Leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is associated with poor outcomes, especially in older patients in whom the disease is most common. B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) is an antiapoptotic protein involved in the survival and maintenance of AML, and it is overexpressed in the leukemia stem cell population. Venetoclax is an oral BCL-2 protein inhibitor recently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in combination with a hypomethylating agent (HMA) (azacitidine or decitabine) or low-dose cytarabine for front-line treatment of AML in older patients or those unfit for induction chemotherapy...

Survival rates for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) older than 75 years are still quite dismal. Recent approvals, therefore, of two agents specifically to treat older patients-glasdegib and venetoclax-have created excitement among the medical community. Clinical data, particularly complete response (CR) rates and CR with incomplete hematologic recovery (CRi), look quite promising and are reviewed here. Yet the question remains whether fit elderly patients should receive combination therapy containing the newer agents, particularly since intensive chemotherapy remains the only treatment that has demonstrated the ability to achieve long-term disease-free survival...

Ivosidenib (AG-120) is an oral, targeted agent that suppresses production of the oncometabolite 2-hydroxyglutarate via inhibition of the mutant isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1; mIDH1) enzyme. From a phase 1 study of 258 patients with IDH1-mutant hematologic malignancies, we report results for 34 patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) ineligible for standard therapy who received 500 mg ivosidenib daily. Median age was 76.5 years, 26 patients (76%) had secondary AML, and 16 (47%) had received ≥1 hypomethylating agent for an antecedent hematologic disorder...

The introduction of agents targeted at specific molecular events is changing the treatment paradigms in a number of malignancies. Historically, we have relied entirely on DNA-interactive, cytotoxic drugs for treating patients with leukemia. Increased understanding of the leukemic cell biology and pathogenesis, and the ways they evade the immune surveillance mechanisms, will likely lead to the development of more effective agents, and regimens less reliant on chemotherapy, able to achieve deep levels of disease eradication...

DISEASE OVERVIEW: Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) and HCL-like disorders, including HCL variant (HCL-V) and splenic diffuse red pulp lymphoma (SDRPL), are a very heterogeneous group of mature lymphoid B-cell disorders, characterized by the identification of hairy cells, a specific genetic profile, a different clinical course and the need for appropriate treatment. DIAGNOSIS: Diagnosis of HCL is based on morphological evidence of hairy cells, an HCL immunologic score of 3 or 4 based on the CD11C, CD103, CD123, and CD25 expression, the trephine biopsy which makes it possible to specify the degree of tumoral medullary infiltration and the presence of BRAF V600E somatic mutation...

Immunotherapy has changed treatment practices for many hematologic malignancies. Even in the current era of targeted therapy, chemotherapy remains the backbone of treatment for many hematologic malignancies, especially in acute leukemias, where relapse remains the major cause of mortality. Application of novel immunotherapies in hematology attempts to harness the killing power of the immune system against leukemia and lymphoma. Cellular immunotherapy is evolving rapidly for high-risk hematologic disorders. Recent advances include chimeric antigen-receptor T cells, mesenchymal stromal/stem cells, dendritic cell tumor vaccines, cytokine-induced killer cells, and virus-specific T cells...

BACKGROUND: Patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and a FLT3 mutation have poor outcomes. We conducted a phase 3 trial to determine whether the addition of midostaurin - an oral multitargeted kinase inhibitor that is active in patients with a FLT3 mutation - to standard chemotherapy would prolong overall survival in this population. METHODS: We screened 3277 patients, 18 to 59 years of age, who had newly diagnosed AML for FLT3 mutations. Patients were randomly assigned to receive standard chemotherapy (induction therapy with daunorubicin and cytarabine and consolidation therapy with high-dose cytarabine) plus either midostaurin or placebo; those who were in remission after consolidation therapy entered a maintenance phase in which they received either midostaurin or placebo...

The indisputable role of epigenetics in cancer and the fact that epigenetic alterations can be reversed have favoured development of epigenetic drugs. In this study, we design and synthesize potent novel, selective and reversible chemical probes that simultaneously inhibit the G9a and DNMTs methyltransferase activity. In vitro treatment of haematological neoplasia (acute myeloid leukaemia-AML, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia-ALL and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma-DLBCL) with the lead compound CM-272, inhibits cell proliferation and promotes apoptosis, inducing interferon-stimulated genes and immunogenic cell death...

Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is a clonal hematopoietic malignancy that may deserve specific management. Defined by a persistent peripheral blood monocytosis ≥1 × 109 /L and monocytes accounting for ≥10% of the white blood cells, this aging-associated disease combines cell proliferation as a consequence of myeloid progenitor hypersensitivity to granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor with myeloid cell dysplasia and ineffective hematopoiesis. The only curative option for CMML remains allogeneic stem cell transplantation...

CONTEXT: Whole-genome sequencing is becoming increasingly available for research purposes, but it has not yet been routinely used for clinical diagnosis. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether whole-genome sequencing can identify cryptic, actionable mutations in a clinically relevant time frame. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENT: We were referred a difficult diagnostic case of acute promyelocytic leukemia with no pathogenic X-RARA fusion identified by routine metaphase cytogenetics or interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)...

In recent years, the identification of minimal residual disease (MRD) that persists after chemotherapy has emerged as the most powerful tool in determining the prognosis of patients with ALL, often superseding historically relevant prognostic factors. Multiple methods to detect MRD exist, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Multiparameter flow cytometry and quantitative polymerase chain reaction are the most commonly used methods of MRD detection in clinical practice, although there is promise in the use of more sensitive assays utilizing next-generation sequencing that may be able to further refine MRD-based risk stratification...

Adult T-Cell Leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) is the first human malignancy associated with a chronic infection by a retrovirus, the human T-cell lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I). ATL occurs, after a long latency period, only in about 5% of 10-20 millions infected individuals. ATL has a dismal prognosis with a median survival of less than 1 year, mainly due to its resistance to chemotherapy and to a profound immunosuppression. The viral oncoprotein, Tax, plays a major role in ATL oncogenic transformation by interfering with cell proliferation, cell cycle, apoptosis, and DNA repair...

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No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a chronic mature B-cell neoplasm with unique clinicopathologic features and an initial exquisite sensitivity to chemotherapy with purine analogs; however, the disease relapses, often repeatedly. The enigmatic pathogenesis of HCL was recently clarified by the discovery of its underlying genetic cause, the BRAF-V600E kinase-activating mutation, which is somatically and clonally present in almost all patients through the entire disease spectrum and clinical course. By aberrantly activating the RAF-MEK-ERK signaling pathway, BRAF-V600E shapes key biologic features of HCL, including its specific expression signature, hairy morphology, and antiapoptotic behavior...

In recent years, our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of myeloid neoplasms, including acute myeloid leukemia (AML), has been greatly advanced by genomics discovery studies that use novel high-throughput sequencing techniques. AML, similar to most other cancers, is characterized by multiple somatically acquired mutations that affect genes of different functional categories, a complex clonal architecture, and disease evolution over time. Patterns of mutations seem to follow specific and temporally ordered trajectories...

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a common B-cell malignancy with a remarkably heterogeneous course, ranging from indolent disease with no need for immediate therapy to rapidly progressive disease associated with therapeutic resistance. The recent US Food and Drug Administration approvals of novel targeted therapies such as inhibitors of B-cell receptor signaling and B-cell lymphoma 2 have opened up new opportunities in the clinical management of patients with CLL and heralded a new era in the clinical treatment of this disease...

Hairy cell leukemia is an uncommon hematologic malignancy characterized by pancytopenia and marked susceptibility to infection. Tremendous progress in the management of patients with this disease has resulted in high response rates and improved survival, yet relapse and an appropriate approach to re-treatment present continuing areas for research. The disease and its effective treatment are associated with immunosuppression. Because more patients are being treated with alternative programs, comparison of results will require general agreement on definitions of response, relapse, and methods of determining minimal residual disease...

Research in the last few years has revealed a sophisticated interaction network between multiple bone marrow cells that regulate different hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) properties such as proliferation, differentiation, localization, and self-renewal during homeostasis. These mechanisms are essential to keep the physiological HSC numbers in check and interfere with malignant progression. In addition to the identification of multiple mutations and chromosomal aberrations driving the progression of myeloid malignancies, alterations in the niche compartment recently gained attention for contributing to disease progression...

For more than 50 years, investigators have considered a malignant stem cell as the potential origin of and a key therapeutic target for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and other forms of cancer.1-4 The nature and existence of tumor-initiating cells for leukemia and other malignancies have long been the subject of intense and rigorous study; indeed, the promise of the potential to eradicate such cells is clear. However, until recently, deficiencies in our understanding of the nature of these cell populations, coupled with a limited ability to therapeutically exploit their weaknesses, have been limiting factors in realizing the goal of targeting leukemic stem cells (LSCs)...