Beat AML is a collaboration launched nearly three years ago by LLS and the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), to go on the offenensive against acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a blood cancer with a poor prognosis and little change in the standard of care in 40 years. More than a dozen abstracts from the first phase of the initiative will be featured throughout the American Society of Hematology (#ASH15) Annual Meeting in Orlando over the next few days.
#ASH15 is an opportunity for researchers from around the world to present their latest data from clinical trials testing new therapies, or combinations of existing therapies, to improve outcomes for patients with blood cancers, including leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, and other blood-related disorders. Precision medicine and immunotherapy are two of the themes running through many of the presentations at #ASH15.
As researchers gain greater understanding of how cancer works, they are becoming more adept at developing precisely targeted therapies that go after the tumor cells while sparing the healthy cells.
Today The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) kicked off the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting in Orlando with a satellite symposium entitled, “Molecularly Targeted Therapies for Hematologic Malignancies.”
The program featured five renowned blood cancer experts: A. Thomas Look, M.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Adolfo Ferrando, M.D., Ph.D., Columbia University; Thomas J. Kipps, M.D., Ph.D., University of California at San Diego; Pier Paolo Pandolfi, M.D., Ph.D., Harvard Medical School, and Constantine S. Mitsiades, M.D., Ph.D., of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Larry Kwak, M.D., Ph.D., of City of Hope, moderated.
Just on the heels of two approvals last week, the FDA today approved a third therapy to treat patients with multiple myeloma. Elotuzumab (Emplicity ™) is approved for use in combination with another drug, lenalidomide (Revlimid ®) for patients who have failed previous therapies.
The dizzying rate at which new therapies have come online for multiple myeloma has created quite a bit of buzz, just ahead of the annual American Society of Hematology Meeting kicking off in Orlando this weekend. We anticipate that we will be hearing a lot more about these new therapies for myeloma, as well as many emerging therapies for other forms of blood cancer during the conference.
LLS applauded last week’s approval of daratumumab and ixazomib, (click here), and we are pleased to see yet another new option for patients for this largely incurable disease.
Beat AML is a collaboration launched nearly three years ago by LLS and the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), to go on the offenensive against acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a blood cancer with a poor prognosis and little change in the standard of care in 40 years. More than a dozen abstracts from the first phase of the initiative will be featured throughout the American Society of Hematology (#ASH15) Annual Meeting in Orlando over the next few days.