Presentations at the ASH and SABCS Conferences Highlight Advancements in the Field of Oncology Pharmacy

With significant data presented at the 65th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting & Exposition in San Diego, California, and the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) in Texas, in December, 2023 was an impactful year for the field of oncology pharmacy. Both conferences presented research that has the potential to be practice changing for clinicians.

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In this issue of Pharmacy Practice in Focus: Oncology, editorial advisory board member Douglas Braun, PharmD, CSP, RPh, provides an overview of key updates from both conferences. On page 8, Braun notes that some key takeaways from ASH included advancements in immunotherapies, contrasts between real-world effectiveness and clinical trial efficacy in research, analyses of the risks and benefits of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies, and developments in standard-of-care regimens for previously unmanaged chronic lymphocytic leukemia and newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. On page 42, some significant highlights from SABCS included advancements in biomarker testing, and therapy selection and novel targeted therapies.

On page 30, authors Amir Ali, PharmD, BCOP; Melissa Martinez, PharmD candidate; Maryam Saheb Kashaf, PharmD candidate; and Zyanya Rizzo, PharmD candidate, discuss their ASH presentation on research evaluating the clinical and genomic characteristics of Philadelphia chromosome (Ph)-like B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) in a Hispanic population. The findings of the study highlight the significance of Ph-like B-ALL as a high-risk subtype in adult B-ALL, characterized by compromised event-free survival and a notable incidence of treatment failure. The study findings also revealed that CRLF2 translocation is a significant factor associated with adverse outcomes in this patient population.

Additionally, on page 28, we discuss data presented at ASH highlighting the persistence of a gender gap in R01 grants given by the National Institutes of Health to researchers working in classical (nonmalignant) hematology. On page 48, we discuss SABCS presentations from Preeti Narayan, MD, and Mirat Shah, MD, MHS, from the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research on data and regulatory insights for new metastatic breast cancer therapies.

We look forward to covering new developments in the field of oncology pharmacy in 2024, with another special issue covering presentations from the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, to come in the July conference issue. Please also join us June 20 to 21, to discuss these ASCO findings at the Oncology Pharmacists Connect event in Austin, Texas.