Hot off the ASCO press: leukemia and transplant highlights

At the 2019 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, US, steering committee member, Gail Roboz from Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, US, shares highlights from the leukemia and transplant session. Dr. Roboz highlights that there is currently a lot going on within the AML sector, for example, the US has seen 8 new approvals in the last 2 years, and that there has been a lot of activity in newly diagnosed AML, relapsed AML, and also in novel targeted agents based on next-generation sequencing and profiling of patients, which ultimately is changing the way physicians think about treating all AML patients, both younger and older.

On the randomized trial front, Dr. Roboz emphasizes that investigators are eagerly awaiting the results of venetoclax added to azacitidine versus azacitidine alone, although this data is not presented at ASCO, the combination of venetoclax with hypomethylating agents has resulted in some impressive complete response numbers with the hope that this benefits overall survival as well. Dr. Roboz also shares thoughts on some practice changing abstracts, including gilteritinib data, as well as some phase II data on non- anticoagulant heparinoids called CX-01, from phase II data in older patients.