European Journal of Haematology

Although chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has demonstrated remarkable efficacy in patients with chemo-refractory B-cell lymphoma, a significant portion is refractory or relapse. Resistance is a major barrier to improving treatment efficacy and long-term survival in CAR T-cell therapy, and clinicians have very limited tools to discriminate a priori patients who will or will not respond to treatment. While CD19-negative relapses due to loss of target antigen is well described, it accounts for only about 30% of cases with treatment failure...

OBJECTIVE: Describe the real-world clinical profile of eculizumab-treated patients by characterizing their short- and long-term clinical and laboratory outcomes. METHODS: This retrospective study used preexisting medical records of eculizumab-treated patients with paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) at the University Hospital Essen. Hematologic response, breakthrough hemolysis, transfusion dependence, and other outcomes were assessed. RESULTS: Of 85 patients with PNH, 76 received eculizumab for ≥24 weeks (mean follow-up: 5...

OBJECTIVE: To describe incidence of cardiotoxicity in patients anthracycline exposure who subsequently receive EPOCH for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adults with anthracycline exposure who subsequently received EPOCH for NHL at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Primary outcome was cumulative incidence of arrhythmia, heart failure (HF), left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, or cardiac death. RESULTS: Among 140 patients, most had diffuse large B-cell lymphoma...

OBJECTIVES: Paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH) is a rare, non-malignant haematological disorder associated with disabling fatigue and reduced health-related quality of life. Post-hoc analysis of PEGASUS phase 3 trial (NCT03500549) characterised improvements in patient-reported fatigue measured by Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue (FACIT-fatigue) instrument item-level ratings for pegcetacoplan and eculizumab for the treatment of PNH. METHODS: Item-level responder analysis was conducted on a ≥2-level change from baseline (CFB) clinically important response (CIR) for the FACIT-fatigue 13 individual items rated on a 5-level Likert scale...

OBJECTIVES: The higher risk of prolonged viral shedding in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients with haematological malignancies (HM) necessitates test-based de-isolation strategies. However, evidence to establish their appropriate isolation period is insufficient. This study investigated the factors affecting prolonged viral shedding and the requisite isolation period in these patients. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 14 COVID-19 patients with HM between January and April 2022, who were subjected to our test-based de-isolation strategy, followed by analysis of the viral load trajectory...

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-T) are widely used for the treatment of relapsed/refractory Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The data for CAR-T cell therapy in patients with extra-nodal(EN) lymphoma is restricted. We included 126 consecutive patients with DLBCL treated with commercially available CAR-T cells (tisagenlecleucel, n=100, 79.4% and axicabtagene ciloleucel, n=26, 20.6%). At lymphodepletion, 72/126(57%) had EN disease, 42/126(33%) patients had nodal disease (ND)-only and 12/126(10%) showed no disease assessed by PET-CT...

OBJECTIVE: To compare the safety, feasibility, and neuromuscular activity of acute low-load resistance exercise with/without blood flow restriction (BFR) in people with severe Hemophilia (PwH). METHODS: Eight PwH under prophylaxis (5 with resistance training experience) performed 6 randomly-ordered conditions of 3 intensity-matched knee extensions: no external load and no BFR, no external load and light BFR (20% of arterial occlusion pressure (AOP)), no external load and moderate BFR (40% AOP), external low load and no BFR, external low load with light BFR and external low load with moderate BFR...

BACKGROUND: Asymptomatic neutropenia is a common hematology referral, though standardized reference ranges and published clinical outcomes are lacking. METHODS: In our retrospective analysis, we evaluated demographics, laboratory, and clinical outcomes of adult patients referred to an academic hematology practice for evaluation of neutropenia from 2010-2018. Primary and secondary outcomes included incidence of hematologic disorders and rates of Duffy-null positivity by race, respectively...

Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation's success lies in its ability to induce immune reconstitution. To date, there is no review published to compare the immune reconstitution among the three sources of HSC: umbilical cord blood (UCB), bone marrow (BM), and peripheral blood (PB). The review aims to analyze the kinetic of immune reconstitution among UCB, PB, and BM in HSC transplant patients by focusing on NK cells, B and T lymphocytes, and neutrophils. A systematic review was conducted through five databases, searching for clinical trials and RCTs which analyze the kinetics of immune reconstitution in at least two sources...

BACKGROUND: Although neutropenic fever is frequently observed during chemotherapy, only a minor proportion is caused by blood stream infections (BSI). This study investigated measurements of neutrophil chemotaxis as risk markers for BSI in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). METHODS: The chemokines CXCL1 and CXCL8 were measured weekly in 106 children with ALL during induction treatment. Information regarding BSI episodes was collected from the patients' medical records...

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BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular comorbidities increase the risk of transplant-associated complications. However, the impact of atrial fibrillation as an independent risk factor remains limited. METHODS: The National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database was queried using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes to identify patients admitted for allogeneic stem cell transplant (ASCT). The patients were then subclassified into with and without atrial fibrillation (AF)...

OBJECTIVE: Examine physical function and T-cell phenotype in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) before and after a physical activity (PA) intervention. METHODS: Physical function measures and blood samples were collected from CLL patients (Rai stage 0-4, 50% receiving targeted therapy, N=24) enrolled in a 16-week intervention of at-home aerobic and/or resistance exercise. Flow cytometry characterized T-cells in cryopreserved peripheral blood cells...

There are few large-scale epidemiological and prognostic studies on blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) due to its rarity. We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database to investigate the incidence, clinical characteristics, prognostic factors, and survival trends of BPDCN. The age-adjusted incidence of BPDCN had a bimodal pattern with peaks in those under 20 and above 60 years. Of 697 patients, the median age at diagnosis was 31 years. The most common primary sites were lymph nodes (59...

PURPOSE: DA-EPOCH-R is a regimen used for treatment of high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), designed to overcome resistance to standard R-CHOP by combining prolonged exposure of lymphoma cells to cytotoxic agents and dose-adjustment based on toxicity. Data on outcomes of older patients are scarce. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We collected data on patients with newly diagnosed high-risk DLBCL older than 60 years treated with DA-EPOCH-R. High-risk patients were defined by the age-adjusted international prognostic index score 2 or 3...

INTRODUCTION: A high CD4/CD8 T cell ratio in hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) allografts was observed to predict graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and non-relapse mortality (NRM) but has not been comparatively examined in settings of various GVHD-prophylaxis regimens. METHODS: This retrospective monocentric study included all consecutive HSCT performed with peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) between January 2000 and June 2021. The impact of the graft CD4/CD8 ratio was analyzed in three cohorts with different GVHD-prophylaxis platforms...

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer (PC) carries a high risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). Several risk assessment models (RAMs) predict benefit of thromboprophylaxis in solid tumors; however, none are verified in metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPC). METHODS: A retrospective mPC cohort treated at an academic cancer center from 2010-16 was investigated for VTE incidence (VTEmets). Multivariable regression analysis was used to assess multiple VTE risk factors. Overall survival (OS) was compared between mPC groups with and without VTE...

OBJECTIVES: Chemotherapy-induced neutropenia in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a risk factor for life-threatening infections. Early diagnosis and prompt interventions are associated with better outcomes, but the prediction of infection severity remains an open question. Recently, National Early Warning Score (NEWS) and quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) scores were proposed as warning clinical instruments predicting in-hospital mortality, but their role in the haematological context is still unknown...

Because of lacking of head-to-head comparison among recently effective novel agents combination regimens for newly diagnosed patients with mantle-cell lymphoma (MCL) who are ineligible for intensive therapy like autologous stem cell transplantation, the optimal option for these patients still remains undefined. We searched relevant published reports. Three RCTs with 1459 subjects were identified. In the network meta-analysis, ibrutinib plus bendamustine and rituximab (Ibru+BR) significantly improved progression free survival (PFS) when compared to bortezomib, rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and prednisone (VR-CAP) (HR:0...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.