Dr Prem Mahendra MD, FRCP, FRCPath
Consultant Haemato-Oncologist
Haematology News
High-risk smouldering myeloma The Aquila Study randomised 390 patients with high-risk smouldering myeloma to receive either sub-cutaneous daratumumab every 28 days or active monitoring for up to 36 months or until their condition progressed to myeloma. High-risk myeloma was defined as patients with features that had them at more than 50% of developing myeloma within … Read more
Hodgkin lymphoma – The German HD21 trial compared BrECADD (brentuximab, etoposide, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, dacarbazine and dexamethasone) chemotherapy with the current standard BEACOPP for patients with advanced stage Hodgkin lymphoma. The 4-year progression-free survival was significantly better for patients receiving BrECADD, and it also decreased treatment duration to 3-months and had a favourable tolerability. BrECADD sets … Read more
Myeloma – The DREAMM-8 clinical trial that was presented at ASCO and published in the NEJM in June 2024 was a randomised trial comparing belantamab mafodotin, pomalidomide and dexamethasone (BPd) with pomalidomide, bortezomib and dexamethasone (PVd) in lenalidomide-exposed patients who had relapsed/refractory disease after at least one line of treatment. Patients randomised to BPd had … Read more
Myeloma – the phase 3 PERSEUS trial from the European Myeloma Network randomised approximately 700 newly diagnosed patients with myeloma to treatment with dartumumab, velcade, revlimid and dexamethasone (D-VRD) or VRD followed by an autologous stem cell transplantation, 2 cycles of consolidation with D-VRD or VRD followed by maintenance treatment with dara-revlimid or revlimid alone. … Read more
In July 2023 the EMA approved Glofitamab, one of the most potent single drugs available for the treatment of relapsed/refractory DLBCL. Glofitamab is a CD20xCD3 bispecific T-cell engager. In a Phase 2 trial of 108 relapsed/refractory DLBCL patients who received glofitamab for a fixed duration an overall response was seen in 50% and a complete … Read more
For older non-transplant eligible patients’ initial treatment options are VR-CAP (bortezomib, rituximab, cyclophosphamide, adriamycin and prednisolone based on the LYM 3002 phase 3 trial of VR-CAP vs R-CHOP which showed a longer survival for patients treated with VR-CAP; or bendamustine and rituximab followed by rituximab maintenance. The TRIANGLE study has demonstrated the benefit of adding … Read more
For over 30-years autologous stem cell transplantation has been the standard of care for patients with relapsed diffuse-large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The international Zuma-7 trial randomised 359 patients with relapsed/refractory DLBCL or patients with DLBCL who had relapsed within 12-months of their initial therapy to a novel T-cell immunotherapy called CAR-T (chimeric receptor antigen -T-cell … Read more
For decades the standard treatment for patients with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma has been combination chemotherapy with either ABVD or escalated BEACOPP. Approximately 5 years ago a randomised trial showed that brentuximab vedotin (an antibody conjugate) combined with AVD compared with ABVD improved overall survival in adults with Hodgkin lymphoma. The results of the recent SWOG … Read more
Whilst access to CAR-T therapy is only available by entry into clinical trials in the UK currently, recent results of ciltacabtagene autoleucel (also known as cilta-cel and Carvykit) has been shown to be “remarkably effective” in the treatment of myeloma. The results presented at the ASCO meeting and published in the New England Journal of … Read more