Table of Contents
Improving Response to Treatment in CLL with the Addition of Rituximab and Alemtuzumab to Chemoimmunotherapy
NE Oncology Issue - August 2010 Combinations of purine analogs, alkylating agents, and monoclonal antibodies have dramatically improved response to treatment in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), resulting in a shift in the treatment goal from symptom palliation to...
First-line treatment with FCR improves overall survival in previously untreated patients with advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia
NE Oncology Issue - August 2010 Hallek M, et al. Abstract 535 Background The CLL-8 study was a multicentre, phase III, randomized, active, comparative, placebo-controlled study designed to evaluate the efficacy of FCR (fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, rituximab) versus...
Rituximab maintenance following chemoimmunotherapy improves outcomes in chronic lymphocytic leukemia
NE Oncology Issue - August 2010 Del Poeta G, et al. ASH 2009: Abstract 2364 Background At ASH 2009, Del Poeta and colleagues presented data from their study examining the efficacy of consolidation/maintenance rituximab after first-line treatment with fludarabine...
Front-line chemotherapy with fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, alemtuzumab, and rituximab (CFAR) in high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia
NE Oncology Issue - August 2010 Parikh SA, et al. Abstract 208 Background At ASH 2009, Parikh and colleagues presented data from their phase II study assessing the efficacy of adding alemtuzumab to FCR (CFAR) as front-line therapy in patients with high-risk chronic...
Health-related quality of life in patients receiving FCR or FC for first-line treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia
NE Oncology Issue - August 2010 Eichhorst BF, et al. Abstract 3438 Background At ASH 2009, Eichhorst and colleagues1 presented data from their study assessing the health-related quality of life (HRQL) of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients given FC or FCR as...
Investigating the safety and efficacy of rituximab plus chlorambucil in previously untreated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia
NE Oncology Issue - August 2010 Hillmen P, et al. Abstract 3428 Background At ASH 2009, Hillmen and colleagues presented data from their phase II study assessing the feasibility of adding rituximab to chlorambucil in order to improve outcomes for patients with chronic...
Canadian perspective by Dr. Stephen Couban
NE Oncology Issue - August 2010 The CLL-8 study presented by Hallek, et al. is one of only two studies showing a survival benefit of one treatment over another in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). This overall outcome is what is most important, even though the...
An Interview with Dr. Michael Hallek on the CLL-8 Study Comparing First-line FCR to FC in CLL patients
NE Oncology Issue - August 2010 At the ASH 2009 meeting, New Evidence spoke with Dr. Michael Hallek, Professor of Medicine, Director and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Cologne and Chair of the German CLL Study Group, about the CLL-8...
A Canadian Perspective on the Management of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
NE Oncology Issue - August 2010 Douglas A. Stewart, MD, FRCP(C),1 Christine Chen, MD, MEd, FRCP(C),2 Laurie H. Sehn, MD, MPH,3 Chaim Shustik, MD, FRCP(C)4 1Dr. Douglas A. Stewart, Chief, Division of Hematology and Hematological Malignancies, Department of Medicine and...
Strategies for the Treatment of Elderly Patients with DLBCL, New Combination Therapy in NHL, and Maintenance Rituximab Therapy in FL
NE Oncology Issue - August 2010 In Canada, non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHL) represent approximately 4% of all cancers. The Canadian Cancer Society estimates that about 7,200 new cases of NHL were diagnosed in Canada in 2009, and approximately 3,200 deaths occurred in the...
Canadian Perspectives
Stephen Couban, MD
Dr. Stephen Couban joined the Department of Medicine at Dalhousie University and the Capital District Health Authority in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1997. He is Service Chief in the Division of Hematology and Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. He is also Service Chief of the Department of Medicine Medical Teaching Unit. His research interests have focused on allografting and in particular on exploration of different types of grafts, including GCSF-stimulated allogeneic peripheral blood allografts and GCSF-stimulated bone marrow allografts. Dr. Couban is Past-President of the Canadian Blood and Marrow Transplant Group, Secretary of the Canadian Hematology Society, and Co-Chair of the Hematology Site Group of the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Groups.
Laurie H. Sehn, MD, MPH
Dr. Laurie H. Sehn is Clinical Assistant Professor at the BC Cancer Agency and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. She has been a medical oncologist and clinical investigator with the Lymphoma Tumour Group since 1998. Dr. Sehn has served on the Board of Directors of the Lymphoma Foundation Canada (LFC) since 2002 and is now Director of Research Fellowships for the LFC. Her research interests include the lymphoid cancers with particular focus on the biology and treatment of large-cell lymphoma, the application of new imaging techniques such as PET scanning to lymphoma management, and innovative new approaches to treatment.
C. Tom Kouroukis, MD
Dr. C. Tom Kouroukis graduated from the University of Toronto and completed training in Internal Medicine, Hematology and MSc training at McGill and McMaster Universities. He was awarded a National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Research Fellowship. He is a Hematologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre/Hamilton Health Sciences and Associate Professor in the Department of Oncology. He is Co-Chair of the Hematology Cancer Disease Site group of the Cancer Care Ontario Practice Guidelines Initiative. His research interests include the care of older patients with hematological cancers, the impact and evaluation of co-morbidity in older cancer patients, clinical trials in mantle cell lymphoma, and practice guideline development.
Investigator Commentaries
Michael Hallek, MD
Dr. Michael Hallek is Professor of Medicine, and Director and Chair of the Department of Internal Medicine I at the University of Cologne in Cologne, Germany, where he oversees internal medicine, hematology, hemostaseology, oncology, intensive care, infectious diseases, and immunology. From 1994–2005, Dr. Hallek was head of the Gene Therapy Program at the Gene Centre of the University of Munich and of the Clinical Cooperation Group for Gene Therapy at the National Centre for Research on Environment and Health (GSF) in Munich. In 2007, Dr. Hallek was appointed Director of the Centre of Integrated Oncology (CIO), the joint comprehensive cancer centre of the Universities of Cologne and Bonn. Since 1994, he has been Chair of the German CLL Study Group. Dr. Hallek is the principal investigator for the CLL-8 clinical trial.
Bertrand Coiffier, MD
For the past 15 years, Dr. Bertrand Coiffier has been Professor and Head of the Department of Hematology in the Hospices Civils de Lyon, France, a leading centre for expertise and treatment of lymphoma patients. He is a founding member of the Groupe d’Etude des Lymphomes de l’Adulte or GELA, a cooperative group of French and Belgian physicians interested in the treatment of lymphomas. As such, he has initiated and coordinated several key randomized trials for the treatment of lymphoma patients. Dr. Coiffier is a member of the scientific committee of several scientific organizations and has participated in the organization of various international meetings on lymphoma or hematology. He is also a member of the editorial board of several journals, and has authored more than 200 original publications in the field of lymphoma and many books or chapters on lymphoma.
Gilles Salles, MD
Dr. Gilles Salles is a Professor in the Department of Hematology at the Centre Hospitalier Lyon-Sud, Lyon, France, and Head of the Research Unit Pathologie des Cellules Lymphoïdes at the University of Lyon. He served as Chairman of the Scientific Committee of GELA (Groupe d’Etude des Lymphomes de l’Adulte) until 2007 and is presently acting as vice-president of this group. He is also a member of several professional societies, including the American Society of Hematology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the European Hematology Association. Professor Salles has been especially interested in the clinical and biological study of malignant lymphoma, and major focuses of his work include the description and validation of prognostic factors as well as clinical trials in indolent lymphomas. He has been involved as a coordinator or co-investigator in many clinical trials and studies within his field, and has published numerous articles in international peer-reviewed journals.