New Research on Improving Treatments for People With Lymphoma: 2018 ASH Annual Meeting

January 22, 2019
Greg Guthrie, ASCO Staff

The 2018 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting was held December 1 to 4 in San Diego, California. This meeting brings together experts from across the globe to discuss new advances in the treatment of blood-related diseases, including a group of cancers called lymphoma.share on twitter

In this podcast, Michael E. Williams, MD, ScM, describes several research highlights announced at this meeting in the treatment of certain subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, including follicular lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). He also discusses new understandings about the immunotherapy treatment called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and a new treatment combination for Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia, sometimes called lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma. 

  • A chemotherapy-free treatment plan for advanced follicular lymphoma [1:56].

  • Six cycles of chemotherapy plus 2 doses of immunotherapy may be enough treatment for stage III and stage IV DLBCL [5:06].

  • Less treatment may be equally effective for certain people with stage I or stage II DLBCL [7:47].

  • A central manufacturing facility may make it possible for people in many places to receive the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy axicabtagene ciloleucel (Yescarta) to treat DLBCL [9:27].

  • The CAR T-cell therapy tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) can be effective at treating DLBCL [12:32].

  • Side effects of CAR T-cell therapy [13:22].

  • Combining ibrutinib (Imbruvica) and rituximab (Rituxan) to treat Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia [14:42].

Dr. Williams is the Byrd S. Leavell Professor of Medicine and Professor of Pathology at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine. He serves as Chief of the Hematology/Oncology Division, Physician Lead for the Cancer Service Line, and Associate Director for Clinical Affairs in the UVA Cancer Center. He is also the Cancer.Net Associate Editor for Lymphoma.

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