Hematology

Treating patients with multiple myeloma can be difficult, but in the past several months there have been a large number of promising updates to potential new combinations of treatment.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that it will cover chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for Medicare beneficiaries.

This is the first approval for this patient population in nearly a decade.

Nurses must understand CAR T-cell therapy and be able to recognize what to do when encountering patients who have received it.

Understanding CLL is important for all oncology nurses, regardless if they specialize in hematologic or solid malignancies.

It is crucial for nurses to be aware of adverse events that can occur in patients who are receiving CAR T-cell therapy, explained one expert.

There are certain comorbidities and lifestyle factors that practitioners must consider before prescribing treatment for chronic myelogenous leukemia.

After months of debate, the Food and Drug Administration announced that they will be taking action to protect women from breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved rituximab-pvvr (Ruxience), a biosimilar to rituximab (Rituxan) for the treatment of blood cancers.

Patients with high-risk mantle cell lymphoma are likely to have their disease relapse, making investigations into novel treatments, such as CAR T-cell therapy, important.

Oncology nurses brightened the mood of Kerry Fraser's first oncology appointment.

Patients with CLL prescribed BTK inhibitors may have a higher chance of developing secondary cancers, according to recent research.

CLR 131, a targeted, molecular radiotherapy, showed a 33% overall response rate in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

Now that the CD19-targeted CAR T-cell therapies axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel; Yescarta) and tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) have shown durable responses in the relapsed/refractory settings of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, researchers are hopeful that earlier exposure may heighten the curative potential of the modality, explained Mazyar Shadman, MD, MPH.

Now that patients have more drug options to treat myeloma, quality of life is becoming more important, said one expert.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved selinexor (Xpovio) plus dexamethasone for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, who had at least 4 prior therapies.

The Food and Drug Administration approved daratumumab (Darzalex) plus lenalidomide and dexamethasone (Rd) for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed myeloma who are not eligible for autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT), according to Janssen, the manufacturer of the drug.

The Food and Drug Administration lifted a partial clinical hold on the CANOVA trial, examining venetoclax with dexamethasone in relapsed/refractory myeloma.

While clinical trials drive FDA approvals, real-world data may be equally important as it lends insight to a broader group of patients.

In different stages of multiple myeloma treatment, patients' priorities may change.

The FDA has granted an accelerated approval to polatuzumab vedotin (Polivy) for use in combination with bendamustine and rituximab (Rituxan; BR) for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who have received at least 2 prior therapies.

Venetoclax (Venclexta) to obinutuzumab (Gazyva) reduced the risk for disease worsening or death

Monoclonal antibodies, proteasome inhibitors, and targeted agents are among the many options in the crowded treatment landscape of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, and the emergence of drugs, such as venetoclax (Venclexta) and selinexor, could add to the complexity of this paradigm, said Cristina Gasparetto, MD.

The FDA granted a priority review to daratumumab (Darzalex) in combination with bortezomib (Velcade), thalidomide and dexamethasone (Vtd) for the front-line treatment of newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma who are candidates for autologous stem cell transplant.

The FDA has approved the R2 regimen of lenalidomide (Revlimid) plus rituximab (Rituxan) for use in patients with previously treated follicular lymphoma and marginal zone lymphoma (MZL).

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ruxolitinib (Jakafi) for the treatment of patients 12 years or older with steroid-refractory acute graft-versus-host disease.

Lenalidomide (Revlimid) significantly reduced the risk for smoldering multiple myeloma to progress to cancer among patients with moderate to high risk, according to findings from the phase II/III E3A06 trial to be presented at the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting.

The FDA has approved the combination of venetoclax (Venclexta) and obinutuzumab (Gazyva) for the frontline treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL).

While the FDA currently has no plans to ban textured breast implants, the agency did outline steps to ensure providers and patients are educated on breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL).

The FDA has approved a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) for ivosidenib (Tibsovo) as a single agent for the first-line treatment of adult patients with IDH1-mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML), as detected by an FDA-approved test, who are ≥75 years old or are ineligible to receive intensive chemotherapy.