;13(5):183–7)
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