Volume 15 Issue 8, August 2018

The prognostic significance of residual disease, measured by flow cytometry or PCR-based assays, has been established in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The results of a recent study involving almost 500 patients in morphological remission demonstrate that detection of persistent mutations using next-generation sequencing provides information complementary to that obtained using the established methods and offer insights into AML evolution.

Recent genomic and transcriptomic analyses of diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) have provided important new insights into the heterogeneous biology of this disease. The findings provide opportunities to improve treatment strategies, although considerable work is needed to establish and optimize the clinical applicability and utility of molecular classifications of DLBCL.

The combination of radiotherapy and immune-checkpoint inhibition (ICI) has generated considerable excitement among oncologists, and numerous clinical trials are currently exploring the efficacy of this approach; however, the safety and tolerability of this combination remains incompletely understood. In this Review, the authors describe the available data on safety considerations in patients receiving radiotherapy in combination with ICI.

Patients with advanced-stage urothelial carcinoma typically receive chemotherapy and might also receive immune-checkpoint inhibitors following disease progression. However, the majority of patients will ultimately develop resistance to treatment. In this Review, the authors describe the evolutionary mechanisms of treatment resistance in patients with urothelial carcinoma.

In recent years, a number of novel agents have been added to the therapeutic armamentarium for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). Herein, Jan A. Burger and Susan O’Brien outline the emerging paradigm of individualized therapy for patients with CLL aimed at exploiting the advantages of these novel agents but also integrating traditional therapies for selected patients.