Insights Into What’s New in Blood Cancer Care

Lore Gruenbaum sat down for an on-site interview with CURE at ASH to discuss the major themes shaping blood cancer care today, as well as expand on how the latest research is influencing advocacy priorities for Blood Cancer United.

In the conversation that follows, she highlights the rapid progress being made with new therapeutics and the growing importance of accessible and lower-toxicity treatment options.

Gruenbaum, who holds a postdoctoral degree, serves as chief scientific officer and senior vice president of research at Blood Cancer United.

CURE: What major themes or trends do you see as most important for people living with blood cancers right now?

Gruenbaum: This ASH, all eyes are on multiple myeloma and on the data we are seeing, in particular, with bispecific antibodies. Here, we are see exciting data both in monotherapy and in a variety of combinations going into second line and also going into first line. We had a late-breaking abstract on the Tecvayli (teclistamab-cqyv) and Darzalex (daratumumab) combination that showed, in a randomized study for a triplet standard-of-care therapy, a very significant improvement in progression-free survival, as well as a strong effect in terms of response rates and overall survival. This bodes well for this becoming a standard-of-care as early as second-line.

We are also seeing exciting data in first-line therapy. We are seeing data for patients who are high risk, who have had many prior treatments fail, and patients who have, for example, extramedullary disease or plasmacytomas. We are seeing a large range of uses for these antibodies, and it is going to be exciting to see how these translate into additional approvals in the future, as these agents can move, quite probably, all the way up to frontline.

How does ASH help Blood Cancer United shape its advocacy priorities, especially as new therapies and research directions continue to emerge?

We are interested in helping to support therapies that don't create a lot of financial toxicity and therapies that are really accessible to all the patients who could benefit from them. In that context, of course, a focus on oral therapies is really exciting in this space. We're seeing, for example, the menin inhibitors in the acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, space as a therapy option that we have heavily invested in, heavily supported from early grant investment and understanding the mechanism of menin inhibitors to really supporting the early drug development. …

As we know, oral agents, in many cases, have the ability to reach patients who are not living close to large medical centers. And of course, oral agents with tolerability profiles that again enable patients to mostly receive their therapies at home is an important aspect. Oral therapies, again, bispecifics, also offer a lot of benefits when we think about multiple myeloma, where the standard for frontline therapy has gone from triplet to quadruplet therapy, so very complex therapy, very costly therapy; being able to go down to simpler regimens is going to be something I think will be really beneficial for patients.

The last thing I'll emphasize is time-limited therapy, another theme that is coming up both for the bispecifics here at ASH; it's also coming up for some of the continuous targeted agents, such as, for example, BTK inhibitors. Again, if we think about patients, ideally patients would prefer to have a time-limited therapy and not to have the perspective of having to be on a drug for the rest of their lives.

What message would you like to share with patients and caregivers about what ASH 2025 means for them?

ASH 2025 is giving me a tremendous amount of hope. At the same time, it is telling us that we still have to roll up our sleeves and do more, and for us at Blood Cancer United, it means we have to fund more research. We have to support more clinical studies, whether it is partnering with biotech companies, through our own master clinical trials, or through a variety of collaborations with other nonprofits. That is what we have to do.

There really is hope. We are trying, and we are really making progress in turning one blood cancer after another into a chronic disease that patients can live with and that ideally does not compromise quality of life. I think for many indications, we are really starting to see cures on the horizon, beyond transplant cures, with therapies that are much better tolerated.

It will be important that we keep going and that we all support research, but I see a lot of promise in a lot of patients in the coming years.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

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