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.
How Immunity Generated from COVID-19 Vaccines Differs from an Infection
Originally Published: 06/22/2021
A key issue as we move closer to ending the pandemic is determining more precisely how long people exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 virus, will make neutralizing antibodies against this dangerous coronavirus. Finding the answer is also potentially complicated with new SARS-CoV-2 “variants of concern” appearing around the world that could find ways to evade acquired immunity, increasing the chances of new outbreaks.
Now, a new NIH-supported study shows that the answer to this question will vary based on how an individual’s antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were generated: over the course of a...
Core binding factor acute myelogenous leukemia-2021 treatment algorithm
Originally Published: 06/16/2021
Abstract
Core binding factor acute myelogenous leukemia (CBF-AML), characterized by the presence of either t(8;21) (q22;q22) or inv(16) (p13q22)/t(16;16), is considered good-risk AML in the context of cytarabine based intensive chemotherapy. Still, outcome can be improved significantly through the effective implementation of available therapeutic measures and appropriate disease monitoring. The incorporation of gemtuzumab ozogamicin into frontline therapy should be standard. Cytarabine based induction/consolidation regimen may be combined with anthracycline (3 + 7 standard) or antimetabolite...
Alexion Announces FDA Approval of ULTOMIRIS® (ravulizumab-cwvz) for Children and Adolescents with Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH)
Originally Published: 06/07/2021
– With this approval, ULTOMIRIS is the first and only medicine approved in the U.S. to treat children and adolescents with PNH –
– Approval based on interim results from Phase 3 study showing ULTOMIRIS demonstrated complete terminal complement inhibition through 26 weeks –
BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun. 7, 2021-- Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALXN) today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the expanded use of ULTOMIRIS® (ravulizumab-cwvz) to include children (one month of age and older) and adolescents with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH)....
Azacitidine Improves RBC-TI Rates in Patients with Lower-Risk MDS
Originally Published: 05/18/2021
CC-486—the oral formulation of azacitidine—significantly improved RBC transfusion independence (RBC-TI) rates and induced durable bilineage improvements in patients with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (LR-MDS) and high-risk disease features, according to a phase 3 clinical trial published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (2021 March 25. Epub ahead of print).
Guillermo Garcia-Manero, MD, Department of Leukemia, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, and colleagues, conducted this study to discover more treatment options for patients with LR-MDS by evaluating CC-...
COVID-19 vaccination for hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients
Originally Published: 05/14/2021
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has changed the world over the last year and impacted almost every part of our lives. In particular, patients with hematologic malignancies have been significantly affected by this crisis at every stage of their treatment. Delays in diagnosis and increased waiting times for transplants and therapy have become common occurrences. Patients with hematologic malignancies are also more likely to suffer from severe COVID-19, leading to a greater mortality rate. A recent meta-analysis of 3,377 patients with hematologic malignancies and COVID-19 showed a mortality rate of 34...
Clinical effects of administering leukemia-specific donor T cells to patients with AML/MDS after allogeneic transplant
Originally Published: 05/13/2021
Key Points
Donor-derived T cells with native specificity for multiple myeloid leukemia antigens can be expanded ex vivo.
Infusion of mLSTs after HCT is well tolerated and produces antileukemia effects.
Abstract
Relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) is the leading cause of death in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Infusion of unselected donor lymphocytes (DLIs) enhances the graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect. However, because the infused lymphocytes are not selected for leukemia specificity, the GVL effect is often...
Participation of Black Americans in Cancer Clinical Trials: Current Challenges and Proposed Solutions
Originally Published: 05/11/2021
ABSTRACT
Low participation of Black Americans in cancer clinical trials is a well-established predicament. Many factors resulted in this current dilemma with racism being the fundamental unit. Here, we discuss some current challenges and proposed solutions to help in increasing the enrollment of Black Americans in cancer clinical trials. We suggest implementing the least acceptable race-specific percentage as a new bar that registrational clinical trials need to pass before cancer drugs approval. Clinical trials will continue to draw the future of cancer therapeutics in which we believe that...
Researchers Uncover How MN1 Overexpression Causes AML
Originally Published: 05/10/2021
Meningioma-1 (MN1) is a protein whose overexpression has been linked to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and brain tumors, and 70% to 80% of AML patients with high overexpression of MN1 die within two years. Yet the mechanism by which MN1 causes these diseases has largely remained a mystery.
“Looking at the sequence, the protein has no obvious structure,” said Kathrin M. Bernt, MD, a pediatric oncologist in the Cancer Center’s Leukemia and Lymphoma Program at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). “MN1 doesn’t resemble other typical oncogenes – or any other proteins – so it’s difficult to...
“If it’s the time, it’s the time”: Existential communication in naturally-occurring palliative care conversations with individuals with advanced cancer, their families, and clinicians
Originally Published: 05/10/2021
Highlights
We analyzed naturally-occurring inpatient palliative care conversations.
Existential communication is pervasive and varied in palliative care conversations
Patients, families, and clinicians talk about time, the self, and connectedness.
Findings help develop a lexicon for everyday existential communication.
(Article continues at link.)
Mesothelin is a novel cell surface disease marker and potential therapeutic target in acute myeloid leukemia
Originally Published: 05/03/2021
Key Points
Mesothelin is aberrantly expressed in over one third of childhood and young adult AML and not expressed on normal hematopoietic cells.
Mesothelin is successfully targeted in vitro and in xenograft models of MSLN+ AML with ADCs.
Abstract
In an effort to identify acute myeloid leukemia (AML)-restricted targets for therapeutic development in AML, we analyzed the transcriptomes of 2051 children and young adults with AML and compared the expression profile with normal marrow specimens. This analysis identified a large cohort of AML-restricted genes with high expression in AML, but low...