News and Treatment Updates
Here's where you'll find a regularly updated, broad range of articles written by the AAMDSIF team, allied health organizations and news organizations. By staying well-informed, patients and families are practicing a form of self-support that will help them be more effective self-advocates when engaging with health care providers.
Pevonedistat plus azacitidine may increase survival for myelodysplastic syndrome, AML
Originally Published: 06/15/2020
Article Source: External Web Content
Pevonedistat plus azacitidine increased overall survival, event-free survival and response rates compared with azacytidine alone in higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes and low-blast acute myeloid leukemia, according to data presented at ASCO.
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Pegcetacoplan Outperforms Current Standard of Care in Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria
Originally Published: 06/12/2020
Article Source: External Web Content
The novel C3 inhibitor pegcetacoplan led to a significant improvement in hemoglobin level and other clinical outcomes at week 16 versus the current standard of care, eculizumab (Soliris) in patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), according to findings from the phase 3 PEGASUS trial, presented ahead of the 2020 European Hematology Association Annual Congress.
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Ruxolitinib Improves Outcomes in aGVHD Across Subgroups
Originally Published: 06/12/2020
Article Source: External Web Content
Ruxolitinib (Jakafi) induced a strong, durable response across several subgroups of patients with steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD), according to data from the REACH2 trial presented at the 25th Annual European Hematology Congress.
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Discovery in human acute myeloid leukemia could provide novel pathway to new treatments
Originally Published: 06/02/2020
Article Source: External Web Content
Researchers at Mount Sinai have discovered that human acute myeloid leukemia (AML) stem cells are dependent on a transcription factor known as RUNX1, potentially providing a new therapeutic target to achieve lasting remissions or even cures for a disease in which medical advances have been limited.
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Being a Caregiver for a Patient with Cancer During Quarantine
Originally Published: 05/26/2020
Article Source: External Web Content
During a recent webinar on COVID-19 that focused on caregivers for patients with cancer, Shera Dubitsky, MEd, MA, Senior Advisor to Sharsheret’s Medical Advisory Board, addressed the topic of traversing the uncharted territory of COVID-19, focusing on caregivers and family members of women with breast or ovarian cancer.
“These are very unprecedented times, and we understand the challenge,” said Executive Director Elana Silber, MBA, explaining that Sharsheret’s longtime model is one of remote support.
SF3B1 Variant in MDS Found to Identify Distinct Disease Entities
Originally Published: 05/17/2020
Article Source: External Web Content
For the first time, an international working group of experts in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) proposed the recognition of the SF3B1 variant as a distinct nosologic entity based on the presence of a non-inheritable genetic mutation that causes the disease.1
SF3B1 mutation identifies a condition which is characterized by ring sideroblasts, ineffective erythropoiesis, and indolent clinical course.
The report, published in Blood, suggested that the mutation is found in approximately 1 in every 5 patients with MDS. About half of patients with MDS carry somatic mutations, and SF3B1 is the most...
Cancer and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)—Facing the “C Words”
Originally Published: 05/07/2020
Article Source: External Web Content
By Urvi A. Shah, MD from JAMA Oncology
Until now, most people feared a diagnosis with the dreaded “C word”—cancer—owing to its associated physical, emotional, and financial hardships as well as its social stigma. However, the rapid progression of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from a local issue to a global pandemic has quickly made it a competitor for the spot of the most feared disease, and rightly so, given the intense strain it is placing on us individually and as a society at every level. For me, having been diagnosed with both diseases 4 years apart, COVID-19 has brought back...
COVID-19 outcomes in patients with hematologic disease
Originally Published: 05/06/2020
Article Source: External Web Content
To the Editor:
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel coronavirus of zoonotic origin that emerged in China at the end of 2019. The infection, named Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), is now spreading worldwide. As of April 16, 2020, the virus had affected more than 2,000,000 individuals and resulted in over 125,000 deaths worldwide. Mortality can be as high as 15% in elderly patients, and/or in patients with comorbidities [1, 2]. Based on the current available data, the incubation period (time from exposure to symptom development) is estimated as between 2...
Haploidentical BMT for severe aplastic anemia with intensive GVHD prophylaxis including posttransplant cyclophosphamide
Originally Published: 04/28/2020
Article Source: External Web Content
Key Points
Bone marrow transplantation with posttransplantation CY in severe aplastic anemia results in rapid hematopoietic reconstitution.
Rates of graft-versus-host-disease-free survival in treatment-naïve and refractory disease compare very favorably to standard therapies.
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Defense Health Research Programs Relevance to National Security and Military Families
Originally Published: 04/14/2020
Article Source: Press Release
Information by research area for CDMRP grants included.