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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the hedgehog pathway inhibitor glasdegib (Daurismo) for use in combination with low-dose cytarabine (LDAC) for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in newly-diagnosed patients who are aged 75 years or older or who are ineligible for intensive chemotherapy.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted an accelerated approval to venetoclax (Venclexta) for use in combination with azacitidine or decitabine or low-dose cytarabine for the treatment of newly-diagnosed adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who are aged 75 years or older, or who have comorbidities that preclude use of intensive induction chemotherapy.

The FDA has approved elotuzumab (Empliciti) for use in combination with pomalidomide (Pomalyst) and low-dose dexamethasone (EPd) for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma following 2 or more prior therapies, including lenalidomide (Revlimid) and a proteasome inhibitor.

Investigators are hopeful that idasanutlin, a novel small molecule that targets the MDM2 protein, is being tested in combination with cytarabine in the international phase III MIRROS clinical trial (NCT02545283) to see if omprove the efficacy of chemotherapy in patients with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Frontline therapy may be able to be avoided in asymptomatic, young, fit patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), explained Simon Rule, MD, PhD, in a presentation during the 2018 SOHO Annual Meeting. Active treatment in this patient population could potentially lead to unnecessary toxicities, he added.

The FDA has approved the CD22-directed recombinant immunotoxin moxetumomab pasudotox (Lumoxiti) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory hairy cell leukemia (HCL) who have received at least 2 prior lines of therapy, including treatment with a purine nucleoside analog.