Michael Dickinson, MBBS, DMedSc, on Summer Conference Highlights in Lymphoma

Michael Dickinson, MBBS, DMedSc, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, discusses what he sees as the key highlights in lymphoma research during the summer 2023 conference season.

With the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting followed by the 2023 European Hematology Association Congress, and the 17th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma, it’s a “very busy” season for conferences, Dr. Dickinson said.

“There appear to be some really exciting abstracts coming out,” he said. “Obviously, with my own particular interests. I’m very interested in more bispecific [antibody] data for some of the more advanced bispecifics.”

Dr. Dickinson also highlighted data from the primary overall survival analysis of the ZUMA-7 trial presented at ASCO, which he sees as “perhaps one of the most exciting pieces of data.”

“I’m excited to see how people respond to that [data] because overall survival is so rarely shown now,” Dr. Dickinson said.

The overall survival advantage shown with axicabtagene ciloleucel over standard of care in ZUMA-7 is a “really important milestone for the treatment of relapsed diffuse large B cell lymphoma and a milestone for the use of T-cell redirecting treatments in lymphoma as well,” he said.

Dr. Dickinson also highlighted an ASCO plenary session on a randomized study comparing nivolumab plus doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (AVD) with brentuximab vedotin plus AVD in advanced stage classic Hodgkin lymphoma.

“That particular data is something that I’m really looking forward to seeing … I’ll be up in the middle of the night looking at that,” he said.

Overall, the summer’s conferences feature a full schedule of presentations on the latest research in lymphoma, he said.