Podcasts about cd20

Featuring an interview with Dr Jennifer Crombie, including the following topics: Overview of similarities and differences among CD20 x CD3 targeted bispecific antibodies for the treatment of lymphomas (0:00) Optimal integration of CD20 x CD3 bispecific antibodies into treatment algorithms for lymphomas (9:40) Case: A man in his late 60s with relapsed follicular lymphoma (FL) who received mosunetuzumab (23:52) Case: A man in his late 80s with transformed, double-hit diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who received epcoritamab (28:46) Case: A woman in her early 70s with recurrent FL who received odronextamab on the ELM-1 trial (34:06) Case: A man in his early 80s with multiregimen-relapsed DLBCL who receives glofitamab (43:19) CME information and select publications

Dr Jennifer Crombie from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, reviews available and investigational CD20 x CD3 targeted bispecific antibodies for the treatment of follicular and diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. CME information and select publications here.

The Filtered Fragments (OG Filtrate)Joel TopfJennie LinSwapnil HiremathSpecial Guest Brad Rovin GN God and second author from The Ohio StateKoyal Jain GN Specialist from UNCAlfred Kim Rheumatologist from Washington UniversityEditing bySimon Topf and Nayan AroraThe Kidney Connection written and performed by by Tim YauShow NotesJoel's monologue One of the most surprising facts of nephrology is that despite conventional wisdom that lupus nephritis is an antibody mediated disease, that over a decade ago, the LUNAR investigtors were unable to find a significant benefit when rituximab was added to conventional therapy. And this was after the equally negative phase 2 trial of rituximab, EXPLORER.In fact, despite this finding rituximab has been able to burough its way into treatment of many nephrologists and rheumatologists as well as the KDIGO guidelines where it is suggested for patients with persistent disease activity or inadequate response to initial standard-of-care therapy.This long conflict is now coming to an end. Obinutuzumab, a newer, better monoclonal antibody targeting the same CD20 that we grew to love with rituximab, but it has a number of advantages.One. It is humanized antibody rather than a chimeric mouse-human antibodyTwo. It's cytotoxicity is not complement dependent an particular advantage if you want to deploy it ina disease where hypocomplementemia is a disease characteristicThree, and most importantly, it causes stronger and deeper b-cell depletion than rituximab. Better B-cell depletion in the blood and tissue.And this brings us to tonight's topic, we had already seen the phase two results of obinutuzumab which, unlike EXPLORER, were positive, we will look at the phase three regency trial. This makes the third novel lupus nephritis drug in the last 4 years. We continue to remake glomerular nephritis.LUNAR: Efficacy and safety of rituximab in patients with active proliferative lupus nephritis: the Lupus Nephritis Assessment with Rituximab study PubmedEXPLORER: Efficacy and safety of rituximab in moderately-to-severely active systemic lupus erythematosus: the randomized, double-blind, phase II/III systemic lupus erythematosus evaluation of rituximab trial PubmedREGENCY: Efficacy and Safety of Obinutuzumab in Active Lupus Nephritis NEJM | NephJCNOBILITY: B-cell depletion with obinutuzumab for the treatment of proliferative lupus nephritis: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial Annals of Rheumatic DiseaseComparison of intravenous and subcutaneous exposure supporting dose selection of subcutaneous belimumab systemic lupus erythematosus Phase 3 program PubMed CentralClass 5 lupus nephritis is slow to respond Long-term Use of Voclosporin in Patients with Class V Lupus Nephritis: Results from the AURORA 2 Continuation Study ACR Meeting abstractTubular SecretionsSwap: Young Adult novel I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys (Amazon)Koyal: Taekwondo (Wikipedia)Jennie: these unprecedented times Trump NYT: Administration Freezes $1 Billion for Cornell and $790 Million for Northwestern, Officials SayAl: Acquired PodcastBrad: The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson (Amazon)Joel: Paradise on Hulu (Wikipedia)

Featuring an interview with Ms Robin Klebig, including the following topics: Overview of the natural history and treatment landscapes of lymphoma subtypes (0:00) Structure and mechanisms of action of bispecific antibodies (23:41) Similarities and differences among the various approved and investigational CD20 x CD3 bispecific antibodies for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (28:14) Case: A man in his early 50s with multiagent/multiregimen-refractory follicular lymphoma who experienced disease progression with chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy now receives mosunetuzumab (39:14) Case: A woman in her mid 60s with relapsed/refractory (R/R) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma receives glofitamab (49:08) Case: A man in his mid 60s with R/R high-grade B-cell lymphoma with MYC and Bcl-2 rearrangements receives epcoritamab (52:57) Case: A man in his early 60s with composite lymphoma receives epcoritamab (56:55) NCPD information and select publications

What happens if you are in a situation where you need to sell your house?  You're in foreclosure? Or you've filed a bankruptcy? How can you avoid predators and scams if you're in a situation where you're forced to sell your home, or if you're in financial distress? This week's guest on the Crushing Debt Podcast is Sandra Cantu, who brings over 25 years of real estate expertise and a deeply personal understanding of homeowner challenges. Her journey from facing foreclosure as a single mom to becoming a trusted cash home buyer across New York, Arizona, and Florida has fueled my passion for helping homeowners in distress. You can reach Sandy at info@SandyBuysHouses.com or Info@FloridaProbatecare.com. Please let us know if you enjoy this episode and, if so, please share it with your friends! Please also visit our sponsors: Magic Mind - https://www.magicmind.com/CD20. Being sick is terrible, but Shawn has been using Magic Mind to focus when the sinus medicine causes some cloudiness! Sam Cohen of Attorneys First Insurance for Attorneys and Title Companies looking to get a quote on Errors & Ommissions (malpractice) Insurance coverage. www.AttorneysFirst.com.   Or, you can support the show by visiting our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/crushingDebt   To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at GCFinancialCoach21@gmail.com or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach   Also check out George's webinar on Money Mindset, on Tuesday, February 25th at 6 PM EST: From Overdrawn to Abundance: https://www.shawnahuber.com/money-mindset-webinar  To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at Shawn@Yesnerlaw.com or visit www.YesnerLaw.com. And please consider a donation to Pancreatic Cancer research and education by joining Shawn's team at MY Legacy Striders: http://support.pancan.org/goto/MYLegacy8  

What are some comfort lies you tell yourself about money? What are some future lies you tell yourself about money? What are some identity lies you tell yourself about money? In this week's episode Shawn & George talk about the money lies we tell ourselves.  Things like: I deserve it. I'll start saving when I make more money. Everyone has debt, it's normal. I'll work forever, so I don't need to save for retirement. Investing is too risky; I'll just keep cash. I'll make it up later. I'm just not good with money. More money will solve my problems. I have plenty of time to figure it out. What are some money lies that you tell yourself. Let us know if you enjoy this episode and, if so, please share it with your friends! Please also visit our sponsors: Magic Mind - https://www.magicmind.com/CD20. Being sick is terrible, but Shawn has been using Magic Mind to focus when the sinus medicine causes some cloudiness! Sam Cohen of Attorneys First Insurance for Attorneys and Title Companies looking to get a quote on Errors & Ommissions (malpractice) Insurance coverage. www.AttorneysFirst.com.   Or, you can support the show by visiting our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/crushingDebt   To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at GCFinancialCoach21@gmail.com or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach   Also check out George's webinar on Money Mindset, on Tuesday, February 25th at 6 PM EST: From Overdrawn to Abundance: https://www.shawnahuber.com/money-mindset-webinar  To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at Shawn@Yesnerlaw.com or visit www.YesnerLaw.com. And please consider a donation to Pancreatic Cancer research and education by joining Shawn's team at MY Legacy Striders: http://support.pancan.org/goto/MYLegacy8  

What are the five money personas? What are the four "F's" of money (nots this is not an explicit] episode). How do dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin and seratonin factor in to your attitudes about money? On this week's episode of The Crushing Debt Podcast, Shawn & George talk to Gino Barbaro of the Jake & Gino Show to talk about your attitudes towards and relationship with money.  Gino is a published author, Wheelbarrow Profits, The Honey Bee, Family Food and the Friars, and his latest book Happy Money, Happy Family, Happy Legacy.  Gino is also a real estate investor, having grown his real estate portfolio to over 2,000 multifamily units and $250 million in Assets under management.  When dealing with money, are you Amy the Avoider, Steve the Saver, Gary the Gambler, Ivan the Investor, or Sara the Spender.  Once you identify your attitutde towards money, you can then better take control of your money. You can find more information about Gino and his books at his website, www.Barbaro360.com. Let us know if you enjoy this episode and, if so, please share it with your friends! Please also visit our sponsors: Magic Mind - https://www.magicmind.com/CD20. Recently, Shawn battled a sinus bug. Magic Mind helped him focus on those days when the bug wanted to keep him in bed! No sugar rush, no sugar crash, all natural ingredients to help you focus. And Magic Mind now has a sleep formula too! Sam Cohen of Attorneys First Insurance for Attorneys and Title Companies looking to get a quote on Errors & Ommissions (malpractice) Insurance coverage. www.AttorneysFirst.com.   Or, you can support the show by visiting our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/crushingDebt   To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at GCFinancialCoach21@gmail.com or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach   To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at Shawn@Yesnerlaw.com or visit www.YesnerLaw.com. And please consider a donation to Pancreatic Cancer research and education by joining Shawn's team at MY Legacy Striders: http://support.pancan.org/goto/MYLegacy8  

Featuring perspectives from Dr Jennifer Woyach, including the following topics: AMPLIFY — First-Line Trials Combining Bruton Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) Inhibitors with Venetoclax Introduction (0:00) Case: An African American man in his mid 40s with progressive lymphadenopathy in the neck is diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) with trisomy 12 and an SF3B1 mutation — Erik Rupard, MD (1:50) Pirtobrutinib Questions for the Faculty: Effectiveness and tolerability of pirtobrutinib for patients with CLL and disease progression on prior BTK inhibition — Zanetta S Lamar, MD (21:18) Choice of First-Line BTK Inhibitor Case: A woman in her mid 80s diagnosed with CLL more than 30 years ago now has relapsed/refractory, ibrutinib-intolerant disease — Warren S Brenner, MD (31:29) Cardiotoxicity of BTK Inhibitors  Case: A man in his early 70s with chronic atrial fibrillation requiring long-term anticoagulation is diagnosed with IGHV-unmutated CLL with del(13q), del(17p) and an XPO1 mutation — Bhavana (Tina) Bhatnagar, DO (34:53) Case: A man in his mid 70s with trisomy 12, IGHV-unmutated CLL has a history of congestive heart failure (ejection fraction 20% to 25%) resulting in multiple hospital admissions — Laurie Matt-Amaral, MD, MPH (37:51) CLL and COVID-19 Vaccinations; Role of MRD Testing; Anti-CD20 Antibodies Case: A man in his early 60s with CLL receives first-line obinutuzumab/venetoclax and has a moderate infusion reaction to obinutuzumab — Dr Rupard (41:17) Case: A man in his early 60s with CLL and well controlled autoimmune hemolytic anemia on ibrutinib is switched to zanubrutinib — Dr Lamar (45:26) Questions for the Faculty: CLL and COVID-19 vaccinations; role of MRD testing; anti-CD20 antibodies — Dr Brenner (49:23) Case: An Amish man in his mid 60s requires treatment for CLL but is paying for treatment “out of pocket” — Dr Rupard (55:33) CME information and select publications  

Happy New Year! What Resolutions did you set for yourself this year? What is it about the New Year that makes us want to set Resolutions? How can you ensure that your resolutions don't drift away after a few weeks or months? On this week's episode of the Crushing Debt Podcast, the first of 2025, George and Shawn talk about mindset, momentum and motivation, celebrating small victories, learning from setbacks and measuring yourself after where you started rather than your goal. How much do you need in emergency funds?  Check out this site: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/banking/emergency-fund-calculator?msockid=2dc6f4b8f8c961fc04a4e6cdf959609d What are some of your New Year's Resolutions?  Let us know and we can hold each other accountable together! Let us know if you enjoy this episode and, if so, please share it with your friends! Please also visit our sponsors: Magic Mind - https://www.magicmind.com/CD20. Look for a new promotion from Magic Mind, coming soon! Sam Cohen of Attorneys First Insurance for Attorneys and Title Companies looking to get a quote on Errors & Ommissions (malpractice) Insurance coverage. www.AttorneysFirst.com.   Or, you can support the show by visiting our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/crushingDebt   To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at GCFinancialCoach21@gmail.com or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach   To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at Shawn@Yesnerlaw.com or visit www.YesnerLaw.com. And please consider a donation to Pancreatic Cancer research and education by joining Shawn's team at MY Legacy Striders: http://support.pancan.org/goto/MYLegacy8  

While our podcast takes a brief break, Labiotech invites you to enjoy some of our favorite episodes. We will return with a brand-new episode on January 3rd, 2025! Have an awesome holiday season!On this podcast, we speak to Artiva Biotherapeutics' CEO, Fred Aslan, M.D.The company has demonstrated the potential for efficacy and safety with natural killer (NK) cells in two cancer clinical trials. In August 2023, the company announced FDA clearance for an IND for lupus – marking a first for an allogeneic, off-the-shelf NK or CAR-T cell therapy in autoimmune disease.AlloNK (also known as AB-101) is a non-genetically modified, cord blood-derived, allogeneic, cryopreserved, ADCC-enhancing NK cell therapy candidate for use in combination with monoclonal antibodies or innate-cell engagers in the out-patient setting. Artiva is investigating AlloNK in a phase 1/2 multicenter clinical trial to assess the safety and clinical activity of AlloNK alone and in combination with the anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, rituximab, in patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell-non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL). Artiva is also investigating the safety and clinical activity of AlloNK in combination with rituximab in patients with lupus nephritis. In addition, Artiva is collaborating with Affimed in a phase 2, open-label, multi-center, multi-cohort study, testing a combination therapy, comprised of AlloNK and the innate cell engager AFM13, for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory CD30-positive lymphomas. Artiva selects cord blood units with the high affinity variant of the CD16 receptor and a KIR-B haplotype for enhanced product activity. Using the company's cell therapy manufacturing platform, Artiva can generate thousands of doses of pure, cryopreserved, infusion-ready NK cells from a single umbilical cord blood unit while retaining the high and consistent expression of CD16 and other activating NK receptors, without the need for engineering. AlloNK is being administered in the outpatient setting over multiple doses and multiple cycles.Artiva's pipeline also includes AB-201, an anti-HER2 CAR-NK cell therapy candidate for the treatment of HER2-overexpressing tumors, such as breast, gastric, and bladder cancers, and for which an IND has been allowed by FDA, and a pipeline of CAR-NK candidates targeting both solid and hematopoietic cancers. Artiva has also entered into therapeutic NK cell collaborations with Merck Sharp & Dohme. Interested in being a sponsor of an episode of our podcast? Discover how you can get involved here! Stay updated by subscribing to our newsletter

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Holidays from all of us at The Crushing Debt Podcast.  We hope you had a great holiday season. This is our last episode of 2024, but we'll be back next week with all new episodes and some great content for 2025. The holiday season brings a lot of things - family, presents, food, songs, and especially movies! There are some great holiday movies - Home Alone, Christmas Vacation, Elf, Scrooged, The Grinch, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, Jingle All the Way, Polar Express, The Santa Clause, and others. What money lessons do we get from these movies?  That is the topic of today's episode.  Plus, we answer the age-old question, is Die Hard a Christmas Movie (and what money lesson does it teach us)? Let us know some of your favorite movies and the money lessons learned from those movies. If you enjoy this episode and, if so, please share it with your friends! Please also visit our sponsors: Magic Mind - https://www.magicmind.com/CD20.  It's still not too late to get someone a late present - the present of focus, without the sugar high or the sugar crash, with all natural and great-tasting ingredients! Sam Cohen of Attorneys First Insurance for Attorneys and Title Companies looking to get a quote on Errors & Ommissions (malpractice) Insurance coverage. www.AttorneysFirst.com.   Or, you can support the show by visiting our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/crushingDebt   To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at GCFinancialCoach21@gmail.com or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach   To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at Shawn@Yesnerlaw.com or visit www.YesnerLaw.com. And please consider a donation to Pancreatic Cancer research and education by joining Shawn's 2025 PanCAN team, Legacy Striders: http://support.pancan.org/goto/MYLegacy8  

What goals did you accomplish in 2024? What financial accomplishments did you achieve in 2024?  What were your financial wins? What goals will you set for 2025? In our second to last episode for 2024, Shawn & George talk about their own personal and business financial goals, for themselves, their families, their companies, and for the podcast! What do you want to see from our show in 2025 (and beyond)? Let us know if you enjoy this episode and, if so, please share it with your friends! Please also visit our sponsors: Magic Mind - https://www.magicmind.com/CD20. There's still time to get 20% off any stocking stuffers for Christmas. Or use Magic Mind to boost your focus as your conquer 2025! Sam Cohen of Attorneys First Insurance for Attorneys and Title Companies looking to get a quote on Errors & Ommissions (malpractice) Insurance coverage. www.AttorneysFirst.com.   Or, you can support the show by visiting our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/crushingDebt   To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at GCFinancialCoach21@gmail.com or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach   To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at Shawn@Yesnerlaw.com or visit www.YesnerLaw.com.  And please consider a donation to Pancreatic Cancer research and education by joining Shawn's team at MY Legacy Striders: http://support.pancan.org/goto/MYLegacy8  

What is it like to rebuild after a foreclosure, after a bankruptcy? What is the real cause of foreclosure, bankruptcy and financial distress? While we have talked about these topics before, this week's guest overcame all of it to form a non-profit that helps people who find themselves in this situation. This week, Shawn & George interview Michael Russell, with Hope 4 Harship, and also the President/Owner of Century 21 Signature Properties, one of the original CENTURY 21 franchises in the country. Hear Micheal's story about divorce, foreclosures, short sales, bankruptcies, and how he overcame that financial distress. We talk about how banks really don't want to foreclose, and how they want to offer assistance (which may or may not be home retention).  We talk about partial claim mortgages, loan modifications, forbearances and the pros and cons of each.  We talk about judicial and non-judicial foreclosures and the differences between them. And yes, we talk a little about bankruptcy. To contact Michael: Hope 4 Hardship - Website: Help4hardship.org (508) 728-6465 Email: help@hope4hardship.com LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-russell-3395baa/ Facebook – Company page – https://www.facebook.com/Hope4Hardship Century 21 profile  - https://www.century21.com/real-estate-agent/profile/michael-russell-P25357887 Media Contact – To arrange for a phone briefing or segment, contact - Steven V. Dubin, PR Works, Office – (781) 582-1061, Mobile – (781) 864-1837, Email – Sdubin@PRWorkZone.com Let us know if you enjoy this episode and, if so, please share it with your friends! Please also visit our sponsors: Magic Mind - https://www.magicmind.com/CD20. Unfortunately, the 50% Black Friday Special has ended, but you can still get 20% off your first order with this code! Shawn & George both use Magic Mind for increased focus, with no sugar high or low! Sam Cohen of Attorneys First Insurance for Attorneys and Title Companies looking to get a quote on Errors & Ommissions (malpractice) Insurance coverage. www.AttorneysFirst.com.   Or, you can support the show by visiting our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/crushingDebt   To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at GCFinancialCoach21@gmail.com or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach   To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at Shawn@Yesnerlaw.com or visit www.YesnerLaw.com. And please consider a donation to Pancreatic Cancer research and education by joining Shawn's team at MY Legacy Striders 

Red or Blue? Republican or Democrat (or some other political party)? Our goal on this week's episode is not to debate one candidate over another, or one party's philosophy over another's, but we did think we would take time after the recent election to talk about the various fiscal policies proposed or promoted by the candidates. How will President Trump's reelection impact areas like: Crypto Gas & Energy Prices Interest Rates (specifically possibly limiting credit card interest rates) Tarriffs the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) Student Loans Tax Proposals Rather than promoting or criticizing one candidate or one party's position, we simply discuss what the candidates wanted to accomplish around these financial topics and more. Let us know if you enjoy this episode and, if so, please share it with your friends! Please also visit our sponsors: Magic Mind - https://www.magicmind.com/CD20. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, focus is more important than ever. Magic Mind helps us to stay focused on work and productivity with no sugar high or sugar crash, and it tastes great! Sam Cohen of Attorneys First Insurance for Attorneys and Title Companies looking to get a quote on Errors & Ommissions (malpractice) Insurance coverage. www.AttorneysFirst.com.   Or, you can support the show by visiting our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/crushingDebt   To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at GCFinancialCoach21@gmail.com or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach   To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at Shawn@Yesnerlaw.com or visit www.YesnerLaw.com. And please consider a donation to Pancreatic Cancer research and education by joining Shawn's team at MY Legacy Striders: http://support.pancan.org/goto/MYLegacyStriders08  

How do you teach your kids about money? How do you teach your kids to save money? Is it better to invest in a Certificate of Deposit (CD), Money Market Account, IRA, College Plan, or something else?  Do your kids know the "Rule of 7?" This week's Crushing Debt Podcase episode is inspired by Shawn's son's Bar Mitzvah, where he received quite a bit of money in the forms of gift cards, checks, cash, and even a portion of a Real Estate Mortgage and Note.  That got us to thinking - how do you teach your kids about money? What is more important - short term or long term? How important is learning patience when it comes to money? Do you get the kids something tangible to represent the investment? We answer these questions and more on this week's episode. Let us know if you enjoy this episode and, if so, please share it with your friends! Please also visit our sponsors: Magic Mind - https://www.magicmind.com/CD20. Shawn has been using Magic Mind to crank out work with no sugar high or crash and no impact on his diabetes! Sam Cohen of Attorneys First Insurance for Attorneys and Title Companies looking to get a quote on Errors & Ommissions (malpractice) Insurance coverage. www.AttorneysFirst.com.   Or, you can support the show by visiting our  Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/crushingDebt   To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at GCFinancialCoach21@gmail.com or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach   To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at Shawn@Yesnerlaw.com or visit www.YesnerLaw.com. And please consider a donation to Pancreatic Cancer research and education by joining Shawn's team at MY Legacy Striders: http://support.pancan.org/goto/MYLegacyStriders0 8  

What is Zombie Debt? How do you resurrect your finances after debt rises from the grave? How do you protect yourself from old debt? What happens when debt expires? Happy Halloween!!  Debt doesn't have to be scary, but debt that resurrects itself can be.  What is more scary than debt is burying your head or ignoring your debt.  In the State of Florida, debt is valid for 20 years from the time a judgment is entered (and we have seen one or two cases where the creditor filed to extend the debt beyond it's 20-year life). In some cases, creditors are trying to collect debt that has been discharged in bankruptcy, that has been expired, or that is beyond the statute of limitations. What can someone do in a scenario like this?  How can you protect yourself? That's the subject of today's podcast episode. Let us know if you enjoy this episode and, if so, please share it with your friends! Please also visit our sponsors: Magic Mind - https://www.magicmind.com/CD20 and enter code CD20. Shawn has been using Magic Mind to crank out work so he can go trick or treating with his kids, with no high, no low, and no sugar impact or crash! Sam Cohen of Attorneys First Insurance for Attorneys and Title Companies looking to get a quote on Errors & Ommissions (malpractice) Insurance coverage. www.AttorneysFirst.com.   Or, you can support the show by visiting our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/crushingDebt   To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at GCFinancialCoach21@gmail.com or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach   To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at Shawn@Yesnerlaw.com  or visit www.YesnerLaw.com.  And please consider a donation to Pancreatic Cancer research and education by joining Shawn's team at MY Legacy Striders: http://support.pancan.org/goto/MYLegacyStriders08  

How can you get the government to give you money to pay rent, mortgages and utilities? Is grant money easy to get?  Do you have to pay it back? This week's episode is one of the few that carry an "Explicit" tag, so if you don't like the occassional bad word, please skip today's episode and we'll talk to you again next week. This week's guest is Matthew Lesko, a renown expert in government grants and financial aid, known for helping individuals access funding opportunities. He has been studying grants for nearly 48 years, has been awared two New York Times Best Sellers, and has been a syndicated columnist for The New York Times and Good Housekeeping Magazine. Shawn & George talk to Matthew about government grants including how to get them, common misconceptions, and other useful websites and resources to get FREE MONEY! Specifically, some of the sites mentioned: www.trylesko.com www.sba.gov/local-assistance www.eda.gov www.findhelp.org www.careeronestop.org www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative www.eldercare.acl.gov There are TONS of resources out there to help you with starting a business, disaster funding, veteran's benefits, etc. You have to do some due diligence and research, but you can find sources that will grant you various amounts of money. Let us know if you enjoy this episode and, if so, please share it with your friends! Please also visit our sponsors: Magic Mind - https://www.magicmind.com/CD20. Use the code "CD20" - a NEW code - to get 20% off your first order of Magic Mind. Now that Hurricane clean up is under way, Shawn & George have been using Magic Mind to stay focused, and get clean up completed so we can get back to work. It tastes great, has all natural ingredients, with no high and no crash! Sam Cohen of Attorneys First Insurance for Attorneys and Title Companies looking to get a quote on Errors & Ommissions (malpractice) Insurance coverage. www.AttorneysFirst.com.   Or, you can support the show by visiting our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/crushingDebt   To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at GCFinancialCoach21@gmail.com or follow his Tiktok channel - https://www.tiktok.com/@curbelofinancialcoach   To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at Shawn@Yesnerlaw.com  or visit www.YesnerLaw.com.  And please consider a donation to Pancreatic Cancer research and education by joining Shawn's team at MY Legacy Striders: http://support.pancan.org/goto/MYLegacyStriders08  

Good morning from Pharma and Biotech daily: the podcast that gives you only what's important to hear in Pharma e Biotech world. Democrats have introduced a bill to make increased Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies permanent, arguing that if the enhanced tax credits expire, healthcare costs for millions of Americans will suddenly increase. Meanwhile, the Senate has voted unanimously to hold Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre in criminal contempt, marking the first time in over 50 years that such a charge has been sent to the U.S. Department of Justice. Additionally, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is holding Accountable Care Organizations harmless for "highly suspect" Medicare billing practices. A home care agency has settled allegations that it accommodated "race-based requests" for aides, with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stating that the agency terminated assignments of black and Hispanic aides to adhere to patients' and family members' racial preferences. The top tech trends transforming healthcare today include leveraging new technologies to navigate workforce shortages, economic pressures, and consumer demands.Arch Venture Partners has raised $3 billion for a new fund to support AI biotech startups. Pfizer has pulled its sickle cell therapy, Oxbryta, from the market due to safety concerns. A study suggests that Novo Nordisk's Ozempic may lower the risk of opioid overdose in diabetics. Research has cast doubt on the benefit of anti-CD20 therapies in multiple sclerosis. The setback with Oxbryta has caused frustration among investors regarding Pfizer's business development track record. Novo and Evotec have partnered for stem cell research, while cancer and diabetes drugs are expected to dominate Medicare negotiations in 2025.Pfizer is pulling its sickle cell drug from the market and shutting down trials due to safety concerns. BioAge successfully priced a $198 million IPO, focusing on obesity drug research. An Italian biotech received $52 million to advance pediatric gene therapies. Arch raised another $3 billion biotech fund to pursue innovative science. The industry is seeing advancements in GLP-1 drugs and exploring new treatments for obesity.Roivant, led by CEO Matt Gline, has found success in the biotech industry by taking a unique approach to acquiring and selling assets from big pharma companies. Despite Gline's lack of experience in biotech, Roivant has weathered the tough biotech climate and generated substantial cash flow. The company's strategy involves investing in products that do not fit into the traditional categories of big pharma, leading to successful acquisitions and partnerships.Placer.ai's latest report explores the potential benefits of offering healthcare services in grocery stores to increase foot traffic and customer loyalty. The report delves into how the addition of a healthcare clinic can impact grocery store visitation patterns, which types of consumers are most likely to visit grocery stores with healthcare offerings, and how loyalty rates differ between stores with wellness centers and those without.Abcam offers antibodies, proteins, kits, and reagents for life science research, with a focus on immunoassays that accelerate throughput. Their SimpleStep ELISA kits provide fast results in 90 minutes or less with high sensitivity, specificity, flexibility, and reproducibility. The 384-well format allows for efficient scaling up with consistent results across labs. For more information on their immunoassays and advertising opportunities, contact Abcam directly. This message is part of a complimentary newsletter subscription to Biopharma Dive, a product of Industry Dive, Inc.

CoinDesk Indices presents notable data insights from the week, followed by additional analysis from Julien Vallet, CEO of Finst.To get the show every day, follow the podcast here.The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) functions as a benchmark for the performance of the digital asset market, delivering institutional quality information to digital asset investors. Subsets of the CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) are investable CoinDesk Crypto Sectors and the CoinDesk 20 Index, designed to measure the performance of top digital assets. Today's takeaways are provided by Tracy Stephens, senior index manager at CoinDesk Indices with additional analysis from Julien Vallet, CEO of Finst.For more on CoinDesk Indices, visit: coindeskmarkets.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode of the Oncology Brothers podcast, Drs. Rahul & Rohit Gosain are joined by Dr. Pallawi Torka from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to discuss the current treatment landscape for low-grade lymphomas, specifically follicular and mantle cell lymphoma. Key Points Covered: •⁠  ⁠Follicular Lymphoma: The discussion includes the minimum workup required for treatment planning, frontline treatment options, nuances of PFS with different anti-CD20 agents, and considerations for relapse or refractory cases. •⁠  ⁠Mantle Cell Lymphoma: The conversation delves into initial treatment paradigms, the role of BTK inhibitors, considerations for TP53 mutations, and options for relapsed or refractory cases, including the growing importance of CAR T cell therapy. Highlights: •⁠  ⁠Treatment Options: From chemoimmunotherapy to novel agents like BTK inhibitors and CAR-T cell therapy, the podcast explores the evolving landscape of treatment options for these low-grade lymphomas. •⁠  ⁠TP53 Mutations: The discussion sheds light on how treatment decisions are influenced by the presence of TP53 mutations, with a focus on recent studies and promising combinations. •⁠  ⁠Relapse Management: Insights are shared on managing relapsed or refractory cases, including the role of BTK inhibitors, CAR-T cell therapy, and other emerging options. Join the Oncology Brothers as they navigate through the complexities of treating low-grade lymphomas with expert insights from Dr. Torka. Stay informed about the latest advancements in oncology and the changing standards of care for these challenging diseases. Website: http://www.oncbrothers.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/oncbrothers Contact us at info@oncbrothers.com

In this week's episode we'll learn about iron, HFE hemochromatosis, and infections. In this large, population-based study, both high and low levels of plasma iron and transferrin saturation were associated with increased risks of infection. Then, we'll discuss how bispecific antibodies improve CAR T-cell response in B-cell malignancies. In-vitro and in-vivo data demonstrate enhanced therapeutic efficacy when a CD20-directed bispecific antibody is given in combination with CD19-directed CAR-T cells. Finally, we'll hear about determinants of outcome in NPM1-mutated AML. In a large series of patients with NPM1-mutated AML, investigators identified several variables beyond FLT3-ITD that adversely impacted outcomes. Featured Articles:Iron, hemochromatosis genotypes, and risk of infections: a cohort study of 142 188 general population individualsMolecular, clinical, and therapeutic determinants of outcome in NPM1-mutated AMLCD20-bispecific antibodies improve response to CD19-CAR T cells in lymphoma in vitro and CLL in vivo models

Autoimmune neurology is a rapidly evolving subspecialty that focuses on neurologic disorders with atypical immune responses. In this episode, Aaron Berkowitz, MD, PhD FAAN, speaks with Sean J. Pittock, MD, an author of the article “Overview and Diagnostic Approach in Autoimmune Neurology,” in the Continuum August 2024 Autoimmune Neurology issue. Dr. Berkowitz is a Continuum® Audio interviewer and professor of neurology at the University of California San Francisco, Department of Neurology and a neurohospitalist, general neurologist, and a clinician educator at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco, California. Dr. Pittock is the director for the Center for Multiple Sclerosis and Autoimmune Neurology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Additional Resources Read the article: Overview and Diagnostic Approach in Autoimmune Neurology Subscribe to Continuum: shop.lww.com/Continuum Earn CME (available only to AAN members): continpub.com/AudioCME Continuum® Aloud (verbatim audio-book style recordings of articles available only to Continuum® subscribers): continpub.com/Aloud More about the American Academy of Neurology: aan.com Social Media facebook.com/continuumcme @ContinuumAAN Host: @AaronLBerkowitz Transcript Full transcript available here Dr Jones: This is Dr Lyell Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Continuum, the premier topic-based neurology clinical review and CME journal from the American Academy of Neurology. Thank you for joining us on Continuum Audio, which features conversations with Continuum's guest editors and authors who are the leading experts in their fields. Subscribers to the Continuum journal can read the full article or listen to verbatim recordings of the article and have access to exclusive interviews not featured on the podcast. Please visit the link in the episode notes for more information on the article, subscribing to the journal, and how to get CME.    Dr Berkowitz: This is Dr Aaron Berkowitz, and today, I'm interviewing Dr Sean Pittock about his article, “Introduction to Autoimmune Neurology and Diagnostic Approach”, which he wrote with his colleague, Dr Andrew McKeon. This article is a part of the August 2024 Continuum issue on autoimmune neurology. Welcome to the podcast, Dr Pittock. Could you introduce yourself to our audience?    Dr Pittock: Well, thank you very much, Dr Berkowitz. So, yeah, I'm a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic. I direct the neuroimmunology laboratory with Dr McKeon and Dr Mills here, and I have also been very much involved in the autoimmune neurology section at the American Academy of Neurology.    Dr Berkowitz: So, many of you probably know Dr Pittock - or if you don't know, you've certainly diagnosed diseases that he has described and written about, and so it's a real honor to get to talk to you today and pick your brain a little bit about some of these complex diseases. So, autoimmune neurology is certainly one of the most exciting subspecialties of our field. I feel like when I talk to students and they ask me to make a case for why they should consider neurology as a career, I tell them, “Of course, I have many reasons I love neurology”, but one thing I mention is that, although many other fields of medicine may have made incredible advances as far as treatments, I can't think of too many other fields outside neurology where entirely new diseases have been described since I've been in training and come out of training - and many of those have been in your field of autoimmune neurology. I can think of cases where I've heard you or one of your colleagues on a neurology podcast describing a new antibody, new disease, and a few weeks later, we see that disease and give a patient a diagnosis that had been elusive from other physicians and hospitals. It's a very exciting, gratifying area. It's also daunting, like, every time I go to the AAN and hear one of your colleagues, there's a new disease, and we realize, “Oops! Was I missing that?” or, “Am I going to see this?” And so, hoping to pick your brain a bit today about some of the key concepts and how to keep them in mind so our listeners can recognize, diagnose, and treat these conditions, even if they can't remember every single antibody in your article and all the new ones you and your colleagues will probably discover between now and when this, um, podcast is released. So, before we get into some of the important clinical aspects of these conditions, could you just lay out sort of the broad breaststrokes, the lay of the land of cell-mediated versus antibody-mediated paraneoplastic versus nonparaneoplastic cell surface versus intracellular - how can we sort of organize this area in our minds?    Dr Pittock: Yeah. It's complex, and it's really an evolving story. But the importance, really, from the perspective of the reader and the perspective of the clinician is that we're talking about disorders where we can actually do something - we can actually impact patients.  And we think about the concept of stopping and restoring in neurology now. We're talking about disorders where we have the potential to stop these inflammatory immune-mediated disorders and, potentially, by stopping early, we may be able to restore function - so, a really important new and evolving field in neurology, because you don't want to miss these conditions. Trying to get your head around the complexity of these entities is difficult, but what we've done in this chapter is, really, to try and lay the groundwork for the following chapters, but provide somewhat of a simplistic approach, but a practical approach that really, I think, can help clinicians. So, the way I think of it, a lot of autoimmune neurology really has stemmed from the discovery of antibodies that cause neurological disease, and the examples of those would be going back to myasthenia gravis (with antibodies to the acetylcholine receptor), going back to Lambert-Eaton syndrome. And then, you know, even if you go back to the older traditional paraneoplastic disorders (the Hu, the Ri, the Yo), at the end of the day, you really have two essential entities, if you want to be very simple. The first is disorders that are caused by an antibody, and the second are disorders where the antibodies you detect are not causing the disorder, but they're telling you that there's predominantly a cellular or T-cell mediated attack of the nervous system. And I think thinking about the diseases in those kind of simple terms helps us when we think about what would be the best treatment to use in these types of cases.   Dr Berkowitz: Fantastic. I think that's very helpful. And just to make sure it's clear in the minds of our listeners when we're dividing into these sort of causative antibodies versus antibodies that might be, uh (I don't know if I'm using the word properly), but, sort of epiphenomena (or they're present, but they're not causative) as you said, can you just give some examples of the ones on either side and how making this distinction helps us in practice?    Dr Pittock: Yes. So, antibodies that are causative of disease - I think, you know, the one that I've done a lot of work on is in neuromyelitis optica, where you have antibodies that are targeting a water channel that sits on an astrocyte, and so it causes NMOSD, or what we consider an autoimmune astrocytopathy. And we know that when the antibody binds to the target, many things can happen. So, when aquaporin-4 antibodies bind to aquaporin-4, they can do a lot of things. They can cause internalization, they can activate complement that results in the killing of the cell - but there can be other situations. For example, when NMDA-receptor antibodies bind to the NMDA receptor, then a variety of different things can occur different to water channel autoimmunity - where, for example, the receptor (the NMDA receptor) is downregulated off the cell surface, and that results, to some extent, in the neuropsychiatric phenomenon that we see in NMDA-receptor autoimmunity. And, obviously, when you have a situation where the antibodies are causing the disease, removal of those antibodies, or the reduction in the production of those antibodies, is going to help patients. Now, on the other side, we have antibodies that we detect in the blood or in the spinal fluid, and those antibodies are targeting proteins that are inside the cell - so those antibodies we don't consider as being pathogenic. Now, remember, there are sometimes situations where proteins that are inside the cell occasionally can be available for antibodies to bind at certain situations. So, for example, in the synapse, amphiphysin or the septins, may at times become available. And so, sometimes, there are targets or antibodies that are somewhat in between those two simplistic concepts. But when we're talking about antibodies that are targeting proteins on the inside of the cell, remember that antibodies don't just suddenly occur. There's a whole process of presentation of target antigen at the lymph node, and then both a T- and a B-cell response. The B-cell response potentially produces the antibodies but also triggers and stimulates T-cells, and those T-cells then go on to cause the disease. And those T-cells are very problematic, because those classical paraneoplastic and the newer ones we've described (and many have described) - these are associated with quite severe neurological disability, and they're very, very difficult to treat. And if you ask me, “Where is the holy grail of autoimmune neurology therapeutic research?” It's in trying to actually figure out ways of treating the predominantly T-cell mediated paraneoplastic and autoimmune neurological disorders. We're making great headway in terms of the treatments of the antibody-mediated neurological disorders.   Dr Berkowitz: That's a helpful overview. So, sticking with this framework, you mentioned as sort of the “causative antibody” category and the antibodies that are predominantly for intracellular antigens, but not believed to be causative - I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly and we can convey it to our listeners - I believe you said in your paper, then, that the antibodies that are predominantly causative are more likely to be associated with conditions that are very treatable, as compared to the intracellular antibodies that are not thought to be causative, as you just said the disability can be irrecoverable or very hard to treat. And I believe another theme in your paper that you brought out is the antibodies that tend to be causative tend to be cell surface and tend to be less likely to be associated with underlying cancer (although not a perfect rule), and the intracellular antigens more commonly associated with cancer in those cases to look very hard for a cancer before giving up. Are those themes that I understand them from your paper properly, or anything else to add there?    Dr Pittock: Yes, I think that that's exactly the message that we were trying to get across, so that's good news that you've picked up on the themes. I think, yeah, in simple terms, remember that when a cytotoxic T-cell identifies the peptide that its T-cell receptor will target, the ultimate outcome is poor, all right? T-cells are like the marines - they don't mess around. Once they find their target, they eliminate that target, and so, it's really difficult to treat those types of diseases if you get them late. And most patients with cytotoxic T-cell mediated paraneoplastic neurological disorders, oftentimes, by the time they get to a center of excellence, the boat has left the dock in many respects - in other words, it's too late. So, you know, I will often see patients, for example, with progressive cerebellar degeneration (say, in the context of Purkinje cell autoantibody type 1 antibodies and a breast cancer), and if those patients are in a wheelchair at the time that I see them, there's very, very little that we can do. So, you really want to try and get that patient into the office, you know, when they're using a cane (or not), and then, potentially, you have the opportunity - using very aggressive immunosuppressive medications - to make a difference. And that is quite different to other scenarios, where, for example, if you have NMDA-receptor encephalitis - as many of the readers will know, this is a condition that is very treatable, and most patients do very well, because the antibodies, they're disrupting function, but they're not killing the neuron, as we see in those more aggressive, paraneoplastic cytotoxic T-cell mediated diseases.   Dr Berkowitz: Also, in terms of searching for an underlying cancer, another theme in your paper as I understood (but want to make sure I'm understanding and conveying to our listeners and hear your thoughts), that the cell surface and treatable antibody-mediated syndromes, as you mentioned (NMO, NMDA) tend to be less associated with underlying cancers (although can be), whereas the intracellular antigens, um, a much higher percentage of those patients are going to end up having underlying cancers. Is that correct, or any notable exceptions to be aware of in that framework?    Dr Pittock: Yeah, I think the major exception to the rule for the antibodies that are targeting intracellular antigens is the GAD65 antibody story. We generally don't consider the stiff person syndrome, cerebellar ataxia, or other autoimmune neurological disorders associated with very high levels of GAD65 antibodies - those are generally not paraneoplastic. And then there are always exceptions on both sides. You know, one of the benefits of understanding the implications of certain antibodies is trying to understand, you know, what is the likelihood of identifying a malignancy, which antibodies are high-risk antibodies (in other words, high-risk paraneoplastological disorders), and which are low risk in terms of cancer? And, you know, age and the demographic of the individual is often important, because we know, for example, with NMDA-receptor antibodies, the frequency of ovarian teratoma varies with the age of the patient.   Dr Berkowitz: Fantastic. And we encourage our listeners to read your articles – certainly, some very helpful tables and figures that help to elucidate some of these broad distinctions Dr Pittock is making - but just to summarize for the antibody-related part of autoimmune neurology, we have one category of cell-surface antibodies and another of intracellular antibodies. Both can cause very severe and varied neurologic presentations, but the cell surface tend to be more treatable, less likely to be associated with the underlying cancer, and the intracellular less treatable, more likely to be associated with the underlying cancer - but, as with everything in neurology and medicine, exceptions on both sides. Is that a fair aerial view of some of the details we've discussed so far, Dr Pittock?    Dr Pittock: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I also think that, you know, not only, at least, for the antibody-mediated disorders (you know, as we discussed) we have drugs that will reduce the production of those antibodies, but we're also learning a lot more about the cytokine and chemokine signatures of these disorders. For example, NMO, water-channel antibody-mediated diseases are associated with elevated levels of IL-6. We know, for example, in LGI1 encephalitis and other encephalitides, that IL-6 also is elevated at the time of that encephalitic process. And so, the potential to target IL-6 with, you know, drugs that inhibit IL-6 and the IL-6 receptor, these potentially have, you know, a role to play in the management of these types of patients - whereas in the T-cell mediated disorders, you know, no advance has been made in the treatment of those conditions, I would say, in over 50 years. So, for example, the standard of treatment is steroids and then drugs that impact the bone marrow, and so we really haven't moved forward in that respect. And that, I think, is an area that really needs drive and enthusiastic out-of-the-box thinking so that we can try to get better treatments for those patients.   Dr Berkowitz: This has been a helpful overview. I look to dive into some of the scenarios that frontline practitioners will be facing thinking about these diseases. An important point you make in your article is that autoimmune and antibody-mediated neurologic syndromes can affect any level of the neuraxis. Even just our discussion so far, you've talked about anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, you've talked about myasthenia gravis (that's at the neuromuscular junction), you've talked about paraneoplastic cerebellar degeneration - there can be an “itis” of any of our neurologic structures and that “itis” can be antibody-mediated. So, one of the key messages you give us is, one, that these are sort of in the differential diagnosis for any presenting neurologic syndrome, and, two, sort of one of the key features of the history, really, to keep in mind (since we could be anywhere along the neuraxis) is the subacute presentation when this should really sort of be top of mind in our differential diagnosis - so, many of these patients are going to be mystery cases at the outset. And one striking element you bring out in the paper is that, sometimes, the MRI, CSF, electrophysiology studies may be normal or nonspecifically abnormal, and although it's very helpful when we can send these antibody panels out, in some cases, resources are limited or institutions have certain thresholds before you can send these out (because neurologists love to send them in). Sometimes, they are not necessarily appropriate. So, love to hear your thoughts on when we should be sending these panels. What are some clues? Um we have a subacute neurologic presentation at any level of the neuraxis, and when it's not anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, that is sort of a clear phenotype in many cases. How you would approach a patient, maybe, where the MRI is either normal or borderline abnormal (or people are squinting at the medial temporal lobe and saying, “Maybe they're a little brighter than normal”), CSF is maybe normal or nonspecifically, um, and the protein is a little high, but no cells? What clues do you use to say, you know, “These are the patients where we should be digging deep into antibody panels and making sure these are sent and not miss this diagnosis?”    Dr Pittock: Well, thank you. That's a good question. So, I think, you know, first of all, these are complex cases. So, the patient is sitting in front of you and you're trying to figure out, first of all, Is this a hardware or a software problem? Are we definitively dealing with an encephalitis or an organic neurological entity that's immune-mediated? And, you know, the way I think of it is, for me, you see a patient, it's a twenty-five-piece jigsaw puzzle and you've got two pieces, and you're trying to say, “Well, if I step back and look at those two pieces, do I have any sense of where we're going with this patient?” So, the first thing you need to do is to collect data, both the clinical story that the patient tells you (and I think you make the good point that that subacute onset is really a big clue), but subacute onset, also fluctuating course, sometimes, can be important. The history of the patient - you know, Is the patient somebody who has a known history of autoimmune disease? Because we know that patients that have thyroid autoimmunity are more likely to have diabetes, they're more likely to have gastrointestinal motility or dysmotility, they're more likely to have a variety of different immune-mediated conditions. So, is there a family history or a personal history of autoimmunity? Is the patient at high risk for malignancy? Are there clues that this potentially could be a tumor-initiated immune process affecting the nervous system? The neurological exam also is extremely important because, again, that helps you, first of all, kind of define and get some objectivity around what you're dealing with. So, does the patient have hyperreflexia? Are there signs that there is neurological involvement? And then, really, what I think we need to do is to try and frame the predominant neurological presentation. So, what is the major issue? Because a lot of these patients will have multiple complaints, multiple symptoms, and it's very important to try and identify the major presentation. And that's important, because the neural autoantibody tests are now presentation-defined - in other words, they're built around the neurological presentation, because the old approach of just doing, apparently, a plastic evaluation is gone, because we've got to a stage where we have now so many neural antibodies, you can't test every single neural antibody. So, if you're suspecting that there may be an autoimmune neurological component, then you really need to think about what would be the most appropriate comprehensive evaluation I need to do for this patient. So, for example, if a patient comes in with a subacute-onset encephalopathy, you're probably going to want the autoimmune encephalitis evaluation, and then you have to pick whether it's going to be serum or spinal fluid - and as we outlined in the paper, there are certain antibodies that are better detected in serum versus spinal fluid. So, for example, in adults over the age of 50, LGI1 is much more accurately detected in serum than spinal fluid, and the absolute opposite is true for NMDA-receptor antibody detection. One of the most important components of the neurological evaluation is the spinal fluid, but actually looking at the white cell count - and in fact, sometimes, it's quite interesting to me that I'll often see patients referred with a diagnosis of encephalitis and autoimmune encephalitis, and yet they haven't had a spinal fluid examination. So, the presence of a white cell count, you know, greater than five is hugely helpful - it's like two pieces of that twenty-five-piece jigsaw, because that really tells you that there is something inflammatory going on. And now, in terms of imaging, you're right - some patients will have normal MRI. And if you really do think that there's evidence of - you know, for example, you do an MRI, but you're getting a good sense that there's a temporal lobe seizure occurring, MRI looks normal, the EEG shows some abnormalities in the mesial temporal area - you know, considering additional imaging modalities (like PET scan of the brain), I think, is reasonable. We know that in NMDA-receptor encephalitis cases, 30% of patients will have normal MRI but they'll often have abnormalities on the PET scans. So, I think, what we do is we try to gather data and gather information that allows us to add in pieces of that jigsaw so that, eventually, after we've done this evaluation, we can see now we have ten pieces. If we step back, we say, “Yes, now we know what this condition is”, and then we essentially plan out the therapeutic approach dependent on what we've found. In terms of identification of underlying malignancy, you know, different people have different approaches. Our approach generally has been to try to get a PET-CT scan of the body as our first go-to test, because, actually, we found that CT chest abdomen and pelvis really actually delivers the same amount of radiation - and from a cost perspective, it's about the same - and we have found that PET-CTs really do provide a higher sensitivity for cancer detection.   Dr Berkowitz: Perfect. A lot of very helpful clinical pearls there. So, in closing, Dr Pittock, I've learned a lot from you today. I'm sure our listeners will as well. What does the future hold in this field? What's coming down the pipeline? What are we going to be learning from you and your colleagues that are going to help us take care of patients with these diseases going forward?    Dr Pittock: Well, thank you, Dr Berkowitz, for that question. I think the future is very bright and very exciting, and, hopefully, some of the more junior members will be enthused by this Continuum series, and, hopefully, we'll go into this area. So, let's talk about the future. The future, I think, is going to be of great interest. Firstly, there's going to be continued discovery of novel biomarkers, and the reasons for that is because of the technical and technological advances we've seen. So, for example, there have been many, many antibodies discovered by us and others that have been discovered on the basis of, for example, phage technology. In fact, the Kelch 11 biomarker discovery in collaboration with UCSF and our group was done on the basis of Joe DeRisi and Michael Wilson's phage approach. And we're actually using that now at Mayo Clinic, and we've discovered about three or four new antibodies just in the last couple of years using this technology (and that here is led by John Mills and Div Dubey). And then, we're also going to see, I think, the evolution of protoarrays much more in biomarker discovery, so, we'll have more antibodies, and again, I think, generally, those antibodies will fall into the two categories we kind of described - so, you know, in terms of the approach to those conditions, maybe not so much change. I do think, though, that the introduction and the utility of comprehensive cytokine and chemokine analysis in the future will assist us in making diagnoses of seronegative encephalitis, but also potentially will direct therapy. So, for example, cytokine A is elevated - maybe that would be a potential target for therapy that's available for these patients with rare and potentially very disabling disorders. Then, when we look at the cytotoxic T-cell mediated disorders, I think the major areas of advance are going to be in better understanding the immunophenotype of cytotoxic T-cell mediated diseases, and then the potential development of tolerization strategies using the specific targets, those specific epitope targets that are involved in paraneoplastic and nonparaneoplastic diseases, and seeing if we can vaccinate patients, but move that immune response into more of a tolerogenic immune response rather than a cytotoxic killing response. And then I think, lastly, we're going to see a dramatic revolution in CAR-T therapeutic approaches to these types of disorders moving forward - and not just, you know, CAR-T therapies that are targeting, you know, CD19 or CD20, but CAR-Ts that are actually personalized and developed so that they can target the specific B- and T-cells in an individual patient and actually do a very fine removal of that autoimmune pathologic process that I think would have significant benefit for patients not only in stopping progression, but also in significantly reducing the potential of side effects - so, a much more targeted approach. So, that's where I think the next ten years is going to be. I think it's very exciting. It's going to require the collaboration of neurologists with, you know, immunologists, hematologists, you know, across the board. So, a very exciting future, I think, for this field.    Dr Berkowitz: Exciting, indeed. And we have learned so much from you and your colleagues at the Mayo Clinic about these conditions, and I definitely encourage our listeners to read your article on this phenomenal issue that really gives us a modern, up-to-date overview of this field and what's coming down the pipeline. So, a real honor to get to speak with you, pick your brain about some of the clinical elements, pitfalls and challenges, and also hear about some of the exciting signs. Thank you so much, Dr Pittock, for joining me today on Continuum Audio.   Dr Pittock: Thank you very much.    Dr Berkowitz: Again, today, I've been interviewing Dr Sean Pittock, whose article with Dr Andrew McKeon on an introduction to autoimmune neurology and diagnostic approach appears in the most recent issue of Continuum on autoimmune neurology. Be sure to check out Continuum Audio episodes from this and other issues. And thank you so much to our listeners for joining us today.    Dr Monteith: This is Dr Teshamae Monteith, Associate Editor of Continuum Audio. If you've enjoyed this episode, you'll love the journal, which is full of in-depth and clinically relevant information important for neurology practitioners. Use this link in the episode notes to learn more and subscribe. AAN members, you can get CME for listening to this interview by completing the evaluation at Continpub.com/audioCME. Thank you for listening to Continuum Audio.

In this episode, Lyell K. Jones Jr, MD, FAAN, speaks with Eoin P. Flanagan, MBBCh, FAAN who served as the guest editor of the Continuum® August 2024 Autoimmune Neurology issue. They provide a preview of the issue, which publishes on August 1, 2024. Dr. Jones is the editor-in-chief of Continuum: Lifelong Learning in Neurology® and is a professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Flanagan is a professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Additional Resources Continuum website: ContinuumJournal.com Subscribe to Continuum: shop.lww.com/Continuum More about the American Academy of Neurology: aan.com Social Media facebook.com/continuumcme @ContinuumAAN Host: @LyellJ Guest: @EoinFlanagan14 Transcript Full episode transcript available here   Dr Jones: This is Dr Lyell Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Continuum, the premier topic-based  neurology clinical review and CME journal from the American Academy of Neurology. Thank you for joining us on Continuum Audio, a companion podcast to the journal. Continuum Audio features conversations with the guest editors and authors of Continuum, who are the leading experts in their fields. Subscribers to the Continuum journal have access to exclusive audio content not featured on the podcast. If you're not already a subscriber, we encourage you to become one. For more information, please visit the link in the show notes.    Dr Jones: This is Dr Lyell Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Continuum: Lifelong Learning in Neurology. Today, I'm interviewing Dr Eoin Flanagan, who recently served as Continuum's guest editor for our latest issue on autoimmune neurology. Dr Flanagan is a neurologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he's a professor of neurology. Eoin, why don't you introduce yourself to our listeners?   Dr Flanagan: Yeah, it's a great pleasure to be here today. I'm a neurologist. I'm originally from Ireland – I did my medical school training over there, and then came over to the Mayo Clinic to train in neurology and in neuroimmunology. And delighted to be able to edit this exciting issue of autoimmune neurology of Continuum. I think, um, it's a really fascinating area that's moving very quickly, and I'm hoping that we can educate listeners to be able to feel comfortable when they come to see these patients and to realize how much of a growing specialty it is and how we're getting treatments, and we can really help these patients.     Dr Jones: Yeah, it's a pretty exciting area. And, so, not only are you the Guest Editor for our latest issue of Continuum, this is the first-ever Continuum issue dedicated to autoimmune neurology, so I want to thank you for taking it on. This is something that our readers have been asking for for many years. I hope the topic wasn't too daunting.   Dr Flanagan: No, absolutely, it's a pleasure to be able to do it, and it's just great when you read all the articles to kind of feel where the field is going and how much of  a benefit we can now make for our patients. So, that's been a real joy to do.   Dr Jones: Well, congratulations, and it's a magnificent issue. You have a lot to be proud of putting this group of authors together. So, for a few of our issues now, we've had the opportunity on the Continuum Audio podcast to interview the Guest Editor, which is really fun for me. I have to confess it's really a joy to talk to someone who is up to the minute not only in their narrow area of expertise at the article level, but, really, across the entire breadth of the subspecialty. And so, you've had an opportunity to delve into all relevant topics in autoimmune neurology. When you look at the issue as a whole, or the field as a whole, what do you think the biggest debate or controversy in the world of autoimmune neurology is right now?     Dr Flanagan: Yeah, I think there's some changes happening. You know, initially, people used to recognize a disease called Hashimoto's encephalitis, where patients would have a presentation of encephalitis in the setting of thyroid antibodies. And what we're now realizing is that many of these patients actually have antibodies to neural-specific targets, because we know that the antibodies that target the thyroid don't really impact the brain. And what we're now realizing is that there's many antibodies out there that bind to different receptors in the brain (the NMDA receptor, for example, AMPA receptor), so we're really trying to refine the field towards these different antibody-associated disorders - and each different disorder may behave very differently. A patient with NMDA receptor encephalitis, for example, may be in the ICU, in hospital, may take them six, nine months to recover. On the other hand, a patient with LGI1-antibody encephalitis may get five days of steroids and be almost back to normal within a few weeks. So, it's a really broad spectrum. And, I think, what we're now learning is that each antibody has a role in helping define the disease, guide your treatment, guide your search for cancer - but, also, they behave differently - so these neural-specific antibodies are really important, while the older antibodies (like the thyroid antibodies) may just be a bystander and something that's happening in the background in a patient who's more prone to autoimmune disease.   Dr Jones: Very helpful, and I think that resonates with our listeners who have taken care of patients with autoimmune neurologic disorders, and it really is, I think, a great prototype in our specialty, maybe (for lack of a better word) of how observations start at the bedside, and then discoveries are made at the bench, and those benefits are brought back to patients. You know, there's been a recognition of autoimmunity in neurology for a long time, right - responsiveness to immunosuppression, even before the biomarkers were discovered - tell us a little story about how that works for our listeners.    Dr Flanagan: Yeah, so, I think one of the first steps is defining a clinical syndrome. So what you'll find is that some of these syndromes (for example, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, where they have longitudinally extensive lesions within a spinal cord) provoked people to be interested that these looked different to MS, and then that went to the lab, and the aquaporin-4 antibodies were discovered - or, more recently, MOG antibodies were discovered. The aquaporin-4 antibody-associated neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder is a good prototype, because that went to the laboratory. Initially, they saw complement deposition on the pathology of these patients, they saw antibody deposition - the antibody was then discovered to aquaporin-4. And then, many labs around the world went to their own labs and they tried to delve in to determine what the pathogenesis was, and they found that complement was important in cell killing, that interleukin-6 elevation was important, and that complement appeared to be important. So, then, what they did was they tried to find treatments that would target those pathways. So, and now, we have treatments that are successful for this disease that can target complement, target interleukin-6, and target B cells (be it CD19 or CD20). So, we now have many different treatments, and this disease used to be very severe (so, had a 33% mortality at five years), and now these patients can live a long life with these treatments. So, I think that gives you an example of how you can follow the immunology of the disease and use targeted treatments to help our patients, and I think we can use that as a good prototype for many of   the other antibodies, because every year we discover two to three new antibodies, and each disease is a bit different in its mechanism. So, there are now clinical trials in NMDA receptor encephalitis starting up. There's clinical trials in MOG antibody-associated disease. And I think we're going to see that as we move forward, that these treatment trials will come and we'll be able to help our patients better with proven treatments that we know work, rather than a history of we would just use five days of steroids and then we didn't know exactly what to do in the long term - and we could manage some of the relapse as well, but we couldn't really take care of the disease in the background - so, I think the NMO is a good model for moving forward, and the pharmaceutical companies are supporting moving forward with different trials for the disease.   Dr Jones: So, a key message there is understanding the biology so we can be a little more targeted and less indiscriminate in the immunomodulation we're going to use. And we have parallels to that in the neuromuscular world, right, like using B-cell depletion for MuSK-associated neuromuscular junction disorders, as opposed to the trial-and-error approach, right? That's got to be a little more patient-centric and you get to a therapeutic response faster, right?   Dr Flanagan: I think so. Yeah, and I think, in the future, that might be something where, you know, a different patient, if they had elevated cytokines that pointed more to an IL-6 elevation, then maybe, in that patient, you would target IL-6, while the next patient with the same disease has more prominent complement activation, maybe you would target complement, or another patient has more prominent B-cell markers elevated, that you would target B cells. So, I think, we're really moving towards a more individualized treatment in some of these disorders. So, it's a very exciting time, but we've only really made that breakthrough in one of the antibodies, and we have probably sixty, seventy antibody-mediated disorders now. So, it's going to get complicated, but it's also going to be, really, an exciting time for our patients, and I think an exciting time for neurology trainees and people who see patients in practice that we can now make diagnoses and guide their treatment that, previously, you know, these patients were told they might have presumed infectious encephalitis or we didn't know the exact cause.   Dr Jones: So targeted not only to the diagnosis, but to the individual.   Dr Flanagan: Yeah.   Dr Jones: So, that's a level of complexity that I think is going to blow a lot of our minds, right? And it's exciting, but I think it also is a little daunting, right?   Dr Flanagan: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be complicated, and these are rare diseases, so they're difficult to do clinical trials in. But I think we can be guided, and our experience tells us that if you follow the mechanisms, that you can find targeted treatments. Now, you can also find targeted treatments in MS - you know, it took us a longer time to find successful high-efficacy treatments, but now we're doing much better with many high-efficacy treatments available. But, I think in these autoantibody-mediated diseases, really looking at the mechanisms and trying to figure out that and then targeting the treatment in that direction makes the most sense and is the most likely to be successful.   Dr Jones: So, one of the purposes of Continuum is to educate our readers and our listeners, and because neurology is so broad, because it is evolving so quickly,   it's really hard to stay current. And so, again, that's part of the purpose of the journal. I think one of the challenging areas is autoimmune neurology, because it changes fast, and it's complicated, and the treatments are high stakes and complicated to administer - so, I think this is an important topic. I know from my own experience in clinical practice, one of the challenging scenarios is you see   a patient who may have an autoimmune neurological disorder, you obtain some serum or CSF markers of neurologic autoimmunity, right? And of the ten antibodies you check, one of them comes back, and it's a low titer-positive antibody. I know that's something that you get a lot of questions about. How do you approach that?     Dr Flanagan: Yeah, I think, you know, we're all neurologists, and, you know, it's immediately back to the history, the examination, and the investigations, and what do they support - so, are you really dealing with an antibody-mediated disorder? And I think, from a neuroimmunology laboratory standpoint, we're always trying to get better tests, remove those less-specific tests (so, move away from the thyroid peroxidase antibodies) and really hone in on the exact targets and their mechanisms. So, I suppose, when you find a low-positive result, it's really important to go back to that clinical. And, I think, you know, that is job security for neurologists, right? Because you really have to interpret these in context. And, I think when you're seeing autoimmune cases, you need to have a good, broad understanding of differential diagnosis, because there are many different disorders that can present in a similar way, and you don't want to get distracted by that low-positive antibody and then put a patient on long-term immunosuppression that has many different risks. So, there is a potential for misdiagnosis, and I think that's an emerging area that we're recognizing that we always have to put the antibodies into clinical context. And, you know, there are more and more studies coming out that will help guide you, and I think the issue in Continuum will help guide you in terms of your understanding of, you know, what does a positive antibody mean? And it'll give a little bit on the methodology of how the antibodies are tested and how that can help you – or, sometimes, be it the titer may be very high that can help you. So, different aspects of the antibody test results can also help guide you in the likelihood of that being kind of a true positive versus a false positive. But I think always back to the history, exam, and the investigations, too.   Dr Jones: You're being very gracious there, and I'm glad you bring it up that it's really not just about the laboratory performance of the test, right? It's about the pretest probability of the clinical syndrome if it doesn't clinically resemble an autoimmune neurological disorder. So, I'm not going to pretend to be an expert in Bayesian statistics, but I think we should recognize that if we obtain any test when there's a low likelihood of the syndrome or the diagnosis being present, we're more likely to have false positives than in other scenarios or other settings. So, I think that is a charge to the clinician, where if we are obtaining these tests, we do really need to think about the likelihood of there being a clinical autoimmune neurology syndrome, right?   Dr Flanagan: That's exactly right. You know, one of the teachings that I sometimes give to the trainees is that, you know, if you have a ninety-year-old patient with mild cognitive impairment who comes into the emergency department with some worsened altered mental status, you know, you want to check for a urinary tract infection, you want to check a chest x-ray - you don't want to test neural antibodies upfront. So, you always have to consider the setting and avoid overtesting, because like any test, they're not perfect, and you can run into trouble if you order it too frequently - so, that's another thing that we try to educate people. And then if you do order the test, we like to educate people on, you know, what the positive test results mean, and is there any potential for false positives like we talked about?   Dr Jones: And I think, keeping in mind - obviously, there are exceptions - but the subacute onset of multifocal neurological disorder is really suggestive of autoimmunity. It doesn't mean that it can't happen in other contexts. And it has been exciting not only on the diagnostic side, but on the therapeutic side. There are so many exciting new treatments. What do you think is on the horizon beyond what we've seen in the last few years with small- and large-molecule therapies for these disorders?     Dr Flanagan: Yeah, I think there's new things. You know, people are always looking at different approaches. So, for example, there's a lot of interest in tolerance, and is there a way you could tolerize yourself out of some of these autoimmune conditions? There's a lot of work on CAR-T treatments, looking particularly in the field of lupus and other systemic autoimmune diseases, and I suspect that they will also be applied to autoimmune neurologic conditions. And then the other thing to mention is that we're seeing the more frequent use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with lots of different types of cancers, including neuroendocrine tumor. So I think, in the future, everybody's going to have to learn about autoimmune neurology, because we're going to be seeing these patients more often, because there's going to be more neurologic immune-related adverse effects related to those immune checkpoint inhibitor treatments – so, I think we're going to continue to see autoimmune neurologic disorders pop up. And, you know, the immune checkpoint inhibitors are almost real-world laboratory experiments, because you're ramping up the immune system, and you can trigger many different types of autoimmune conditions. We're actually learning a lot from these patients that can help us in the way we diagnose and the way we treat these patients in the future, but I will say that, sometimes, they can cause a challenge, because some of these patients have difficult-to-control cancer - you need to up their immune system, but then they get autoimmune complications. We try and dampen down the immune system, and then we need to kind of ramp it back up to treat the cancer. And we've had some challenges where managing such cases can be difficult with that balance of cancer-directed immunotherapy versus immune-related adverse events, and, sometimes, that can pose a challenge for autoimmune neurologists when we see these patients.   Dr Jones: So, those are challenges, and I imagine it's a challenging and often rewarding field. What is the most rewarding thing about caring for patients with autoimmune neurological disorders?     Dr Flanagan: I think it's a few things. You know, one is that it's a multidisciplinary area,   so many of these patients will have different subspecialties of neurology involved. So, we'll get to work with our colleagues, and we may work with our oncology colleagues, we work with our ophthalmologist, and we work with our physical medicine and rehab team – so, it's a real team approach to help the patient. So, that's one aspect that's very enjoyable, because everybody needs to work together. And then, you know, these are treatable conditions. So we can have patients who are in the intensive care unit - you know, quadriplegic, in a coma - and then we treat them, we see them back, and they can be back close to normal. So, particularly, with some of these antibodies that target the cell-surface receptors (like NMDA receptor encephalitis, MOG antibodies), these patients can really go from being really, really sick in the ICU to coming back to normal – so, that's very satisfying, and much of that is related to the improvements we have in treatments, and then we can manage them in the long term with some of these newer treatments that are coming along for these diseases. So, I think it's a very exciting area and exciting time for our patients with these disorders, and we're getting more and more clinical trials, so we're hoping that we'll have more and more treatments available into the future.   Dr Jones: I think that has to be part of why the interest in autoimmune neurology has grown so much. I know as an educator - I hear this a lot from trainees - you know, the level of interest in MS and autoimmune neurology has really only grown over time. It must be because of better understanding of the pathobiology of disease, better treatment options, and something that our listeners may not know. Not only is Dr Flanagan an expert in autoimmune neurology - he's very well trained, he did fellowship in MS and autoimmune neurology, and behavioral neurology, right?   Dr Flanagan: That's correct. Yeah. Yeah.   Dr Jones: And, you know, it's going to sound like I'm trying to flatter Eoin here, but I'm really not (this is going to lead to a question). Eoin is, you know, very well recognized for his work in autoimmune neurology and discovery in this area. Uh, he happens to be one of the best doctors I know. And Eoin, you've won the Teacher of the Year Award several times. So, for our listeners who are looking into their careers and trying to manage multiple areas of interest, how do you do it? You do so many different things so well.   Dr Flanagan: Well, you know, I'm lucky to have had the opportunity to work here at the Mayo Clinic and in the neuroimmunology lab. So, we have a lot of resources, and it's an exciting area, you know? We need to bring up the next generation of leaders, so we need to be enthusiastic about these conditions, and we really can do a lot for these patients. So I think when I cover on the hospital service - you work with the residents or work with the fellows and clinic - you know, these cases (when they come around) are really enjoyable to see you can get an answer, we can figure out what type of treatment to do, and we can really help these patients. So, I think that makes it a very exciting area and an easy area to teach residents and to convey some of the excitement that's happening in the field. So, it's just a great honor to be able to work with trainees to kind of let them know the field. And, you know, there's more and more fellowship opportunities in different centers in neuroimmunology, and I think more residents are becoming interested in the field of autoimmune neurology because of so much happening. But, in saying that, with these challenges, it's very hard to keep up with all these antibodies - I find it hard. There's 70 different antibodies - it's hard to know every single thing about every single one. So, we need to continue to educate, to try and simplify, to try and help our younger people be able to manage these patients, because no matter who it is in neurology, you're going to encounter these patients - if you cover the hospital, if you see regular patients in clinic, if you do consult service, you'll come across these patients - and we're going to see them more and more with immune checkpoint inhibitors and other treatments coming along. So, I think it's an exciting area, and it's an important area for everyone to be aware of. So, it's just a great pleasure to be able to be involved in the field and see such enthusiasm in junior people.   Dr Jones: So, in addition to doing all those things well, you're also very humble. So, that's a great answer, and I think it is important - even though these are collectively rare - the opportunity to treat these patients and have wonderful outcomes is great, and I think the ability to recognize and feel comfortable. And, hopefully, Continuum has a place in that. I think your issue, Dr Flanagan, is a stellar issue and, uh, will be a benchmark for a generation of neurologists and how to approach these disorders. So, I want to thank you for being our Guest Editor for that topic and joining us today for such a thorough and fascinating discussion on autoimmune neurology.   Dr Flanagan: Thanks so much. And thank you to the Continuum team for highlighting autoimmune neurology. It's an exciting field, and I think, really, there is a great group of authors that cover neuroimmunology comprehensively, and I think, hopefully, people will enjoy the edition.   Dr Jones: Again, we've been speaking with Dr Eoin Flanagan, Guest Editor for Continuum's most recent issue on autoimmune neurology. Please check it out. And thank you to our listeners for joining today.     Dr Monteith: This is doctor Teshamae Monteith, Associate Editor of Continuum Audio.   If you've enjoyed this episode, you'll love the journal, which is full of in-depth   and clinically relevant information important for neurology practitioners. Use this link in the episode notes to learn more and subscribe. Thank you for listening to Continuum Audio.

Welcome to the NeurologyLive® Mind Moments® podcast. Tune in to hear leaders in neurology sound off on topics that impact your clinical practice. In this episode, Michael Weiss, chief executive officer of TG Therapeutics, discussed ublituximab (Briumvi), a recently approved anti-CD20 therapy for relapsing multiple sclerosis, and the advantages it brings to patients. Specifically, he talked about the Department of Veteran Affairs' decision to award national contract to ublituximab as the preferred anti-CD20 for this patient population, and how this facilitates greater access to the treatment. In addition, he discussed how the knowledge profile of the agent has grown over time, as well as the additional efforts to gain a better understanding of its efficacy and safety. Furthermore, he spoke on the differences between ublituximab and other approved agents, and why it may be more applicable to certain patients.  Looking for more multiple sclerosis discussion? Check out the NeurologyLive® Multiple sclerosis clinical focus page. Episode Breakdown: 1:05 – Significance of ublituximab awarded national contract as preferred anti-CD20 for relapsing MS 3:30 – Advantages and differences of ublituximab vs approved therapies for MS 11:40 – Neurology News Minute 14:30 – Growing knowledge profile of ublituximab over the years 19:05 – Future plans of ubtlituximab; long-term goals of the therapy The stories featured in this week's Neurology News Minute, which will give you quick updates on the following developments in neurology, are further detailed here: Eli Lilly Announces Date for Donanemab FDA AdComm Hearing Patient Death Reported in Phase 2 DAYLIGHT Study of Pfizer's Gene Therapy for Duchenne ALS Candidate PrimeC Shows Greater Treatment Effect in High-Risk ALS Thanks for listening to the NeurologyLive® Mind Moments® podcast. To support the show, be sure to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. For more neurology news and expert-driven content, visit neurologylive.com.

In this podcast episode, Farrukh Awan, MD, Jeremy S. Abramson, MD, MMSc, and Shuo Ma, MD, PhD, discuss real-world patient cases and how to align current clinical practice with the NCCN guidelines for CLL/SLL, including:Prognostic variables when deciding between regimensRole of MRD in CLLResults from the phase II CAPTIVATE trialChoosing among the available covalent BTK inhibitorsPreferred partner anti-CD20 antibody in CLL/SLLRole of the noncovalent BTK inhibitor, pirtobrutinib, in CLL/SLLUse of CAR T-cell therapy in CLL/SLLPresenters:Farrukh Awan, MDProfessor of Internal MedicineDirector of Lymphoid Malignancies ProgramHarold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer CenterUniversity of Texas Southwestern Medical CenterDallas, TexasJeremy S. Abramson, MD, MMScDirector, Center for LymphomaMassachusetts General HospitalAssociate Professor of MedicineHarvard Medical SchoolBoston, MassachusettsShuo Ma, MD, PhDProfessor of MedicineDivision of Hematology-OncologyDepartment of MedicineRobert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer CenterNorthwestern University Feinberg School of MedicineChicago, IllinoisContent based on an online CME program supported by educational grants from BeiGene; Janssen Biotech, Inc., administered by Janssen Scientific Affairs, LLC; and Lilly, and an independent medical education grant from AbbVie.Link to full program:https://bit.ly/3LzA2As

CME credits: 0.50 Valid until: 30-05-2025 Claim your CME credit at https://reachmd.com/programs/cme/cd20-x-cd3-bispecificsredefining-treatment-for-patients-with-rr-dlbcllbcl-in-the-community-setting/17877/ In the rapidly evolving landscape of treating patients with relapsed or refractory large/diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (R/R LBCL/DLBCL), recent advancements are providing newfound hope. Immunochemotherapy with R-CHOP has long been the standard first-line treatment, but a significant portion of patients experience relapses and refractory disease. Until recently, salvage chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) was the only curative option. However, the introduction of novel therapies including T-cell engaging therapies has sparked a paradigm shift in R/R LBCL/DLBCL management. In this transforming landscape, bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) stand out as a remarkable addition. They offer readily available, "off-the-shelf" options that do not require a manufacturing process tailored to each patient, with the advantage of lower rates of severe side effects compared to CAR T-cell therapy, making them a promising choice, particularly for older patients and those with late-stage disease. This web-based, on-demand activity highlights key clinical trial evidence for bispecific antibodies targeting CD20 and CD3, and how to contextualize the rationale for and clinical utility of integrating CD20 X CD3 bispecific antibodies into community-based clinical practice. Expert faculty offer insights and advice based on their own real-world clinical practice experiences regarding the management and treatment of R/R DLBCL/LBCL and appropriate …=

If there's one person you'd want to talk to about immunology, the immune system and Covid, holes in our knowledge base about the complex immune system, and where the field is headed, it would be Professor Iwasaki. And add to that the topic of Women in Science. Here's our wide-ranging conversation.A snippet of the video, Full length Ground Truths videos are posted here and you can subscribe. Ground Truths is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Transcript with many external link and links to the audio, recorded 30 April 2024 Eric Topol (00:06):Hello, it's Eric Topol and I'm really thrilled to have my friend Akiko Iwasaki from Yale, and before I start talking with Akiko, I just want to mention there aren't too many silver linings of the pandemic, but one for me was getting to know Professor Iwasaki. She is my go-to immunologist. I've learned so much from her over the last four years and she's amazing. She just, as you may know, she was just recently named one of the most influential people in the world by TIME100. [and also recognized this week in TIME 100 Health]. And besides that, she's been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. She's the president of the American Association of Immunologists and she's a Howard Hughes principal investigator. So Akiko, it's wonderful to have you to join into an extended discussion of things that we have of mutual interest.Akiko Iwasaki (01:04):Thank you so much, Eric, for having me. I equally appreciate all of what you do, and I follow your blog and tweets and everything. So thank you Eric.Eric Topol (01:14):Well, you are a phenom. I mean just, that's all I can say because I think it was so appropriate that TIME recognize your contributions, not just over the pandemic, but of course throughout your career, a brilliant career in immunology. I thought we'd start out with our topic of great interest on Long Covid. You've done seminal work here and this is an evolving topic obviously. I wonder what your latest thoughts are on the pathogenesis and where things are headed.Long CovidAkiko Iwasaki (01:55):Yeah, so as I have been saying throughout the pandemic, I think that Long Covid is not one disease. It's a collection of multiple diseases and that are sort of ending up in similar sets of symptoms. Obviously, there are over 200 symptoms and not everyone has the same set of symptoms, but what we are going for is trying to understand the disease drivers, so persistent viral infection is one of them. There are overwhelming evidence for that theory now, all the way from autopsy and biopsy studies to looking at peripheral blood RNA signatures as well as circulating spike protein and nucleocapsid proteins that are detected in people with Long Covid. Now whether that persistent virus or remnants of virus is driving the disease itself is unclear still. And that's why trials like the one that we are engaging with Harlan Krumholz on Paxlovid should tell us what percentage of the people are suffering from that type of driver and whether antivirals like Paxlovid might be able to mitigate those. If I may, I'd like to talk about three other hypotheses.Eric Topol (03:15):Yeah, I'd love for you to do that.Akiko Iwasaki (03:18):Okay, great. So the second hypothesis that we've been working on is autoimmune disease. And so, this is clearly happening in a subset of people, again, it's a heterogeneous disease, but we can actually not only look at reactogenicity of antibodies from people with Long Covid where we can transfer IgG from patients with Long Covid into an animal, a healthy animal, and really measure outcomes of a pathogenesis. So that's a functional evidence that antibodies in some people with Long Covid is really actually causing some of the damages that are occurring in vivo. And the third hypothesis is the reactivation of herpes viruses. So many of us adults have multiple latent herpes virus family members that are just dormant and are not really causing any pathologies. But in people with Long Covid, we're seeing elevated reactivation of viruses like Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) or Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and that may again be just a signature of Long Covid, but it may also be driving some of the symptoms that people are suffering from.(04:32):So that's again, we see the signature over and over, not just our group, but multiple other groups, Michael Peluso's group, Jim Heath, and many others. So that's also an emerging evidence from multiple groups showing that. And finally, we think that inflammation that occurs during the acute phase can sort of chronically change some tissue tone. For instance, in the brain with Michelle Monje's team, we developed a sort of localized mild Covid model of infection and showed that changes in microglia can be seen seven weeks post infection even though the virus is completely gone. So that means that inflammation that's established as a result of this initial infection can have prolonged sequence and sequela within the person and that may also be driving disease. And Eric, the reason we need to understand these diseases separately is because not only for diagnostic purposes, but for therapeutic purposes because to target a persistent virus is very different approach from targeting autoantibodies, for example.Eric Topol (05:49):Well, that's great. There's a lot to unpack there as you laid out four distinct paths that could result in the clinical syndrome and sequelae. I think you know I had the chance to have a really fun conversation with Michelle about their joint work that you've done, and she reminded me how she made a cold call to you to start as a collaboration, which I thought was fantastic. Look what that yielded. But yeah, this is fascinating because as I think you're getting at is that it may not be the same pathogenesis in any given individual so that all these, and even others might be operative. I guess maybe I first delve into the antibody story as you're well aware, we see after people get Covid a higher rate of autoimmune diseases crop up, which is really interesting because it seems to rev up self-directed immune response. And this I think many people haven't really noted yet, although obviously you're well aware of this, it's across all the different autoimmune diseases, connective tissue disease, not just one in particular. And it's, as you say, the idea that you could take the blood from a person suffering from Long Covid and give it to an experimental animal model and be able to recapitulate some of the abnormalities, it's really pretty striking. So the question I guess is if you were to do plasmapheresis and try to basically expunge these autoantibodies, wouldn't you expect people to have some symptomatic benefit pretty rapidly or is it just that the process is already far from the initiating step?Akiko Iwasaki (07:54):That's a great question. Plasmapheresis may be able to transiently improve the person if they're suffering from these autoantibody mediated diseases. People have reported, for example, IVIG treatment has dramatically improved their symptoms, but not in everybody. So it's really critical to understand who's suffering from this particular driver and appropriately treat those people. And there are many other very effective therapies in autoimmune disease field that can be repurposed for treating these patients as well.Eric Topol (08:34):The only clinical trial that has clicked so far, interestingly, came out of Hong Kong with different types of ways to manipulate the gut microbiome, which again, you know better than me is a major modulator of our immune system response. What are your thoughts about taking advantage of that way to somehow modulate this untoward immune response in people with this condition?Akiko Iwasaki (09:07):Yeah, so that is an exciting sort of development, and I don't mean to discount the importance of microbiome at all. It's just the drivers that are mentioning are something that can be directly linked to disease, but certainly dysbiosis and translocation of metabolites and microbiome itself could trigger Long Covid as well. So it's something that we're definitely keeping our eyes on. And as you say, Eric, the immune system is in intimate contact with the gut microbiome and also the gut is intimate contact with the brain. So there's a lot of connections that we really need to be paying attention to. So yeah, absolutely. This is a very exciting development.Eric Topol (09:57):And it is intriguing of course, the reactivation of viruses. I mean, we've learned in recent years how important EBV is in multiple sclerosis (MS). The question I have for you on that pathway, is this just an epiphenomena or do you actually think that could be a driving force in some people?Akiko Iwasaki (10:19):Yeah, so that's really hard to untangle in people. I mean, David Putrino and my team we're planning a clinical trial using Truvada. Truvada obviously is an HIV drug, but it has reported antiviral activity to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and others. So potentially we can try to interrogate that in people, but we're also developing mouse models that can sort of recapitulate EBV like viral reactivation and to see whether there's any sort of causal link between the reactivation and disease process.Eric Topol (10:57):Right now, recently there's been a bunch of anecdotes of people who get the glucagon-like peptide one (GLP-1) drugs which have a potent anti-inflammatory, both systemic and in the brain. I'd love to test these drugs, but of course these companies that make them or have other interests outside of Long Covid, do you think there's potential for a drug like that?Akiko Iwasaki (11:23):Yeah, so those drugs seem to have a lot of miraculous effects on every disease. So obviously it has to be used carefully because many people with Long Covid have issues with liver functions and other existing conditions that may or may not be conducive to taking those types of GLP-1 agonists. But in subset of people, maybe this can be tried, especially due to the anti-inflammatory properties, it may benefit again, a subset of people. I don't expect a single drug to cure everyone. That would be pretty amazing, but unlikely.Eric Topol (12:09):Absolutely. And it's unfortunate we are not further along in this whole story of clinical trials, testing treatments and applauding your efforts with my friend Harlan there to get into the testing which we had hoped RECOVER was going to do with their more than billion dollars or allocation, which didn't get us too far in that. Now before we leave Long Covid, which we could speak about for hours, I mean it's so darn important because so many people are really out there disabled or suffering on a daily basis or periodically they get better and then get worse again. There's been this whole idea that, oh, it's going away and that reinfections don't pose a threat. Maybe you could straighten that story out because I think there seems to be some miscues about the risk of Long Covid even as we go along with the continued circulating virus.Akiko Iwasaki (13:11):Right, so when you look at the epidemiological evidence of Long Covid, clearly in the beginning when we had no vaccines, no antivirals, no real good measure against Covid, the incident of developing Long Covid per infection was higher than a current date where we do have vaccines and Omicron may have changed its property significantly. So if you compare, let's say the Delta period versus Omicron period, there seems to be a reduced risk per infection of Long Covid. However, Omicron is super infectious. It's infected millions of people, and if you look at the total number of people suffering from Long Covid, we're not seeing a huge decline there at all because of the transmissibility of Omicron. So I think it's too early for us to say, okay, the rates are declining, we don't need to worry about it. Not at all, I think we still have to be vigilant.(14:14):We need to be up to date on vaccines and boosters because those seem to reduce the risk for Long Covid and whether Paxlovid can reduce the rate of Long Covid at the acute phase for the high risk individual, it seems to be yes, but for people who are not at high risk may or may not be very effective. So again, we just need to be very cautious. It's difficult obviously, to be completely avoiding virus at this time point, but I think masking and anything you can do, vaccination boosters is going to be helpful. And a reinfection does carry risk for developing Long Covid. So that prior infection is not going to prevent Long Covid altogether, even though the risk may be slightly reduced in the first infection. So when you think about these risks, again we need to be cognizant that reinfection and some people have multiple infections and then eventually get Long Covid, so we're just not safe from Long Covid yet.Nasal Vaccines and Mucosal ImmunityEric Topol (15:24):Right. No, I think that's the problem is that people have not acknowledged that there's an ongoing risk and that we should continue to keep our guard up. I want to applaud you and your colleagues. You recently put out [Yale School of Public Health] this multi-panel about Covid, which we'll post with this podcast that gave a lot of the facts straight and simple diagrams, and I think this is what you need is this is kind of like all your threads on Twitter. . They're always such great educational ways to get across important information. So now let's go onto a second topic of great mutual interest where you've also been a leader and that's in the mucosal nasal vaccine story. I had the privilege of writing with you a nice article in Science Immunology back in 2022 about Operation Nasal Vaccine, and unfortunately we don't have a nasal vaccine. We need a nasal vaccine against Covid. Where do we stand with this now?Akiko Iwasaki (16:31):Yeah, so you're right. I mean nasal vaccines, I don't really know what the barrier is because I think the preclinical models all support the effectiveness against transmission and infection and obviously disease. And there is a White House initiative to support rapid development of next generation vaccine, which includes mucosal vaccine, so perhaps that's sort of pushing some of these vaccine candidates forward. You're probably more familiar than me about those kinds of events that are happening. But yeah, it's unfortunate that we don't have an approved mucosal booster vaccine yet, and our research has shown that as simple as a spray of recombinant spike protein without any adjuvants are able to restimulate immune response and then establish mucosal immunity in the nasal cavity, which goes a long way in preventing infection as well as transmission. So yeah, I mean I'm equally frustrated that things like that don't exist yet.The Neomycin and Neosporin SurpriseEric Topol (17:52):Well, I mean the work that you and many other groups around the world have published on this is so compelling and this is the main thing that we don't have now, which is a way to prevent infection. And I think most of us would be very happy to have a spray that every three or four months and gave us much higher levels of protection than we're ever going to get from shots. And your whole concept of prime and spike, I mean this is something that we could have had years ago if there was a priority, and unfortunately there never has been. Now, the other day you came with a surprise in a paper on Neomycin as an alternate or Neosporin ointment. Can you tell us about that? Because that one wasn't expected. This was to use an antibiotic in a way to reduce Covid and other respiratory virus.Akiko Iwasaki (18:50):Right. So yeah, that's a little known fact. I mean, of course widespread use of antibiotics has caused some significant issues with resistance and so on. However, when you look at the literature of different types of antibiotics, we have reported in 2018 that certain types of antibiotics known as aminoglycoside, which includes Neosporin or neomycin, has this sort of unintended antiviral property by triggering Toll-like receptor 3 in specialized cell types known as conventional dendritic cell type 1. And we published that for a genital herpes model that we were working on at the time. But because it's acting on the host, the Toll-like receptor 3 on the host cell to induce interferon and interferon stimulated genes to prevent the replication of the virus, we knew that it could be pan-viral. It doesn't really matter what the virus is. So we basically leverage that discovery that was made by a postdoc Smita Gopinath when she was in the lab to see if we can use that in the nasal cavity.(20:07):And that's what Tianyang Mao, a former graduate student did, in fact. And yeah, little spray of neomycin in the nose of the mice reduce this infection as well as disease and can even be used to treat shortly after the infection disease progress and using hamster models we also showed that hamsters that are pretreated with neomycin when they were caged with infected hamsters, the transmission rate was much reduced. And we also did with Dr. Charles Dela Cruz, a small clinical trial, randomized though into placebo and Neosporin arms of healthy volunteers. We asked them to put in a pea size amount of Neosporin on a cotton swab into the nose, and they were doing that twice a day for seven days. We measured the RNA from the nose of these people and indeed see that more than half the participants in the Neosporin group had elevated interferon stimulated genes, whereas the control group, which were given Vaseline had no response. So this sort of shows the promise of using something as generic and cheap as Neosporin to trigger antiviral state in the nose. Now it does require a much larger trial making sure that the safety profiles there and effectiveness against viral infection, but it's just a beginning of a story that could develop into something useful.New Frontiers in Immunology and Tx CellsEric Topol (21:51):Yeah, I thought it was fascinating, and it does bring up, which I think has also been underdeveloped, is our approaches for interferon a frontline defense where augmenting that, just getting that exploiting the nasal mucosa, the entry site, whether it be through that means or of course through even more potent a nasal vaccine, it's like a missing, it's a hole in our whole defense of against this virus that's led to millions of people not just dying, but of course also sick and also with Long Covid around the world. So I hope that we'll see some progress, but I thought that was a really fascinating hint of something to come that could be very helpful in the meantime while we're waiting for specific nasal vaccines. Now added to all these things recently, like last week you published a paper in Cell with your husband who's in the same department, I think at Yale. Is that right? Can you tell us about that and this paper about the whole new perspectives in immunology?Akiko Iwasaki (23:05):Yeah, so my husband Ruslan Medzhitov is a very famous immunologist who's in the same department, and we've written four or five review and opinion pieces together over the years. This new one is in Cell and it's really exploring new perspectives in immunology. We were asked by the editors to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Cell journal with a perspective on the immune system. And the immune response is just a beautiful system that is triggered in response to specific pathogens and can really provide long-term or even sometimes lifelong immunity and resistance against pathogens and it really saves our lives. Much has been learned throughout the last 20, 30 years about the innate and adaptive immune system and how they're linked. In this new perspective, we are trying to raise some issues that the current paradigm cannot explain properly, some of the mysteries that are still remaining in the immune system.(24:22):And we try to come up with new concepts about even the role of the immune system in general. For instance, is the immune system only good for fighting pathogens or can it be repurposed for conducting normal physiology in the host? And we came up with a new subset of T-cells known as, or we call it Tx cells, which basically is an interoceptive type of T-cells that monitor homeostasis in different tissues and are helping with the normal process of biology as opposed to fighting viruses or bacteria or fungi. But these cells, when they are not appropriately regulated, they are also the source of autoimmune diseases because they are by design reactive against auto antigens. And so, this is a whole new framework to think about, a different arm of the immune function, which is really looking inside of our body and not really fighting against pathogens, but we believe these cells exist, and we know that the counterpart of Tx cells, which is the T regulatory cells, are indeed well known for its physiological functions. So we're hoping that this new perspective will trigger a new set of approaches in the field to try to understand this interceptive property of T-cells.Eric Topol (25:59):Yeah, well, I thought it was fascinating, of course, and I wanted to get into that more because I think what we're learning is this immune system not only obviously is for cancer whole. We're only starting to get warmed up with immunotherapy where checkpoint inhibitors were just the beginning and now obviously with vaccines and all these different ways that we can take the CAR-T cells, engineered T-cells, take the immune system to fight cancer and potentially to even use it as a way to prevent cancer. If you have these, whether it's Tx or Tregs or whatever T-cells can do this. But even bigger than that is the idea that it's tied in with the aging process. So as you know, again, much more than I do, our senescent immune cells are not good for us. And the whole idea is that we could build immune resilience if we could somehow figure out these mysteries that you're getting at, whereby we get vulnerable just as we were with Covid. And as we get older, we get vulnerable to not just infections, but everything going wrong, whether it's the walls of our arteries or whether it's the cancer or the immunity that's going on in our brain for Alzheimer's and neurodegenerative diseases. How can we fix the immune system so that we age more healthilyThe Immune System and Healthy Aging Akiko Iwasaki (27:37):Oh yeah. A lot of billionaires are also interested in that question and are pouring money into this question. It's interesting, but when you think about the sort of evolutionary perspective, we humans are only living so long. In the very recent decades, our life expectancy used to be much shorter and all we had to survive was to reproduce and generate the next progeny. But nowadays, because of this amazing wealth and health interventions and food and everything else, we're just living so much longer than even our grandparents. The immune system didn't evolve to deal with such one to begin with. So we were doing fine living up to 30 years of age or whatever. But now that we're living up to a hundred years, the immune system isn't really designed to keep up with this kind of stressors. But I think you're getting at a very important kind of more engineering questions of how do we manipulate the immune system or rejuvenate it so that we can remain healthy into the later decades? And it is well known that the immune system itself ages and that our ability to produce new lymphocytes, for example, decline over time and thymus that is important for T-cell development shrinks over time. And so anatomically it's impossible to help stop that process. However, is there a way of, for example, transferring some factors or engineering the immune cells to remain healthy and even like hematopoiesis itself can be manipulated to perhaps rejuvenate the whole immune system in their recent papers showing that. So this is a new frontier.Eric Topol (29:50):Do you think that some point in the future, we'll ex vivo inject Yamanaka factors into these cell lines and instead of this idea that you know get young plasma to old folks, and I mean since we don't know what's in there and it doesn't specifically have an effect on immune cells, who knows how it's working, but do you foresee that that might be a potential avenue going forward or even an in vivo delivery of this?Akiko Iwasaki (30:22):Yeah, it's not impossible, right? There are really rapidly evolving technologies and gene therapies that are becoming online. So it's not impossible to think about engineering in situ as you're suggesting, but we also have to be certain that we are living longer, but also healthy. So we do have to not only just deal with the aging immune system, but preventing neurodegenerative diseases and so on. And the immune system may have a role to play there as well. So there's a lot of, I mean, I can't think of a non-genetically mediated disease that doesn't involve the immune system.Eric Topol (31:03):Sure. No, I mean, it's just, when I think about this, people keep talking about the digital era of digital biology, but I actually think of it more as digital immunobiology, which is driving this because it's center stage and in more and more over time. And the idea that I'm concerned about is that we could rejuvenate the relevant immune cells or the whole immune response, but then it's such a delicate balance that we could actually wind up with untoward, whether it's autoimmune or overly stimulated immune system. It's not such a simple matter, as I'm sure you would agree. Now, this gets me to a broader thing which you've done, which is a profound contribution in life science and medicine, which is being an advocate for women in science. And I wonder if you could speak to that because you have been such a phenomenal force propelling the importance of women in science and not just doing that passively, but also standing up for women, which is being an activist is how you get things to change. So can you tell us about your thoughts there?An Activist for Women in ScienceAkiko Iwasaki (32:22):Yeah, so I grew up in Japan, and part of the reason I left Japan at the age of 16 was that I felt very stifled because of the societal norm and expectation of what a woman should be. And I felt like I didn't have the opportunity to develop my skills as a scientist remaining in Japan. And maybe things have changed over the years, but at the time when I was growing up, that's how I felt. And so, I was very cognizant of biases in society. And so, in the US and in Canada where I also trained, there's a lot less barrier to success, and we are able to do pretty much anything we want, which is wonderful, and that's why I think I'm here. But at the same time, the inequity still exists, even in pay gaps and things like that that are easy to fix but are still kind of insidious and it's there.(33:32):And Yale School of Medicine has done a great job partly because of the efforts of women who spoke up and who actually started to collect evidence for pay gap. And now there's very little pay gap because there's active sort of involvement of the dean and everyone else to ensure equity in the medical school. But it's just a small segment of the society. We really need to expand this to other schools and making sure that women are getting paid equally as men in the same ranks. And also, I see still some sexual harassment or more just toxic environment for people in general in academia. Some PIs get away with a lot of behavior that's not conducive to a healthy environment, so I have written about that as well and how we can have antidotes for such toxic environments. And it really does require the whole village to act on it. It's not just one person speaking up. And there should be measures placed to make sure that those people who does have this tendency of abusive behavior that they can get training and just being aware of these situations and corrective behavior. So I think there's still a lot of work left in academia, but things have obviously improved dramatically over the last few decades, and we are in a very, very good place, but we just have to keep working to achieve true equity.Why Don't We Have Immunome Check-Ups?Eric Topol (35:25):Well applauding your efforts for that, and I'm still in touch with that. We got a ways to go, and I hope that we'll see steady and even more accelerated and improvement to get to parity, which is what it should be. And I really think you've been a model for doing this. It isn't like you aren't busy with everything else, so to fit that in is wonderful. In closing up, one of the things that I wonder about is our ability to assess back to the immune system for a moment isn't what it should be. That is we do a CBC and we have how many lymphocytes, how many this, why don't we have an immunome, why doesn't everybody serially have an immune system checkup? Because that would tell us if we're starting to go haywire and then maybe hunt for reactivated viruses or what's going on. Do you foresee that we could ever get to a practical immunome as we go forward? Because it seems like it's a big missing link right now.Akiko Iwasaki (36:33):Yeah, I think that's a great idea. I mean, I'll be the first one to sign up for the immunome.Eric Topol (36:40):But I'm depending on you to make it happen.Akiko Iwasaki (36:44):Well, interestingly, Eric, there are lots of amazing technologies that are developed even during the pandemic, which is monitoring everything from antibody reactivity to reactivated viruses to the cytokines to every cell marker you can imagine. So the technologies out there, it's just I think a matter of having the right set of panels that are relatively affordable because some of these things are thousands of dollars per sample to analyze, and then of course clinical validation, something that's CLIA approved, and then we can start to, I guess the insurance company needs to also cover this, right? So we need to demonstrate the benefit to health in the long run to be able to afford this kind of immunome analysis. But I think that very wealthy people can already get this done.Eric Topol (37:43):Yeah, well, we want to make it so it's a health equity story, not of course, only for the crazy ones that are out there that are taking 112 supplements a day and whatnot. But it's intriguing because I think we might be able to get ahead of things if we had such an easy means. And as you said during the pandemic, for example, my friends here in La Jolla at La Jolla Immunology did all kinds of T-cell studies that were really insightful and of course done with you and others around the country and elsewhere to give us insights that you didn't get just from neutralizing antibodies. But it isn't something that you can get done easily. Now, I think this immunome hopefully will get us to another level in the future. One of the most striking things I've seen in our space clinically before wrapping up is to take the CD19 CAR T therapies to deplete the B cells of people with lupus, systemic sclerosis and other conditions, and completely stop their autoimmune condition. And when the B cells come back, they're not fighting themselves. They're not self-directed anymore. Would you have predicted this? This seems really striking and it may be a clue to the kind of mastering approaches to autoimmune diseases in the future.Akiko Iwasaki (39:19):Yeah, absolutely. So for multiple sclerosis, for example, where B cells weren't thought to be a key player by doing anti-CD20 depletion, there's this remarkable clinical effects. So I think we can only find the answer experimentally in people when they do these clinical trials and show this remarkable effects. That's when we say, aha, we don't really understand immunology. You know what I mean? That's when we have to be humble about what we think we understand. We really don't know until we try it. So that's a really good lesson learned. And these may be also applicable to people with autoimmune phenotype in Long Covid, right? We may be able to benefit from similar kinds of depletion therapy. So I think we have a lot to learn still.Eric Topol (40:14):Yeah, that's why, again, going back to the paper you just had in Cell about the mysteries and about some new ideas and challenging the dogma is so important. I still consider the immune system most complex one in the body by far, and I'm depending on you Akiko to unravel it, not to put any weight on your shoulders. Anyway, this has been so much fun. You are such a gem and always learning from you, and I can't thank you enough for all the work. And the fact is that you've got decades ahead of you to keep building on this. You've already done enough for many people, many scientists in your career, and I know you'll keep going. So we're all going to be following you with great interest in learning from you on a frequent basis. And I hope we'll build on some of the things we've talked about like a Long Covid treatment, treatments that are effective nasal vaccines, maybe even some dab of Neosporin, and keep on the momentum we've had with the understanding of the immune system, and finally, someday achieving the true parity of gender and science. And so, thank you for all that you do.Akiko Iwasaki (41:35):Thank you so much, Eric.************************CreditsHeadshot photo credits by Robert Lisak, Yale School of MedicineMy producer for Ground Truths is Jessica Nguyen, Scripps Research and our technical support for audio/video is by SInjun Balabanoff at Scripps Research.I hope you found the spot informative. Please share itThe Ground Truths newsletters and podcasts are all free, open-access, without ads.Voluntary paid subscriptions all go to support Scripps Research. 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BUFFALO, NY- April 16, 2024 – A new #researchpaper was #published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on April 12, 2024, entitled, “Novel therapeutic bispecific antibodies for B-cell lymphoma targeting IgM and other antigens on the B-cell surface.” The B-cell receptor regulates B-cell proliferation and apoptosis. Aberrations in BCR signaling are associated with the development and progression of B-cell malignancies, such as mantle cell lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, many of which express the IgM type of BCR on their cellular surface. Therefore, IgM is an attractive target for therapeutic antibodies against B-cell malignancies. However, soluble IgM competitively binds to anti-IgM antibodies in the serum, and these antibodies show insufficient cytotoxic activity. Thus, antibody therapy targeting IgM is hindered by the presence of soluble IgM in the blood. In this new study, researchers Takahiro Ohashi, Sayuri Terada, Shinsuke Hiramoto, Yuko Nagata, Hirokazu Suzuki, Hitoshi Miyashita, Tetsuo Sasaki, Yasukatsu Tsukada, and Keiko Fukushima from ZENOAQ (Zenyaku Kogyo Co., Ltd.) used a bispecific antibody to address this problem. “In this study, we aimed to produce IgM-dependent bispecific antibodies targeting IgM and the other B-cell antigens such as CD20, CD32b (FcγRIIB), CD79b, and human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR using the Cys1m technology [10, 43–45]. Additionally, the correct IgG-like bispecific antibody structures were confirmed and their efficacies in the presence of soluble IgM were analyzed.” The researchers generated bispecific antibodies bound to IgM and other B-cell antigens such as CD20 and HLA-DR using their own bispecific antibody-producing technology, Cys1m. These bispecific antibodies directly inhibited cell proliferation via cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis in vitro, although large amounts of soluble IgM were present. Additionally, a bispecific antibody bound to IgM and HLA-DR (BTA106) depleted B-cells in cynomolgus monkeys. “These data suggest that anti-IgM/B-cell surface antigen-binding specific antibodies are promising therapeutic agents for B-cell malignancies. Moreover, the bispecific antibody modality can potentially overcome problems caused by soluble antigens.” DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.28578 Correspondence to - Keiko Fukushima - keiko_fukushima@mail.zenyaku.co.jp Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article - https://oncotarget.altmetric.com/details/email_updates?id=10.18632%2Foncotarget.28578 Subscribe for free publication alerts from Oncotarget - https://www.oncotarget.com/subscribe/ Keywords - cancer, bispecific antibody, Cys1m, IgM, lymphoma, cynomolgus monkey About Oncotarget Oncotarget (a primarily oncology-focused, peer-reviewed, open access journal) aims to maximize research impact through insightful peer-review; eliminate borders between specialties by linking different fields of oncology, cancer research and biomedical sciences; and foster application of basic and clinical science. Oncotarget is indexed and archived by PubMed/Medline, PubMed Central, Scopus, EMBASE, META (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) (2018-2022), and Dimensions (Digital Science). To learn more about Oncotarget, please visit https://www.oncotarget.com and connect with us: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Oncotarget/ X - https://twitter.com/oncotarget Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/oncotargetjrnl/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@OncotargetJournal LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/oncotarget Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/oncotarget/ Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/Oncotarget/ Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0gRwT6BqYWJzxzmjPJwtVh Media Contact MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM 18009220957

In this JCO Article Insights episode, Alexandra Rojek provides a summary on two long term follow studies: "Long-Term Follow-Up of Rituximab Maintenance in Young Patients With Mantle-Cell Lymphoma Included in the LYMA Trial: A LYSA Study" by Sarkozy, et al published on December 18th, 2023 and "Long Term Follow Up of the RESORT Study (E4402): A Randomized Phase III Comparison of Two Different Rituximab Dosing Strategies for Low Tumor Burden Follicular Lymphoma," by Kahl, et al, published January 9, 2024. TRANSCRIPT The guest on this podcast episode has no disclosures to declare. Alexandra Rojek: Hello and welcome to JCO Article Insights. I'm your host, Alexandra Rojek, and today we will be discussing two clinical trial updates published in the March 1st issue of JCO, focusing on the long-term outcomes of rituximab therapy for patients with lymphoma. The first paper discusses the use of maintenance rituximab for mantle cell lymphoma patients in the LYMA trial, and the second paper addresses rituximab dosing strategies for low tumor burden follicular lymphoma in the RESORT study. The first article by Sarkozy et al. for the LYSA group is titled "Long-Term Follow-Up of Rituximab Maintenance in Young Patients with Mantle Cell Lymphoma Included in the LYMA Trial: A LYSA Study." The LYMA trial was designed to answer whether the addition of the CD20-targeting monoclonal antibody rituximab provided additional benefit for patients with mantle cell lymphoma who achieved a response to induction chemoimmunotherapy, followed by consolidative autologous stem cell transplant in randomized patients, maintenance rituximab for three years versus observation alone. The primary analysis of the LYMA trial was published in 2017 and showed that the primary endpoint of four-year event-free survival or EFS was met at 79% in the maintenance rituximab arm compared to 61% in the observation alone arm. Additionally, there was a four-year overall survival or OS benefit of 89% versus 80% in favor of maintenance rituximab. Thus, on the basis of the LYMA trial primary analysis, the use of maintenance rituximab after consolidative autologous stem cell transplantation has become the standard of care in the field for these patients.  The long-term safety and efficacy data presented in this clinical trial update for the LYMA study continue to demonstrate ongoing EFS and OS benefit for patients randomized to maintenance rituximab. Patients were initially enrolled between 2008 and 2012, and 240 patients were randomized to either arm. EFS in this study was defined as absence of disease progression, relapse, or death, severe infection, or allergy to rituximab. The data cutoff for this updated analysis was April 2019, with a median follow-up from randomization of seven years for living patients with a note that this is prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. For those in the maintenance rituximab arm, the seven-year EFS was 76% compared to 46% for those under observation. For those on the rituximab arm, the majority of relapses occurred within three years of randomization and thus while on maintenance rituximab, which the authors suggest does not show an increase in incidence of relapse after the end of maintenance therapy. The seven-year overall survival was 83% for those on the rituximab arm compared to 72% for those on the observation, with a log-rank p-value of 0.08. There was no difference in causes of death between the treatment arms noted.  Notably, the patients who received maintenance rituximab after induction and transplant experienced a shorter second OS after relapse therapy, with a median OS2 of 1.1 years compared to 4.6 years favoring those on the observation arm, without impact of the type of salvage therapy received. Although this study was conducted before BTK inhibitors were approved in France and thus used at a low rate for patients who relapsed after initial therapy. This suggests that those who relapse after maintenance rituximab were those with the most aggressive disease biology. The authors also identified a group of patients who experienced progression of disease within 24 months of initial therapy or POD24 and showed that a Ki-67 score greater than 30% and high MIPI score were prognostic of POD24 events. For those who experienced POD24 within the rituximab arm, they also experienced a shorter OS2 compared to those on observation, again suggesting that those whose disease relapses after maintenance rituximab tend to have more aggressive and difficult-to-treat.  While the interpretation of post-relapse outcomes and therapies needs to be interpreted in the light of a different era of available therapeutic options in more recent years, particularly the newest generation of BTK inhibitors, this updated follow-up of the LYMA study provides additional strength to the standard of care established through the trial's primary analysis of the benefit of maintenance rituximab after induction therapy and consolidative autologous stem cell transplantation for patients with mantle cell lymphoma. Although the extended follow-up was conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which increased risk of infection was shown for those undergoing B-cell depletion with agents such as rituximab, this extended follow-up of the LYMA study continues to show that the optimal therapy for mantle cell lymphoma should include maintenance rituximab after transplant. Studies since the design of the LYMA trial have sought to address whether consolidative transplants are necessary when BTK inhibitors are added to induction therapy, and ongoing studies in this era of newer treatment agents will continue to challenge and potentially redefine this now well-established standard of care. The second article by Kahl et al. is titled "Long-Term Follow-Up of the RESORT Study: E4402, a Randomized Phase III Comparison of Two Different Rituximab Dosing Strategies for Low Tumor Burden Follicular Lymphoma." The RESORT study, conducted by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, was designed to address whether rituximab-responsive low tumor burden follicular lymphoma patients benefit from maintenance rituximab until progression versus a rituximab retreatment approach at the time of progression. The primary analysis of the RESORT study, published in 2014, did not show a difference in the primary endpoint, which was defined as time to treatment failure. The five-year risk of treatment failure for those on a maintenance strategy was 53% compared to 50% for those on a retreatment dosing strategy. At the time of the primary analysis, letters were sent to participants and providers, and thus the data was locked for further primary endpoint analysis in late 2011. The data lock for long-term follow-up presented in this paper was continued through 2021.  The authors looked at several endpoints in this long-term follow-up. They found that freedom from first cytotoxic therapy, at a median follow-up of almost nine years, favored the maintenance group over the retreatment group, with 83% versus 63% of patients free from chemotherapy or radiation at year seven. When looking at response duration, the analysis also favored a maintenance over retreatment approach, of 66% versus 30% for 10-year response duration, with a median follow-up of 12 years. However, when looking at overall survival at 10 years, there was no difference between rituximab dosing strategies, with a 10 -year overall survival of 83% for those receiving maintenance versus 84% for those receiving retreatment. While this extended follow-up of the RESORT study was not able to assess the long-term follow-up of the primary endpoint, the secondary endpoints suggest that while a maintenance dosing strategy was superior for prolonging time to first cytotoxic therapy and response duration, this again did not translate to an overall survival benefit. The authors conclude that they continue to recommend a rituximab retreatment strategy for these patients instead of a maintenance strategy, in the absence of a survival benefit, particularly with the high response rates observed with next-line treatment strategies for follicular lymphoma patients.  Similarly to the LYMA study discussed in the first paper, the treatment arms of the RESORT study were completed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. B-cell depletion, such as with prolonged rituximab therapy, is known to negatively impact the ability to combat viral infections such as SARS-CoV-2. Thus, the authors conclude that, in light of current and future infectious concerns, the extended follow-up of the RESORT study does not support the use of maintenance rituximab for patients with low tumor burden follicular lymphoma. Other studies have also evaluated modified and abbreviated maintenance rituximab dosing strategies for this same population and have also not shown a survival benefit, thus further strengthening this recommendation of favoring a retreatment approach over maintenance therapy. Together, the extended follow-ups of the LYMA and RESORT studies, while addressing different questions regarding the use of maintenance rituximab in mantle cell lymphoma and follicular lymphoma, support the primary endpoints of each respective study. There is a clear role for the use of maintenance rituximab therapy to promote improved event-free and overall survival, as the LYMA study has shown for mantle cell lymphoma patients. However, this does not extend to low tumor burden follicular lymphoma patients in the RESORT study. The updated analyses of these two studies provide additional strength to the nuanced and targeted application of this stalwart of lymphoma therapy that is rituximab, in the modern treatment era. While ongoing studies will aim to address how we optimize therapies with new agents for each subtype of lymphoma patients, the LYMA and RESORT studies continue to guide best practice and standards of care.  This is Alexandra Rojek, thank you for listening to JCO Article Insights. Don't forget to give us a rating or review and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. You can find all ASCO shows at asco.org/podcasts.  The purpose of this podcast is to educate and inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions.  Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.  

Dr. Lisa Law and Dr. Randy Taplitz share the latest evidence-based recommendations from ASCO on vaccines in adults with cancer. They discuss recommended routine preventative vaccinations, additional vaccinations and revaccinations for adults undergoing HSCT, CD19 CAR-T treatment, or B cell-depleting therapy, guidance for adults with cancer traveling outside the U.S., and recommendations for vaccination of household and close contacts of adults with cancer. Dr. Law and Dr. Taplitz also share their insights on the guideline, including the importance of this guideline for adults with cancer and their clinicians, future advances in research, and current unmet needs. Read the full guideline, “Vaccination of Adults with Cancer: ASCO Guideline” at www.asco.org/supportive-care-guidelines. TRANSCRIPT This guideline, clinical tools, and resources are available at http://www.asco.org/supportive-care-guidelines. Read the full text of the guideline and review authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.24.00032       The ASCO Specialty Societies Advancing Adult Immunization (SSAAI) Project is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award to the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS) (with 100 percent funded by CDC/HHS). The contents are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of nor endorsement, by CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government. Brittany Harvey: Hello, and welcome to the ASCO Guidelines Podcast, one of ASCO's podcasts delivering timely information to keep you up to date on the latest changes, challenges, and advances in oncology. You can find all the shows, including this one, at asco.org/podcasts.  My name is Brittany Harvey, and today, I am interviewing Dr. Lisa Law from Kaiser Permanente and Dr. Randy Taplitz from City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, authors on “Vaccination of Adults with Cancer: ASCO Guideline.” Thank you for being here, Dr. Law and Dr. Taplitz. Dr. Lisa Law: Thank you. Dr. Taplitz: Thank you, Brittany. Brittany Harvey: Before we discuss this guideline, I'd like to take note that ASCO takes great care in the development of its guidelines and ensuring that the ASCO conflict of interest policy is followed for each guideline. The disclosures of potential conflicts of interest for the guideline panel, including Dr. Taplitz and Dr. Law, who have joined us here today, are available online with the publication of the guideline in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, which is linked in the show notes.  So then, to dive into the content, here first, Dr. Taplitz, can you provide a general overview of both the scope and purpose of this guideline on vaccination of adults with cancer? Dr. Randy Taplitz: Yes, so people with cancer often experience a compromised immune system due to a variety of factors. This includes chronic inflammation, impaired or decreased function of the hematopoietic system, and treatments that compromise their immune function. Because of this, people with cancer are at a higher risk for infection, including with vaccine-preventable diseases. Also, response to vaccines in patients with cancer may well be affected by this underlying immune status, and their anticancer therapy, as well as the severity of the underlying malignancy. The purpose of vaccination in this group of patients is to prevent infection or to attenuate the severity of the disease when infection cannot be fully prevented.   This ASCO review builds on a 2013 guideline by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, or IDSA, and uses what's called a systematic literature review of 102 publications between 2013 and 2023. This includes 24 systematic reviews, 14 randomized clinical trials, and 64 non-randomized studies. The largest body of evidence in these studies, not surprisingly, addresses COVID vaccines on the efficacy and safety of vaccines used by adults with cancer or their household contacts. ASCO convened an expert panel to review this evidence and formulate recommendations for vaccinations in this population. Brittany Harvey: Understood. I appreciate that context, Dr. Taplitz. So then, next, Dr. Law, I'd like to review the key recommendations of this guideline. The guideline addresses four overarching clinical questions. So starting with the first question, what are the recommended routine preventative vaccinations for adults with cancer? Dr. Lisa Law: Thank you, Brittany. Before I start, I just want to wholeheartedly thank the first author of this paper, Dr. Mini Kamboj, Dr. Elise Kohn from the NCI, as well as the ASCO staff in putting this publication and guideline together. It is a very, very important guideline, and I echo everything Dr. Taplitz just said.  So going back to your question, what are the recommended routine preventative vaccines for adults with cancer? As per this guideline, there are about 7 to 8 based on patient age and risk. Namely, they are: seasonal flu, RSV for those aged 60 or above, COVID-19, Tdap, Hepatitis B, Shingrix, Pneumococcal vaccine, and the HPV vaccine. These vaccines should ideally be given two to four weeks before therapy. However, non-live vaccines can be given anytime during or after chemo, immunotherapy, hormonal treatment, radiation, or surgery. Brittany Harvey: Excellent. Thank you for reviewing those vaccinations and the timing of them as well. So then, following those recommendations, Dr. Taplitz, what additional vaccinations and revaccinations are recommended for adults undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, CD19 CAR-T treatment, or B-cell depleting therapy?  Dr. Randy Taplitz: Many studies have shown that stem cell transplant recipients essentially lose immunity from childhood immunizations, and we know that these individuals are very vulnerable to infection, particularly in the first year after transplant. Revaccination is critical to help restore their immunity. The optimal timing of vaccination is based on our understanding of adequate immune reconstitution with B and T-cell recovery so that the individual can mount a response to the vaccine. We know that a lot of factors influence this immune reconstitution, including the age of the stem cell transplant recipient, the source of the donor, the time from transplant, graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis, the treatment and severity of graft-versus-host disease, and the vaccine type and antigens used.   There are a number of bodies throughout the world, IDSA as I mentioned, CDC, American Society for Transplant and Cellular Therapy, European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplant, and European Conference for Infections and Leukemia. All of these bodies have guidelines that approach vaccination in stem cell transplants. However, variation does exist in the use of a variety of things including whether to use immune predictors to help guide vaccination, and there is really not consensus on whether this immune predictor guided vaccination is more likely to produce a protective immune response versus a standardized schedule. In addition, the duration of protection is incompletely understood.  The bottom line in these guidelines is that they recommend complete revaccination starting for most vaccines at 6 to 12 months after stem cell transplant, in order to restore vaccine-induced immunity. And I just want to go through a few of the particulars. For COVID-19, which is a three-dose series in the primary series, influenza - generally high-dose influenza - and pneumococcal vaccine, PCV20 in general, ultimately four doses, can be administered, starting as early as three months after transplant. Although there is really not much data to guide the use of the recombinant zoster vaccine in allogeneic stem cell transplant, the vaccine can be administered after the end of antiviral prophylaxis, which in general is 12 to 18 months after allogeneic and 3 to 12 months after autologous stem cell transplant. Some of the other vaccines, such as hepatitis B, Tdap, meningococcal vaccines, and HPV revaccination in those less than 45 are also recommended.   I want to also spend the moment talking about the two recently licensed RSV vaccines, which were essentially studied in less compromised hosts and really without any immunogenicity data in stem cell transplant, and thus, there is no recommendation in this guideline for the use of these vaccines after transplant. Live vaccines, such as MMR and varicella – varicella would be in varicella-seronegative patients without a prior history of varicella – should be delayed for at least two years and only given in the absence of active graft-versus-host disease or immunosuppression.  Moving briefly to CAR T, which is an immunotherapy that involves adoptive cell therapy, given the available data and after a review by the group, it was recommended that adults with hematopoietic malignancies receiving CAR T therapy directed against B-cell antigens should receive influenza and COVID-19 vaccines either two weeks before lymphodepletion or no sooner than three months after the completion of therapy. Administration of non-live vaccines preferably should occur before CAR T treatment or at least 6 to 12 months after, following the same timing as what we recommend for stem cell transplant. There is really little data to guide the safety and timing of administration of live vaccines after CAR T therapy.   In terms of adults receiving B-cell depleting therapy, they are generally unable for time to mount an effective humoral response but may have at least partially intact cellular immune responses. They are encouraged to be revaccinated for COVID-19 no sooner than six months after completion of B-cell depleting therapy, and they should receive influenza vaccine approximately four weeks from the most recent treatment dose for patients on chronic therapy. For other non-seasonal immunizations, vaccines ideally should be given two to four weeks before commencing anti-CD20 therapy or delayed until 6 to 12 months after completion, except for the recombinant zoster vaccine, which can be given one month after the most recent dose of B-cell depleting therapy. Brittany Harvey: I appreciate you reviewing each of those vaccinations and when they should be given, and reviewing the available data – albeit, limited data – in these situations.  So beyond these routine preventative vaccinations and revaccinations that you've both just described, Dr. Law, what additional vaccinations does the expert panel recommend for adults with cancer traveling outside the United States? Dr. Lisa Law: Good question. As per these ASCO guidelines, adults with solid or blood cancer traveling outside of the United States should follow the CDC standard recommendations for their destination. For the 2024 CDC Yellow Book, travel vaccines, in general, should be delayed until three months from the last chemotherapy or, and for those with solid tumors, ideally when the disease is in remission. Of note, hepatitis A, typhoid, inactivated polio, Hep B, rabies, meningococcal vaccine, and Japanese encephalitis vaccines are considered to be safe. In all cases of travel, patients should be counseled by their healthcare provider about the travel timing, with the additional attention to the regional seasonality of infections, for instance, influenza is more common in late summer in Australia, and also with attention to any outbreaks that may be occurring globally at the time of travel. Brittany Harvey: Absolutely. Those are key points for clinicians to discuss with their patients as they consider upcoming travel.  So then, the final clinical question that the panel addressed, Dr. Taplitz, what vaccinations does the panel recommend for household and close contacts of adults with cancer?  Dr. Randy Taplitz: Thank you. Yes, it is recommended that all household members and close contacts, when possible, be up to date on their vaccinations. And the only further thing I would say is that there are some special considerations for the use of live vaccines in household contacts, particularly in stem cell transplant recipients. Contacts of people who receive stem cell transplants should preferably receive inactivated influenza vaccines. As was mentioned, MMR and varicella vaccines are both safe to administer to close contacts. Vaccine strain transmission to immunocompromised hosts has not been associated with MMR use in family members.   Eleven cases of the varicella vaccine strain transmission are described in the published literature, but none occurred in compromised hosts. Because the vaccine strain can cause severe and fatal varicella in profoundly immunocompromised people, precautions are advised to avoid close contact with a person with a vaccine-induced rash. For household contact travelers, MMR and yellow fever vaccines are considered safe. Oral cholera should be avoided. For smallpox vaccines, the second-generation ACAM2000 has rarely been associated with vaccinia transmission and should be avoided because of this. But the live replication-deficient MVA-based JYNNEOS vaccine is felt to be safe for household contacts of immunocompromised individuals. Brittany Harvey: I appreciate you reviewing the importance of vaccination for household and close contacts, and some of those precautions that individuals should take. I appreciate you both for reviewing all of these recommendations.  So then in your view, Dr. Law, what is the importance of this guideline, and how will it impact both clinicians and adults with cancer? Dr. Lisa Law: In my opinion, this is a very important guideline that is long overdue in the oncology community and will have a huge impact on both clinicians and adults with cancer. Over the years, I have often been asked by my colleagues and patients, “Can I have the flu vaccine, and if so, when?” So this guideline really is going to be helpful. More importantly, our cancer patients are living much longer. They may have years of quality of life even with third or fourth line of treatment, especially, for instance, like CAR T for myeloma and lymphoma. However, we know that with additional treatment, that carries a substantial risk of infection complication among these immunocompromised patients. So it is of paramount importance to inform our patients and colleagues to be proactive in advocating preventive therapy ahead of time, meaning trying to get the patients appropriately vaccinated as early as possible to generate immunity.  Another case in point is the Shingrix vaccine. I used to see lots of shingles, but ever since we have the recombinant Shingrix, I have fewer encounters. And this is huge because post-herpetic neuralgia robs a patient's quality of life. So, again, it is very important to recommend appropriate vaccines for our cancer patients.  Brittany Harvey: Absolutely. It is key to ensure patients receive these preventative vaccines, and we hope that this guideline puts an emphasis on that for clinicians and patients.  So finally, to wrap us up, Dr. Taplitz, what are the current gaps in knowledge regarding the vaccination of people with cancer? Dr. Randy Taplitz: There are a number of really important gaps in knowledge and really critical unmet needs that require research and other dedicated efforts. Among these are, and I think paramount, are really the participation of people with cancer with varied types of immunocompromise in vaccine trials. Where vaccine trials are only for cancer patients, obviously is ideal, testing vaccines in the appropriate population. But when that's not feasible, pre-existing cancer should not preclude eligibility, and inclusion of cohorts of people receiving anticancer treatment should be incorporated prospectively. So that's really critical because the quality of our guidelines is based upon the data. We use the data for developing guidelines and gathering more data in the particular patient population is really, really critical.  Secondly, work for creating more immunogenic vaccines and research to understand the immune response to vaccines after immuno-depleting therapies, particularly with newer therapies such as CAR T and newer B cell therapies, bispecific antibodies, etc. is really critical. We need to really understand the immune response and have the most potent vaccines available to these people who may have impaired immune responses.  Switching gears a little bit, we really need mechanisms to promote institutional commitment to integrate and sustain immunization best practices for people with cancer. This will largely be through multidisciplinary, team-based approaches, protocol-based vaccination standing orders, and leveraging data sharing so that we can all be on the same page with giving vaccines to these individuals. We also need education and evidence-based decision-making tools, emphasizing preventive care through immunization, the availability of educational resources to clinicians and patients to address commonly asked questions and also misconceptions about vaccination, that's absolutely critical.  And finally, I think we need to develop strategies for addressing unique challenges and factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy during cancer therapy. We need to focus on patient and clinician communication, and very importantly, we need to consider health equity considerations in the development and approach to vaccines in these compromised patients. Brittany Harvey: Definitely, we'll look forward to research and advances in these areas that you've just described to support these guidelines and increase vaccine uptake.  So I want to thank you both so much for your work on this important guideline, and thank you for your time today, Dr. Law and Dr. Taplitz. Dr. Lisa Law: Thank you.  Brittany Harvey: And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in to the ASCO Guidelines podcast. To read the full guideline, go to www.asco.org/supportive-care-guidelines. You can also find many of our guidelines and interactive resources in the free ASCO Guidelines app, available in the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. If you have enjoyed what you've heard today, please rate and review the podcast, and be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions.   Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.      

MedLink Neurology Podcast is delighted to feature selected episodes from BrainWaves, courtesy of James E Siegler MD, its originator and host. BrainWaves is an academic audio podcast whose mission is to educate medical providers through clinical cases and topical reviews in neurology, medicine, and the humanities, and episodes originally aired from 2016 to 2021. Originally released: July 5, 2018 In 2017, neuroimmunology experts revised the criteria with which we diagnose multiple sclerosis. They encouraged more aggressive treatment, and now they have introduced novel therapeutic agents into our pharmacologic armamentarium. Dr. Christopher Perrone explains how these newer agents work and how effective they are in patients with demyelinating disease. Produced by James E Siegler. Music by Steve Combs, Pachyderm, and Lee Rosevere. BrainWaves' podcasts and online content are intended for medical education only and should not be used for clinical decision-making. REFERENCES Hauser SL, Bar-Or A, Comi G, et al. Ocrelizumab versus Interferon Beta-1a in Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis. N Engl J Med 2017;376(3):221-34. PMID 28002679Hauser SL, Waubant E, Arnold DL, et al. B-cell depletion with rituximab in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. N Engl J Med 2008;358(7):676-88. PMID 18272891Hemmer B, Nessler S, Zhou D, Kieseier B, Hartung HP. Immunopathogenesis and immunotherapy of multiple sclerosis. Nat Clin Pract Neurol 2006;2(4):201-11. PMID 16932551Maloney DG, Grillo-López AJ, White CA, et al. IDEC-C2B8 (Rituximab) anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody therapy in patients with relapsed low-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Blood 1997;90(6):2188-95. PMID 9310469Montalban X, Hauser SL, Kappos L, et al. Ocrelizumab versus placebo in primary progressive multiple sclerosis. N Engl J Med 2017;376(3):209-20. PMID 28002688Selter RC, Hemmer B. Update on immunopathogenesis and immunotherapy in multiple sclerosis. Immunotargets Ther 2013;2:21-30. PMID 27471685  We believe that the principles expressed or implied in the podcast remain valid, but certain details may be superseded by evolving knowledge since the episode's original release date.

Visit nascentmc.com/podcast for full show notes Visit learnamastyle.com for the free course on ChatGPT4 for medical writers and editors.  - The FDA has approved amivantamab (Rybrevant) in combination with chemotherapy (carboplatin-pemetrexed) for the first-line treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 20 insertion mutations, as detected by an FDA-approved test. This approval converts the May 2021 accelerated approval of amivantamab to full approval. - The FDA approved the AGENT Drug-Coated Balloon (DCB) for treating in-stent restenosis in coronary artery disease patients, introducing the first drug-coated coronary balloon in the US. It uses a paclitaxel-coated catheter to deliver medication directly to the vessel wall, offering an alternative to traditional treatments and aiming to reduce recurrence risks. The approval was based on the AGENT IDE trial, demonstrating its effectiveness over uncoated balloon angioplasty in reducing lesion failure, with no significant adverse events reported. - The FDA approved an oral suspension form of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) for several conditions, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia and chronic graft versus host disease, addressing the needs of patients who have difficulty swallowing pills. This is the first oral suspension formulation of a Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor, originally approved in 2013 for mantle cell lymphoma. The approval, granted to Johnson & Johnson and Pharmacyclics, aims to simplify treatment for patients challenged with pill-swallowing. - Epcoritamab-bysp (Epkinly) received FDA approval for treating adult patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma after at least two prior therapies, marking it as the first subcutaneously administered bispecific antibody for this condition. It works by targeting both CD3 on T cells and CD20 on B cells to induce cell death. Based on the EPCORE NHL-1 trial results, this approval extends its use beyond diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, with AbbVie and Genmab sharing commercial responsibilities.  - The FDA granted priority review to the New Drug Application for govorestat (AT-007), a treatment for classic galactosemia, potentially the first of its kind if approved. Govorestat, an aldose reductase inhibitor, aims to reduce harmful galactitol levels, based on phase 3 study results among pediatric patients. Applied Therapeutics announced a PDUFA target action date of August 28, 2024, highlighting the urgent need for treatments in this area. - Obeticholic acid (Ocaliva) received FDA consideration for an expanded application to treat primary biliary cholangitis, building on its 2016 accelerated approval. It's designed for patients with or without cirrhosis, showing promise in post-marketing studies to confirm its clinical benefits. The review includes data from various studies and real-world evidence, with a PDUFA target date of October 15, 2024, aiming to address the needs of this autoimmune liver disease population.  - The FDA approved Biktarvy for HIV patients with suppressed viral loads who exhibit M184V/I resistance, offering a new treatment option for those with specific resistance mutations. Biktarvy combines three therapies in a single tablet, based on successful 48-week study data. Manufactured by Gilead Sciences, this approval expands treatment possibilities for patients facing resistance challenges. - The FDA rejected Minerva Neurosciences' New Drug Application for roluperidone as a treatment for schizophrenia's negative symptoms, citing insufficient evidence from a single study and lack of comprehensive data. Despite showing promise in targeting specific brain receptors, the FDA's concerns highlight the need for more extensive research and data to confirm its effectiveness and safety. Minerva plans to engage with the FDA to address these issues.

In this week's episode we'll discuss the findings from a prospective trial of brentuximab vedotin with dacarbazine or nivolumab in older patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma, learn more about CD20 antigen loss as a mechanism of resistance to mosunetuzumab in relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphomas, and discuss the role of trogocytosis in red blood cell antigen loss.

Please visit answersincme.com/XHR860 to participate, download slides and supporting materials, complete the post test, and obtain credit. In this activity, experts in follicular lymphoma discuss the integration of bispecific antibodies into the treatment of relapsing/refractory follicular lymphoma. Upon completion of this activity, participants should be better able to: Review the clinical profiles of novel CD20 x CD3 bispecific antibodies (BsAbs) for relapsing/refractory follicular lymphoma (R/R FL); Describe patient-centered strategies to manage BsAb-associated adverse events in R/R FL; and Outline evidence-based multidisciplinary strategies for optimal integration of BsAbs in the treatment plans of patients with R/R FL.

Maebe A. Girl is an American drag  queen and politician. She came to prominence as the first drag queen  ever elected to public office in the United States. She currently serves on the Silverlake Neighborhood Council and did quite well in her primary. She discusses her platform and recent events.You can learn more about her platform ⁠here

In this week's episode we'll discuss if fractionated dosing of gemtuzumab ozogamicin provide additional benefit over a single dose in older adults with AML. Then, we'll consider how the loss-of-function of ENT3 drives histiocytosis. Researchers describe a novel pathway leading to histiocytosis that involves hyperactivation of TLR-MAPKinase signaling. This suggests a potential benefit of MAPKinase -directed targeted therapy in a range of histocytoses. Finally we'll discuss unraveling resistance mechanisms to anti-CD20 treatments in B-cell malignancies. Through alternative splicing, the MS4A1 gene encoding human CD20 generates multiple mRNA isoforms with distinct 5' untranslated regions. 

Featuring perspectives from Dr Matthew Lunning and Dr Laurie H Sehn, moderated by Dr Christopher R Flowers, including the following topics: Introduction (0:00) Up-Front Management of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) — Dr Flowers (2:55) Selection and Sequencing of Therapy for Relapsed/Refractory (R/R) DLBCL — Dr Lunning (24:56) Role of CD20 x CD3 Bispecific Antibodies in the Management of DLBCL — Dr Sehn (44:06) CME information and select publications

Featuring an interview with Dr Matthew Matasar, including the following topics: Rationale for the evaluation of anti-CD20 x CD3 bispecific antibodies in the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) (0:00) Incidence, severity and time course of cytokine release syndrome, neurotoxicity/ICANS and other adverse events associated with bispecific antibodies; recommended mitigation and management protocols (4:39) Activity of and similarities and differences among the various bispecific antibodies for NHL (12:20) Eligibility, efficacy and durability of response with mosunetuzumab, glofitamab, epcoritamab and odronextamab; ongoing and planned evaluations of bispecific antibodies alone and in combination with other systemic therapies (19:18) Optimal integration of bispecific antibody platforms into treatment algorithms for patients with NHL (32:12) Emerging results with bispecific antibodies for mantle cell lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (41:51) CME information and select publications

Dr Matthew Matasar from the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New York, New York, discusses the current and future role of CD20 x CD3 bispecific antibodies in the management of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Dr Matthew Matasar from the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New York, New York, discusses the current and future role of CD20 x CD3 bispecific antibodies in the management of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. CME information and select publications here (https://www.researchtopractice.com/OncologyTodayBispecificNHL23)

Featuring perspectives from Professor Martin Hutchings and Dr Loretta J Nastoupil, including the following topics: Introduction (0:00) Follicular Lymphoma (2:42) Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (35:41) CME information and select publications

Inside the Issue: The Current and Future Role of CD20 x CD3 Bispecific Antibodies in the Management of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma | Faculty Presentation 1: Role of Bispecific Antibody Therapy in Follicular Lymphoma — Loretta J Nastoupil, MD CME information and select publications

Inside the Issue: The Current and Future Role of CD20 x CD3 Bispecific Antibodies in the Management of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma | Faculty Presentation 2: Key Data Sets with Bispecific Antibodies in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma and Other Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Subtypes — Martin Hutchings, MD, PhD CME information and select publications    

Dr Martin Hutchings from Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Dr Loretta Nastoupil from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, discuss the current and future role of CD20 x CD3 bispecific antibodies in the management of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Dr Martin Hutchings from Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Dr Loretta Nastoupil from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, discuss the current and future role of CD20 x CD3 bispecific antibodies in the management of non-Hodgkin lymphoma moderated by Dr Neil Love. Produced by Research To Practice. CME information and select publications here (https://researchtopractice.com/InsidetheIssue2023/NHL)

Featuring a slide presentation and related discussion from Dr Jeremy Abramson, including the following topics: Long-term follow-up data with Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors as monotherapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL): The CLL12 and SEQUOIA trials (0:00) Extended follow-up results with venetoclax combined with anti-CD20 antibodies or a BTK inhibitor for CLL: The CLL14, MURANO and GLOW trials (5:27) Primary analysis of the TRANSCEND CLL 004 trial evaluating lisocabtagene maraleucel for relapsed/refractory (R/R) CLL (12:40) Genomic evolution and resistance to pirtobrutinib in patients with covalent BTK inhibitor-pretreated CLL in the Phase I/II BRUIN study (16:24) Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy data with axicabtagene ciloleucel and lisocabtagene maraleucel for R/R follicular lymphoma (FL) (18:24) Bispecific antibodies as treatment for R/R FL: mosunetuzumab, epcoritamab, odronextamab and TNB-486 (22:57) Novel treatment approaches for mantle cell lymphoma (MCL): First-line acalabrutinib/rituximab and lisocabtagene maraleucel for R/R disease (32:54) Updated results from studies evaluating loncastuximab tesirine, such as LOTIS-2, and CAR T-cell therapy, such as TRANSFORM and ZUMA-7, for R/R diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (39:29) Ongoing follow-up from pivotal trials of bispecific antibodies for large B-cell lymphomas (46:01) SWOG-S1826: Results from the Phase III trial evaluating nivolumab with doxorubicin/vinblastine/dacarbazine (AVD) versus brentuximab vedotin with AVD for advanced-stage classic Hodgkin lymphoma (51:48) CME information and select publications

Featuring an interview with Dr Jeremy Abramson, including the following topics: Choice of Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor as first-line therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) (0:00) Perspectives on the use of chemoimmunotherapy versus BTK inhibitors as front-line treatment for CLL (2:31) Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy-associated ICANS (immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome) and infectious complications in patients with CLL (6:21) Available data with bispecific antibodies for CLL (9:38) Sequencing CAR T-cell therapy and pirtobrutinib for patients with previously treated CLL (11:09) Integrating bispecific antibodies into community-based practice; strategies for mitigating associated toxicities (14:25) CD20 versus CD19 as a therapeutic target in lymphomas (20:31) First-line treatment selection for patients with mantle cell lymphoma (23:07) Chemotherapy combined with nivolumab or with brentuximab vedotin as initial therapy for Hodgkin lymphoma (30:12) CME information and select publications  

Drs. John Sweetenham and Marc Braunstein discuss advances in hematologic malignancies featured at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting, including the potentially practice-changing SWOG-S1826 study in Hodgkin lymphoma, the promise of bispecific antibodies in B-cell malignancies, and a novel approach to deliver vital anti-myeloma medications that could improve patient quality of life and alleviate barriers to care. TRANSCRIPT   Dr. John Sweetenham: Hello, I'm John Sweetenham, the associate director for cancer network clinical affairs at UT Southwestern's Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and the host of the ASCO Daily News Podcast.    The 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting featured some exciting new data on hematologic malignancies. I'm delighted to have Dr. Marc Braunstein return to the podcast to discuss some of these potentially practice-changing studies and new approaches in the heme space. Dr. Braunstein is a hematologist and oncologist at the NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center.    You'll find our full disclosures in the transcript of this episode, and disclosures of all guests on the ASCO Daily News Podcast are available on our transcripts at asco.org/DNpod.   Marc, it's great to have you back on the podcast, and thanks for being here again.   Dr. Marc Braunstein: Thank you, John. It's great to be back.   Dr. John Sweetenham: Marc, we already mentioned that there are some potentially practice-changing studies that were reported at ASCO this year. And among those, LBA4, which was presented in the Plenary Session, was a study which explored the treatment of advanced Hodgkin lymphoma. This was the Southwest Oncology Group study S1826. Could you give us your insights on this?    Dr. Marc Braunstein: Sure, happy to discuss S1826. So as background, you know, the ECHELON-1 study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2022 showed a 40% decrease in the risk of death at six years follow-up by adding brentuximab to AVD compared to bleomycin AVD. And that was in high risk or advanced-stage patients and that led to adoption of brentuximab for upfront use in patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma in advanced stage.    Also of note, immune checkpoint inhibitors such as pembrolizumab or nivolumab do have activity in the relapse setting. The SWOG S1826 study was a randomized control study looking at the use of the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab plus AVD versus brentuximab AVD in patients with advanced stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma who are at least twelve years of age. And the primary endpoint in the study was progression-free survival.     It was a large study which enrolled 976 patients and randomized them one to one to either nivo AVD or brentuximab AVD. The median age in the study was 27 and the median follow-up was 12 months. And what the study found, which could be practice-changing, was that the primary endpoint of progression-free survival was superior in the nivolumab arm with a hazard ratio of 0.8 and a one-year PFS of 94% versus 86%, favoring the nivolumab arm. And while there were side effects associated with the class of medications, for example, hypo or hyperthyroidism was more frequent in the nivolumab group, whereas peripheral neuropathy was higher in the brentuximab group, I think that these results are particularly encouraging for how we can continue to improve outcomes for patients with advanced-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma. And this may be practice-changing in terms of whether we use upfront immune checkpoint inhibitors in combination with our standard chemotherapy backbone.    Dr. John Sweetenham: Yeah, absolutely. There are a couple of things that occur to me. One in particular which is unique about this study, and the fact that it was for patients who are 12 years and older in many respects represents a first because I can't think of another large, randomized study of this type which has attempted to align pediatric and adult care of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma. So, I think it's something of a landmark in that regard. I don't know if you'd agree with that.    Dr. Marc Braunstein: I agree, especially with the range of ages from 12 to 83. It's a pretty broad population by age, but I agree it does kind of reconcile those two groups in a disease that has a bimodal presentation and clearly shows that immune checkpoint inhibitors are both potent and well tolerated in different age groups.    Dr. John Sweetenham: The other question that I have about this study is we haven't seen so far in this study an overall survival benefit to the nivo arm, which is maybe not surprising, but in terms of the practice-changing potential of this study, do you think that will matter?   Dr. Marc Braunstein:  I think that's an excellent question, John. Initially, the ECHELON-1 study only showed progression-free survival, and then the update did show overall survival. And so if we take the lead from that study, we expect to see an overall survival benefit in the SWOG study as well with nivolumab, but it remains to be seen. But I think that the data presented thus far at the Plenary Session is compelling enough to consider using nivolumab upfront.   Dr. John Sweetenham: Yeah, I absolutely agree. And then I guess the other question that we're going to have to wait probably several years to know is what happens in terms of relapse? So, for the minority of these patients who do relapse, how salvageable, if that's the right word, are they going to be with a second- or third-line regimen? But I think that's clearly something for the future, and it's a very interesting, exciting outcome from this study.   Dr. Marc Braunstein: Absolutely.    Dr. John Sweetenham: Let's move on. Marc, again, we're still in the lymphoma world here, but looking at high-risk follicular lymphoma. And this was Abstract 7506, looking at epcoritamab plus the R2 regimen in patients with follicular lymphoma. Could you walk us through this one?    Dr. Marc Braunstein: Yeah, absolutely. Bispecific T-cell engaging antibodies are showing impressive efficacy in relapsed and refractory non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Epcoritamab is a bispecific antibody that binds to CD3 on T-cells and CD20 B-cells. And this antibody is currently approved for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma patients after two or more prior lines of treatment.    In this study presented by Merryman and colleagues, they explored the addition of epcoritamab to standard lenalidomide-rituximab. In 109 patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma who had at least one prior therapy, and, of note, the study was enriched for high-risk patients for progression, including those who had progression of disease within 24 months of their initial treatment and those patients who had been refractory to prior anti-CD20 treatment. This study enrolled 109 patients with relapsed refractory follicular lymphoma. The median age was 65 and 56% of patients had FLIPI scores on the higher end of the spectrum from three to five, and 61% had stage 4 disease. Also of note, 38% of patients had progression of disease within 24 months of their prior treatment. So at a median follow-up of 8.8 months, the overall response rate was impressive at 97%, and 82% of patients were still on treatment at that time.     Now, of course, with this mechanism of action of bispecific antibodies, there is a risk of both cytokine release syndrome and immune-related neurotoxicity. The rates of CRS were primarily low grade, there were only 2% grade 3, and of note, most occurred after the first dose. And in terms of ICANS or neurological toxicity, there were no grade 3 adverse events, and those occurred in only two patients. Finally, the estimated six months progression-free survival was 93%. So, if we cross-compare these results historically to the R-squared regimen, which was published to be about 80%, just cross comparing, so it's not exactly the same study, this clearly shows high activity on par or better with R-squared alone. Although this study was not a randomized study, I think the addition of epcoritamab certainly shows high overall response rates and we'll need randomized data to confirm the efficacy, but it's definitely encouraging in high-risk follicular lymphoma patients.   Dr. John Sweetenham: Thanks, Marc. I agree. I think these data are really enticing, in as much as the response rates are so high, but of course, it is follicular lymphoma, so we'll have to wait a while. But the thing that it does make me reflect on is that bispecific antibodies really are turning out to be remarkably effective in a range of B cell malignancies, so, it's very interesting to continue to watch this space.    I'm going to change gears now and talk about something completely different for a moment. And this was Abstract 1536. I think that many of us are in a position where we're now looking at how we deliver our clinical services, and particularly inpatient services, to patients with hematologic malignancy. And this study addressed that very specifically. Can I have your thoughts on that?   Dr. Marc Braunstein: Sure. In the context of how our therapies are improving, our approaches to how we manage patients clinically is changing too, in many ways for the better. So, various models exist for, you know, which practitioners manage oncology patients who happen to be admitted to the hospital. This abstract, which was performed by authors at a large medical center in New York, describes the use of a dedicated hematologic malignancy hospitalist for managing medicine-related issues. And the authors did comparisons of that service to a service primarily managed by oncologists. The authors compared things such as length of stay, whether the patients were discharged by noon, which is a hospital metric that's used for facilitating turnover of patients and space availability, as well as 30-day readmission rates among patients cared for by an oncology attending versus this heme malignancy hospitalist between July of 2021 and July 2022.    The outcomes showed that admissions to the heme malignancy hospitalists were, although less because that service was primarily for patients who required medicine-related issues as opposed to primarily oncologic issues, there were 95 admissions to that service versus 669 to the oncology service. There was a significantly shorter length of stay on the heme malignancies hospitalist service by about 2 to 5 days compared to the oncology hospitalist service. The rates of patients who were discharged by noon or the length of stay were similar between the two groups.    So, while this study is confounded by differences in acuity of disease between the services, using a dedicated heme malignancy hospitalist has many benefits, not just to offload the oncology-managed service, which may have a higher level of acuity, but also allow for a deviation of care for medicine-specific issues, to a hospitalist that's specifically trained in managing patients with hematologic malignancies and then dedicating the oncology specialty service to those who need acute oncologic care, such as those with leukemia or other high acuity diseases.    Dr. John Sweetenham: Thanks, Marc. I think it is really interesting to see some outcome data for this model of care. A number of centers I know are looking at an APP-led inpatient service for these types of patients, too, so it's going to be very interesting to see how further studies of these kinds of approaches continue to develop.    And on a related theme of changes in patterns of care, Abstract TPS1609 looked at home infusion and of course, this is something that really started to attract a lot more attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. But I wonder if you could walk us through some of the details of this poster.    Dr. Marc Braunstein: This study was presented as a poster proposing a prospective study looking at home infusion of the anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody daratumumab, which has a vital role in managing patients with newly diagnosed or relapsed multiple myeloma. And monoclonal antibodies have really revolutionized the care of patients with multiple myeloma, but often their infusion schedule is weekly or biweekly, and it does require relatively frequent visits to an infusion center.    So, this single-arm, open-label study is going to examine whether we can provide home administration of subcutaneous daratumumab and assess whether it improves quality of life and assess its safety. So, in this study, a visiting nurse will come and deliver the medication after patients take their pre-medications at home prior to the arrival of the infusion nurse. And then the investigators will provide quality of life questionnaires prior to and after the infusions and at the end of the study, and they'll be looking at any barriers to adherence, any barriers to the logistics of this home infusion arrangement.    And I think that this has a lot of potential not just to improve quality of life, but also to facilitate care to patients who may be frail, who may not have good caregiver support, who may have barriers in traveling to an infusion center or perhaps in places that are more resource-deprived and don't have local infusion centers. This could be a potential approach to delivering vital anti-myeloma medications at home, and I'm looking forward to seeing the results.    Dr. John Sweetenham: Yeah, I agree. I think a lot of us still have anxieties about the safety of this approach, but I think there are increasing data to suggest that home infusion is not only safe but also, as you mentioned, is a big enhancer of the quality of life of these patients. And so, very interesting to see how this plays out in prospective studies.    So, to close out, I wonder if you could walk us through Abstract 7072, a poster looking at the issue of clonal hematopoiesis.    Dr. Marc Braunstein: Clonal hematopoiesis, which is a phenomenon in which the blood cells acquire somatic mutation, is associated with both cardiovascular disease adverse outcomes as well as hematologic malignancy. It's been shown to be a precursor for diseases such as leukemia. So, this relatively small study from MD Anderson Cancer Center examined clonal hematopoiesis in 78 patients with malignancies, 70% of which had a history of cancer, and the authors described outcomes associated with clonal hematopoiesis.    So, again, 78 patients were examined, and 76% of them had a history of malignancy, and 73% had other comorbidities. And the authors demonstrated clonal hematopoiesis by the finding of specific mutations in the blood associated with clonal hematopoiesis. The authors essentially looked at outcomes such as mortality. They noted that only 20% of the patients developed a myeloid neoplasm, and that's relevant because, again, clonal hematopoiesis is a precursor for myeloid neoplasms. They also noted that most patients had died from a primary malignancy rather than a myeloid neoplasm, which is not too surprising considering that most patients with clonal hematopoiesis will not develop a hematologic malignancy, but it is a marker for the potential transformation.    And so, I think the authors conclude that clonal hematopoiesis is important for monitoring patients who are at risk for potential myeloid transformation and hematologic malignancy, but it's not necessarily the case that patients who have a background of malignancy will often develop a myeloid malignancy. I think there are many implications of clonal hematopoiesis for cancer in general in terms of the risk of secondary malignancies in those treated with adjuvant chemotherapy, in terms of how we monitor patients who actually more and more are going to have this detected as we use more next-generation sequencing and liquid biopsies.     So, I look forward to future studies that are exploring how to actually prospectively assess clonal hematopoiesis and use it for clinical stratification for things like adjuvant chemotherapy or monitoring for risks of hematologic malignancy.    Dr. John Sweetenham: Thanks, Marc. I agree. Very important for the future, especially as we gain more and more sequencing data.    So, Marc, in conclusion, I want to thank you very much for sharing your insights with us today on the ASCO Daily News Podcast. It's been great to talk with you again.    Dr. Marc Braunstein: My pleasure. Happy to be back, and I look forward to a future podcast session.  Dr. John Sweetenham: And thank you to our listeners for joining us today. You'll find links to the abstracts discussed today in the transcripts of this episode. Finally, if you value the insights that you hear on ASCO Daily News Podcast, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.   Disclaimer:   The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.    Find out more about today's speakers:   Dr. John Sweetenham   Dr. Marc Braunstein   @docbraunstein      Follow ASCO on social media:    @ASCO on Twitter    ASCO on Facebook    ASCO on LinkedIn       Disclosures:   Dr. John Sweetenham:   Consulting or Advisory Role: EMA Wellness   Dr. Marc Braunstein:   Consulting or Advisory Role: Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Celgene, Adaptive Biotechnologies, GlaxoSmithKline, ADC Therapeutics, Janssen Oncology, Abbvie, Guidepoint Global, Epizyme, Sanofi, CTI BioPharma Corp   Speakers' Bureau: Janssen Oncology   Research Funding (Institution): Janssen, Celgene/BMS        

Featuring perspectives from Dr Christopher R Flowers, Ms Amy Goodrich, Ms Robin Klebig and Dr Matthew Lunning, including the following topics: Introduction (0:00) POLARIX: Polatuzumab Vedotin/R-CHP for Previously Untreated Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) (5:55) Polatuzumab Vedotin/Bendamustine/Rituximab and Selinexor for Relapsed Disease (24:28) CD19-Directed Antibody-Drug Conjugate Loncastuximab Tesirine (42:43) CD19-Directed Monoclonal Antibody Tafasitamab Combined with Lenalidomide (51:16) CD20 x CD3 Bispecific Antibodies (1:01:02) CAR (Chimeric Antigen Receptor) T-Cell Therapy (1:19:07) NCPD information and select publications

Featuring articles on anti-CD20 antibodies and venetoclax in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, epicutaneous immunotherapy in toddlers with peanut allergy, cabozantinib in advanced renal-cell carcinoma, and racial inequality in the receipt of medications for opioid use disorder; a review article on HPV vaccination; a case report of a man with redness of the right eye; and Perspective articles on addressing serious illness care in Medicare Advantage, on corporate citizenship and institutional responses post-Dobbs, and on ethical conflicts for clinicians under Tennessee abortion law.