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“Mogamulizumab demonstrated convincing clinical activity, not just in skin but also in clearing malignant T-cells in the blood and lymph nodes. PFS and overall global response outcomes are clearly superior,” said Dr Kim.

“The main rationale from the cytotoxic era is to increase efficacy by combining agents that have different mechanisms and nonoverlapping toxicities. The question is whether we can replace nonspecific cytotoxic agents with a specific, more effective immunotherapeutic,” said Donna Przepiorka, MD, PhD, at ASH 2017.

Acalabrutinib received FDA approval on October 31, 2017, for patients with mantle-cell lymphoma but not for patients with CLL. It is only the second BTK inhibitor to receive approval by the FDA.

Findings from an interim analysis of the phase 3 MURANO study show venetoclax plus rituximab achieved superior progression-free survival and overall survival compared with standard-of-care bendamustine plus rituximab in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Lead investigator Joseph M. Connors, MD, FRCPC, Clinical Director, Centre for Lymphoid Cancer, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, Canada, reported the results of the phase 3 ECHELON-1 clinical trial, which were also published online (Connors JM, et al. N Engl J Med. 2018;378:331-344) to coincide with the ASH meeting.

Among patients with untreated follicular lymphoma, 75% achieved complete responses with the 3-drug combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq), obinutuzumab (Gazyva), and bendamustine (Treanda), results of a small, preliminary clinical trial reported at ASH 2017 showed.

Of the 24 patients receiving sotatercept monotherapy, 20 had primary myelofibrosis. Their median baseline hemoglobin level was 7.5 g/dL.