Hematologic Malignancy Research Gains Momentum at GW Cancer Center

During the 2019 OncLive^® State of the Science Summit™ on Hematologic Malignancies, we asked faculty from the George Washington (GW) Cancer Center to shed light on some of the current and future research efforts being made at their institution.

Eduardo Sotomayor, MD

Eduardo Sotomayor, MD

Professor of Medicine, Director of GW Cancer Center

“The GW Cancer Center is a new cancer center; we were established in 2015. We are building our Bone Marrow Transplant and Cell Therapies program. We are lucky to have a partnership with Children’s National [Health System], where we have Catherine Bollard, MB, ChB, MD, who is one of the world leaders in T-cell therapies. She is currently [developing] T-cell therapies for kids at Children’s National. Now, together, we are going to be able to expand on those areas of research at GW Cancer Center. We are going to focus on commercial CAR T cells. We are also developing our own in-house set of CAR T cells: natural killer CARs. However, more importantly, Dr Bollard and her group are developing antigen-specific T cells against certain malignancies—not only in the hematologic malignancy field, but also in solid tumors.”

Ivan Marques Borrello, MD

Ivan Marques Borrello, MD

Associate Professor of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University

“[A trial] that we are going to hopefully be opening in multiple myeloma, is a trial specifically targeting minimal residual disease (MRD). Now, there’s a greater appreciation of the fact that achieving MRD negativity translates into improved overall survival. However, what we don’t know is what to do with patients who achieve or get close to achieving MRD negativity.

We have a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial of the GVAX vaccine, which are 2 myeloma cell lines together with a GM-CSF—producing cell line that is given to patients who are in complete remission. Data from our phase I trial, which will hopefully be presented at the 2019 ASH Annual Meeting, have been very promising, and I hope that the results from the randomized phase II confirms them.

I believe this will fill an unmet need in an area that is becoming increasingly prevalent, which is obviously to the benefit of the patients because we have significantly better therapies. I believe that if we can help get patients to MRD negativity—and more and more patients are getting there—and then keep them there, these are the kinds of [efforts] that can change the face of the disease.”

Mitchell Smith, MD, PhD

Mitchell Smith, MD, PhD

Division Director, Cancer and Blood Disorders, and Professor of Medicine, GW Cancer Center

“We’re just getting our trials up and running but I have been working with a mathematician and we have published a few papers on clonal evolution in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). We have been trying to model this idea of how we might best use these drugs rather than just combining 2, 3, or 4 [of them] for as long as we can or stopping [them].

We’re focusing on this idea of getting clones, detecting them early with next-generation sequencing, and attacking them or even stopping a drug to allow the less aggressive cells to come back and suppress the more aggressive cells. There is some mathematical modeling that I believe might help us speed up development rather than just randomly examining all of these potential combinations. This idea of mathematically modeling is an area that is underused, but people are starting to do it, it’s called an in-silico approach; this is an area that I believe we can build on and that I have been active in.

We will also be generating our CAR T program. We have some excellent science coming out of Dr Catherine Bollard’s lab, and we will be working on some in-house CAR T cells directed at lymphoid malignancies, including CLL.”

Imad Tabbara, MD

Imad Tabbara, MD

Professor of Medicine, Director, Blood & Bone Marrow Transplant Program, and Director, Fellowship Training Program, GW Cancer Center

“We have a trial for patients with acute myeloid leukemia using chemotherapy in combination with a newer agent. [These patients] will be randomized to [receive chemotherapy plus] a newer agent versus placebo. We also have some ongoing clinical trials in multiple myeloma, mainly for refractory patients. We don’t yet have clinical trials in acute lymphoblastic leukemia but we’re hoping to open up some in that area as well.”