Bone Marrow Transplantation News

Despite considerable advancements made in cancer treatment — such as with precision medicine, genomic profiling and immunotherapies — persistent financial, coverage and delivery issues threaten patients’ access to these modalities, according to ASCO’s “State of Cancer Care in America: 2016” report.

Treatment with high-dose cyclophosphamide appeared associated with lower rates of severe graft-versus-host disease, improved transplant-related mortality, and decreased admissions and inpatient hospital stays among patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for hematologic malignancies, according to data presented at the BMT Tandem Meetings.

HemOnc Today and Infectious Disease News spoke with Thomas J. Walsh, MD, director of the Transplantation-Oncology Infectious Disease Program; chief of Infectious Diseases Translational Research Laboratory; professor of medicine, pediatrics, and microbiology and immunology; and the Henry Schueler Foundation Scholar in Mucormycosis at Weill Cornell Medicine of Cornell University, about the prevalence of rare infectious diseases in patients with cancer or HIV and how these diseases may complicate treatment. In this interview, Walsh discusses existing and emerging therapeutic options, and how the inherent nature of these infections makes research challenging.

Depression or symptoms of anxiety significantly compromised quality of life and physical function and worsened disease burden among patients with chronic graft-versus-host disease, according to findings presented at the BMT Tandem Meetings.

The use of cyclophosphamide or plerixafor, in combination with granulocyte colony–stimulating factor, facilitated robust stem cell mobilization in patients with multiple myeloma, according to data presented at the BMT Tandem Meetings.

The rapidly rising costs of cancer care in the United States has created a considerable financial burden for many patients and their families. long

Robert Seeger, MD, division head for basic and translational research of the Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, received the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium.

The FDA granted orphan drug designation to BPX-501 for the treatment of patients who develop immunodeficiency or graft-versus-host disease following stem cell transplant, according to a press release from the agent’s manufacturer.

Samuel M. Silver, MD, PhD, is professor in the department of internal medicine and director of the Cancer Center Network at University of Michigan Cancer Center, as well as chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s board of directors.

A frontline transplant tandem approach consisting of autologous and nonmyeloablative allogeneic transplantation demonstrated promising OS and PFS among patients with multiple myeloma, according to phase 2 study results.