“We are facing an exciting era of fast-paced drug development in acute myeloid leukaemia” writes Gianfranco Bittar and colleagues at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA, in a review published in touchREVIEWS in Oncology & Haematology. In 2020, there were an estimated 21,450 new patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and 11,180 AML-related deaths […]

Histone-lysine N-methyltransferase 2A rearrangements (KMT2Ar) and mutant nucleophosmin 1 (mNPM1) occur in approximately 5–10% and 30% of patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), respectively.1,2 Both mutations are associated with the founding events in the development of leukaemia.1 In particular, KMT2Ar functions in a protein complex requiring menin, leading to the deregulation of genes, including homeobox A cluster […]

Frontline treatment with azacitidine plus venetoclax (AZA/VEN) significantly improved remission rates and survival duration for older, frail and high-risk patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in the pivotal VIALE-A trial.1 The combination is approved for use in this setting,2 but longer-term survival remains suboptimal.3 At ASH 2022 in New Orleans, Louisiana, several studies aimed to […]

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a haematological cancer needing continuous, long-term management. Treatment is lifelong and involves numerous clinic visits to receive intravenous or parenteral drugs, and this is burdensome not just for patients but for providers, too. Indeed, the costs associated with treating and managing the condition are among the highest of all malignancies. MM […]

Cold agglutinin disease (CAD) is a rare haemolytic anaemia that causes fatigue, chronic inflammation and thromboembolic complications. Until recently, no therapies have been approved for CAD. Off-label rituximab – a B-cell depleting antibody – induces a short-lived partial response in around half of patients, and adding cytotoxic agents offer further benefit but at the price […]

In the burgeoning age of personalized medicine, the treatment of rare anaemias is being transformed from one relying on transfusions and general immunosuppressants to one targeting the underlying disease pathology. Rare anaemias currently experiencing this shift include the autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA) cold agglutinin disease (CAD), which results from the immune-mediated destruction of erythrocytes. A […]