ASH News Daily - Sunday, December 11, 2011 - (Page A-19)
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Hodgkin
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prompted clinicians to investigate
ways of identifying tools for riskadapted
therapy. Interim FDG-PET
has been proven to predict treatment
outcome in more than 90 percent of
Non-Hodgkin
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also occur. The overall survival for
patients with primary refractory disease
is dismal, but even for patients
with late relapses, the prognosis is
poor. “Autologous bone marrow
transplant remains the standard
approach in patients who respond
to salvage therapy, but the major
question is which salvage regimens
are the best prior to transplant,”
Dr. Friedberg said. Alternatively,
for patients with chemo-refractory
disease, or those who are not eligible
for transplant, an increasing
number of alternative treatments
are becoming available. Dr. Friedberg
will review some of the new
developments in targeted therapies
for aggressive lymphomas and the
potential role of rationally designed
combinations with a number of
novel agents. The significant challenge
for future studies is how to incorporate
these novel therapies into
the more standard chemotherapy
regimens and how to apply the improved
knowledge of the different
biologic characteristics in the design
of personalized treatments.
Lastly, there will be time for T
cells. Dr. Kerry Savage, British Columbia
Cancer Agency, will conclude
this session by reviewing current
challenges in the treatment of
peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs).
She will discuss the suboptimal
results achieved in most cases with
frontline therapy and the controversial
role of transplantation as a consolidation
modality after induction.
The hope for a brighter future relies
on the increasing number of agents
that have been tested in PTCLs and
the promising results achieved. A
number of new agents have been
recently approved for the treatment
of recurrent disease, including pralatrexate,
romidepsin, and most recently
brentuximab vedotin for patients
with the anaplastic large-cell
lymphoma (ALCL) subtype. Ongoing
trials are now exploring the feasibility
of incorporating these novel
agents into frontline strategies. Early
results of a phase Ib/II dose escalation
trial of romidepsin in combination
with CHOP will be presented in
the Poster session today from 6:00 to
8:00 p.m.
Dr. Pro receives honoraria from Cel-
gene and Allos and research funds from
Seattle Genetics.
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ASH NEWS DAILY
HL patients. Dr. Joseph Connors,
British Columbia Cancer Agency,
will review the emergent data on
the use of PET in HL. “There are five
possible roles for PET in HL for staging,
response assessment, treatment
modification, assessment prior to
autologous stem cell transplant, and
post-treatment follow-up,” Dr. Connors
said. The use of PET scanning
can lead to an improvement of radiation
field design; however, “Caution
in staging is the magic of stage
migration,” he added. To date, there
are no data to support the role of PET
scan in altering treatment in patients
with advanced HL. With regard to
the use of PET scan after comple-
tion of treatment, the major problem
is the rate of false positivity. “Even
a modest false positive rate in this
setting can markedly increase the
risk of unnecessary procedures,” Dr.
Connors concluded.
Radiation therapy remains an im-
portant treatment modality in earlystage
HL. However, radiotherapy
has been historically associated with
significant risks of toxicities and
second malignancies. The last presenter,
Dr. David Hodgson, Princess
Margaret Hospital, will address the
current role of radiation therapy in
HL. He will focus his presentation
on the most recent technological advances
in the delivery and planning
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®
of radiation therapy and how the
recent modifications are expected to
translate into lower rates of radiotherapy-induced
toxicities. “Intensity-modulated
radiation therapy
(IMRT) can significantly reduce the
volume of tissue receiving the prescribed
dose, and volume reduction
appears to translate into reduction
of second malignancies,” Dr. Hodgson
said. He concluded the session
by explaining that individualization
of treatment will become more and
more important as we move forward
in this complex disease.
Dr. Pro indicated no relevant conflicts
of interest.
While at the
Convention Center,
Please Visit Us at
Booth #2405
December 10-12,
San Diego, CA
visit www.sprycel.com
© 2011 Bristol-Myers Squibb Printed in U.S.A. 729US11AB06601 9/11
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ASH News Daily - Sunday, December 11, 2011
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