Hematologic Malignancies Research Updates

In a retrospective cohort of 1,205 pediatric patients with de novo AML from the TARGET database, the authors compared MRD thresholds of ≥0.1% versus ≥0.05% after induction courses 1 and 2. ROC analysis identified 0.05% as the optimal threshold (AUC 0.840 after course 1 and 0.854 after course 2) and the 0.05% cutoff yielded higher hazard ratios for first event and significant net reclassification improvement versus 0.1%, supporting evaluation of the lower threshold in future trials while noting the study's retrospective, historical-data limitations.

In preclinical pancreatic cancer models, Vδ1 γδ T cells engineered with a PSCA-targeted CAR showed comparable tumor-killing to CAR Vδ2 γδ and conventional αβ CAR T cells but did not induce graft-versus-host disease or systemic toxicity seen with CAR αβ T cells. CAR Vδ1 cells exhibited lower exhaustion than CAR Vδ2 cells, could be robustly expanded ex vivo, and retained potency after cryopreservation, supporting their potential as an off-the-shelf CAR T approach.

This review of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) summarizes a risk-adapted approach that uses prognostic tools (MIPI, combined MIPI, Ki-67, blastoid morphology) to guide therapy. In younger fit patients, frontline dose-intensified chemoimmunotherapy with high-dose cytarabine and autologous stem-cell transplant has been standard, while incorporation of Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors has improved outcomes and may limit transplant use; older or transplant-ineligible patients are managed with bendamustine-rituximab or chemotherapy-free combinations, and relapsed/refractory disease is increasingly treated with covalent and noncovalent BTK inhibitors, BCL2 inhibitors, CAR T-cell therapy, and bispecific antibodies.