ASH 2021 | Novel strategies to target P53-mutant hematological malignancies

So this year’s ASH Presidential Symposium focused on p53 and its role in hematologic malignancies. Two of the speakers in the session focused more on the basic science underlying p53 dysfunction in hematologic malignancies. And I was tasked with the job of describing therapy for hematologic malignancies with aberrant p53. This is a very challenging area because we know that patients with these mutations tend to have a shorter survival with almost every therapy that’s been given historically, particularly with chemotherapy-based approaches.

So in my presentation, I highlighted five novel ways to target p53 hematologic malignancies. These included controlling the disease through other mechanisms, targeting downstream of p53, combinations of these approaches, immune-based therapies and then actually ways to directly target p53, for example, p53 reactivating drugs.

And so I think that there are a lot of promising new approaches on the horizon, but this does still remain a difficult problem for our patients. And I’m very happy that ASH focused on this in the Presidential Symposium to bring light to this important issue that really spans across hematologic malignancies.