Dr. Peter Martin’s Manuscript Selected as Top 10 Manuscript for 2016

Earlier today the editors of Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology selected the top 10 most outstanding manuscripts of 2016. Dr. Peter Martin was the first author in one of the selected abstracts titled ‘Post Ibrutinib outcomes in patients with mantle cell lymphoma‘. (MCL)

Dr. Peter Martin
Dr. Peter Martin

Dr. Martin led a team of researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and centers from around the world in a retrospective study of patients with MCL who experienced disease progression while receiving ibrutinib. These researchers found that MCL patients who progressed during treatment with ibrutinib have a poor outcome. As there are no therapies that appear to be uniquely successful in the post-ibrutinib setting this represents an unmet need.

You can read about the full results from their study in the abstract.

Congratulations Dr. Martin!

Dr. John Leonard Discusses Results from the GALLIUM Trial for Patients with Previously Untreated Follicular Lymphoma

jl

Click on the graphic above to watch this interview from the 2016 annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, Lymphoma Program Director, Dr. John Leonard discusses results from the recently completed GALLIUM trial. In this trial researchers compared the safety and efficacy of either rituximab or obinutuzumab with chemotherapy followed by maintenance with the same agent as first-line therapy for patients with previously untreated follicular lymphoma.

Targeting the Cellular Metabolism and Survival Mechanisms in CLL and Richter’s Syndrome

john-allan-mdBy John Allan M.D.

The survival of tumor cells is dependent on the tumor cells maintaining a normal interaction with the healthy microenvironment. An increasingly important strategy in the treatment of CLL is to develop new therapies that do not necessarily attack the cancerous cells themselves, but instead attack the molecular processes that allow the cancerous cells to function and thrive in the microenvironment. One potential target for treating CLL is the protein complex NF-kB, which controls important cell functions including the regulation of cell death, cell survival, and cell proliferation. If NF- kB function can be inhibited then CLL can be more easily treated.

The purpose of this recent study presented at the 2016 ASH meeting was to test the efficacy of the newly developed NF-bK inhibitor IT901 in the treatment of CLL and its aggressive transformation Richter’s Syndrome (RS).  RS is a transformation that occurs within 5-10% of CLL’s and turns the disease into a fast growing diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, an aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The treatment of RS currently represents an unmet therapeutic need.

Results from this study were confirmed in a mouse xenograft model for people with CLL and in cell samples obtained from people with RS. In both models the use of IT901 was characterized by decrease in tumor growth and Researchers found that IT901 induced death in cancerous cells within 24 hours of treatment with a minimal impact on normal B-cells.

Researchers concluded that IT901 is effective in rapidly blocking NF-kB activity by decreasing the functions that allow the cell to flourish in the microenvironment. The results from this study are encouraging and point to a potential new treatment option for patients with CLL and RS.