ASCO Audio Journal of Oncology – June 6th 2006, from the ASCO Annual Meeting in Atlanta, June 2-6

Robert Mayer of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston joins Derek Thorne to discuss the major hematologic malignancy news reported at the 2006 ASCO meeting.

– Older patients with multiple myeloma can benefit from adding thalidomide to their standard therapy of melphalan and prednisone; and the thalidomide regimen is also better than melphalan followed by autologous stem cell transplantation. Thierry Facon from the University of Lille told ASCO delegates about his group’s findings (Abstract 1)
– A decreased dose of thalidomide may be just as effective in multiple myeloma while having a better side effect profile – but should these results change practice? Ibrahim Yakoub-Agha from the University of Lille had the data at ASCO (Abstract 7520)
– Imatinib is still proving effective at treating chronic myeloid leukemia, even after more than 5 years of follow up. Robert Mayer describes the latest findings from the IRIS study
– In the “core-binding factor” subtype of acute myeloid leukemia, certain mutations in the KIT gene predict for a poor prognosis. This could help tailor therapy for this disease, according to Peter Paschka of Ohio State University