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Therapeutic options for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have remained unchanged for nearly the past 5 decades, with cytarabine and anthracyclines and use of hypomethylating agents for less intensive therapy. Implementation of large-scale genomic studies in the past decade has unraveled the genetic landscape and molecular etiology of AML. The approval of several novel drugs for targeted therapy, including midostaurin, enasidenib, ivosidenib, gemtuzumab-ozogamicin, and CPX351 by the US Food and Drug Administration has widened the treatment options for clinicians treating AML. This review focuses on some of these novel therapies and other promising agents under development, along with key clinical trial findings in AML.

The Asia-Pacific Hematology Consortium (APHCON), in partnership with MDRingTM, a mobile global physician education network, has initiated a detailed longitudinal study of physician knowledge and practice preferences in the Asia-Pacific sphere. The first dataset comes from a series of surveys answered by delegates at the APHCON Bridging The Gap (BTG) conference in Beijing in January, 2015. In this report we present our findings regarding diagnosis and treatment of multiple myeloma (MM). We aim to create a conduit for physicians in this region to share their experiences with the rest of the world, to identify areas of consensus and best practices, and to highlight opportunities for improvement in communication, education and patient care.

Homozygous Hb E [β26(B8)Glu→Lys; HBB: c.79G > A] is a clinically mild disease with no significant symptoms. Very few studies are available on clinical variability in Hb E disorders. We report the profile of a series of homozygous Hb E patients in the Indian population. We analyzed various genetic factors that contribute to the heterogeneity in the phenotype of homozygous Hb E patients. Analysis of these parameters further enhances our understanding of the Hb E syndrome.

Nucleophosmin (NPM1) gene mutations are among the most studied genetic lesions in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and are associated with a good prognosis. The frequency of exon 12 NPM1 mutation in ad...

The authors compared the outcome in 100 children (61 boys, 39 girls; median age of 10.1 +/- 3.4 years) with aplastic anemia who underwent either immunosuppressive therapy (IST; n = 70) or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT; n = 30) between 1998 and 2007. Conditioning regimes for HSCT were a combination of either cyclophosphamide (Cy) with antilymphocyte globulin (ALG) or fludarabine (Flu) with Cy or busulfan (Bu) +/- antithymocyte globulin (ATG). Stem cell source was bone marrow in 20 and peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) in 10. Patients undergoing IST received either equine ALG or ATG in combination with steroids and cyclosporine. Primary engraftment was seen in 25 children (83.3%), with acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD) in 5 (16.6%). The day 100 transplant-related mortality (TRM) was 30% and at a median follow up of 36 months (range: 6-197), the overall and disease-free survival is 70%. Among children who received IST, 60 children received ALG while 10 received ATGAM. Responses were seen in 27 children (43.5%), which was complete (CR) in 12 and partial (PR) in 15. At a median follow up of 38 months (range: 1-84), the overall survival is 37.1%, with 81.4% survival among responders and

The introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors has revolutionized the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Imatinib mesylate, which competitively targets the adenosine 5-triphosphate (ATP)-...

A T-lineage phenotype constitutes approximately 20% of patients among adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) [1]. There are limited data on the outcome of T cell ALL in adults. Many studies...