Hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (HSCT-TMA) is a serious complication with significant mortality and no approved therapy. HSCT-TMA results from ...endothelial injury, which activates the lectin pathway of complement. Narsoplimab (OMS721), an inhibitor of mannan-binding lectin-associated serine protease-2 (MASP-2), was evaluated for safety and efficacy in adults with HSCT-TMA.
In this single-arm open-label pivotal trial (NCT02222545), patients received intravenous narsoplimab once weekly for 4-8 weeks. The primary end point (response rate) required clinical improvement in two categories: (1) laboratory TMA markers (both platelet count and lactate dehydrogenase) and (2) organ function or freedom from transfusion. Patients receiving at least one dose (full analysis set FAS; N = 28) were analyzed.
The response rate was 61% in the FAS population. Similar responses were observed across all patient subgroups defined by baseline features, HSCT characteristics, and HSCT complications. Improvement in organ function occurred in 74% of patients in the FAS population. One-hundred-day survival after HSCT-TMA diagnosis was 68% and 94% in FAS population and responders, respectively, whereas median overall survival was 274 days in the FAS population. Narsoplimab was well tolerated, and adverse events were typical of this population, with no apparent safety signal of concern.
In this study, narsoplimab treatment was safe, significantly improved laboratory TMA markers, and resulted in clinical response and favorable overall survival.
Myeloablative autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a mainstay of therapy for relapsed intermediate-grade B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL); however, relapse rates are high. In ...phase 1 studies designed to improve long-term remission rates, we administered adoptive T-cell immunotherapy after HSCT, using ex vivo–expanded autologous central memory–enriched T cells (TCM) transduced with lentivirus expressing CD19-specific chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). We present results from 2 safety/feasibility studies, NHL1 and NHL2, investigating different T-cell populations and CAR constructs. Engineered TCM-derived CD19 CAR T cells were infused 2 days after HSCT at doses of 25 to 200 × 106 in a single infusion. In NHL1, 8 patients safely received T-cell products engineered from enriched CD8+ TCM subsets, expressing a first-generation CD19 CAR containing only the CD3ζ endodomain (CD19R:ζ). Four of 8 patients (50%; 95% confidence interval CI: 16-84%) were progression free at both 1 and 2 years. In NHL2, 8 patients safely received T-cell products engineered from enriched CD4+ and CD8+ TCM subsets and expressing a second-generation CD19 CAR containing the CD28 and CD3ζ endodomains (CD19R:28ζ). Six of 8 patients (75%; 95% CI: 35-97%) were progression free at 1 year. The CD4+/CD8+ TCM-derived CD19 CAR T cells (NHL2) exhibited improvement in expansion; however, persistence was ≤28 days, similar to that seen by others using CD28 CARs. Neither cytokine release syndrome nor delayed hematopoietic engraftment was observed in either trial. These data demonstrate the safety and feasibility of CD19 CAR TCM therapy after HSCT. Trials were registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT01318317 and #NCT01815749.
•TCM-derived CD19 CAR T–cell therapy is safe for treatment of poor-risk NHL patients undergoing autologous HSCT.•Addition of a CD28 costimulatory domain to the CAR, plus changes to T-cell product manufacturing, resulted in improved T-cell expansion.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Purpose of Review
Chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy is gaining clinical use in the management of B cell lymphomas. As the use of this unique treatment option increases, its associated ...toxicities will require recognition and treatment. In this review, we aim to discuss the cardiovascular toxicities of chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy and our approach to their clinical management.
Recent Findings
Cardiotoxicity may be due to direct or indirect effects of infused chimeric antigen receptor T cells. The cytokine release syndrome has been described extensively in the literature. Studies have also reported cardiovascular dysfunction including hypotension, left ventricular dysfunction, heart failure, and cardiogenic shock in the setting of cytokine release syndrome.
Summary
While there are no standardized guidelines for the treatment of cytokine release syndrome or associated cardiotoxicity, we present our current clinical practices. Further research is indicated into the pathophysiology of therapy-associated cardiac dysfunction and effective management strategies to optimize patient outcomes.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Purpose of Review
T cell-based therapies (blinatumomab and CAR T cell therapy) have produced unprecedented responses in relapsed and refractory (r/r) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) but is ...accompanied with significant toxicities, of which one of the most common and serious is cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Here we will review the pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment of CRS.
Recent Findings
Efforts have been initiated to define and grade cytokine release syndrome (CRS), to identify patients at risk, to describe biomarkers that predict onset and severity, to understand the pathophysiology, and to prevent and treat severe cases to reduce T cell immunotherapy-related morbidity and mortality.
Summary
Optimizing the timing of T cell-based therapies in ALL, identifying new biomarkers, and investigating novel anti-cytokine agents that have anti-CRS activity are likely to be fruitful avenues of study.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OBVAL, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
MicroRNA networks in FLT3-ITD acute myeloid leukemia Hoang, Dinh Hoa; Zhao, Dandan; Branciamore, Sergio ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS,
04/2022, Volume:
119, Issue:
16
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
MiR-126 and miR-155 are key microRNAs (miRNAs) that regulate, respectively, hematopoietic cell quiescence and proliferation. Herein we showed that in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the biogenesis of ...these two miRNAs is interconnected through a network of regulatory loops driven by the FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3-internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD). In fact, FLT3-ITD induces the expression of miR-155 through a noncanonical mechanism of miRNA biogenesis that implicates cytoplasmic Drosha ribonuclease III (DROSHA). In turn, miR-155 down-regulates SH2-containing inositol phosphatase 1 (SHIP1), thereby increasing phosphor-protein kinase B (AKT) that in turn serine-phosphorylates, stabilizes, and activates Sprouty related EVH1 domain containing 1 (SPRED1). Activated SPRED1 inhibits the RAN/XPO5 complex and blocks the nucleus-to-cytoplasm transport of pre-miR-126, which cannot then complete the last steps of biogenesis. The net result is aberrantly low levels of mature miR-126 that allow quiescent leukemia blasts to be recruited into the cell cycle and proliferate. Thus, miR-126 down-regulation in proliferating AML blasts is downstream of FLT3-ITD–dependent miR-155 expression that initiates a complex circuit of concatenated regulatory feedback (i.e., miR-126/SPRED1, miR-155/human dead-box protein 3 DDX3X) and feed-forward (i.e., miR-155/SHIP1/AKT/miR-126) regulatory loops that eventually converge into an output signal for leukemic growth.
A phase I/II study evaluating the safety and activity of memory-enriched CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CD19-CAR) T cells in adults with relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic ...leukemia (ALL).
In phase I, we tested sequentially two cell populations for CAR transduction: (i) central memory (Tcm) or (ii) naïve, stem, and central memory (Tn/mem) T cells. The study employed an activity constrained for toxicity design to determine the recommended phase II dose (RP2D), which was tested in phase II.
The Tcm cohort was closed early due to lack of activity. The 200 ×106 Tn/mem-derived CD19-CAR T-cell dose was found to be safe and active, and was declared the RP2D. At RP2D, 58 participants underwent leukapheresis and 46 received CD19-CAR T cells. Median age for treated participants was 38 years (range, 22-72). Twenty-nine (63%) participants had relapsed post-allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT), 18 (39%) had Philadelphia-like (Ph-like) genotype, and 16 (35%) had extramedullary disease (EMD) at lymphodepletion (LD). Three (7%) participants had grade 3 cytokine release syndrome (CRS), and none had grade ≥ 4 CRS. Eight (17%) participants had grade ≥ 3 neurotoxicity, including one fatal cerebral edema. Forty (87%) patients achieved complete remission (CR)/CR with incomplete hematologic recovery, 2 (4%) progressed, and 4 (9%) were unevaluable for response. Among 42 response-evaluable participants, 16/17 with Ph-like ALL and 13/15 with EMD at LD responded. Twenty-one (53%) responders underwent alloHCT consolidation, which was associated with improved relapse-free survival (adjusted HR = 0.16; 95% confidence interval, 0.05-0.48; P = 0.001).
Tn/mem-derived CD19-CAR T cells were safe and active, including in Ph-like ALL and EMD. See related commentary by El Marabti and Abdel-Wahab, p. 694.
Therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome is a long-term complication of cancer treatment in patients receiving cytotoxic therapy, characterized by high-risk genetics and poor outcomes. Allogeneic ...hematopoietic cell transplantation is the only potential cure for this disease, but the prognostic impact of pre-transplant genetics and clinical features has not yet been fully characterized. We report here the genetic and clinical characteristics and outcomes of a relatively large cohort of patients with therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome (n=67) who underwent allogeneic transplantation, comparing these patients to similarly treated patients with
disease (n=199). The 5-year overall survival was not different between patients with therapy-related and
disease (49.9%
53.9%;
=0.61) despite a higher proportion of individuals with an Intermediate-2/High International Prognostic Scoring System classification (59.7%
43.7%;
=0.003) and high-risk karyotypes (61.2%
30.7%; P<0.01) among the patients with therapy-related disease. In mutational analysis,
alteration was the most common abnormality in patients with therapy-related disease (n=18: 30%). Interestingly, the presence of mutations in
or in any other
the high-risk genes (
,
,
,
: n=29: 48%) did not significantly affect either overall survival or relapse-free survival. Allogeneic stem-cell transplantation is, therefore, a curative treatment for patients with therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome, conferring a similar long-term survival to that of patients with
disease despite higher-risk features. While
alteration was the most common mutation in therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome, the finding was not detrimental in our case-series.
•Quizartinib enabled more patients to undergo hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) versus chemotherapy.•Continuation of quizartinib after HSCT was tolerable, with no new safety ...signals.•Quizartinib before and after HSCT may confer clinical benefits in relapsed/refractory FLT3-ITD acute myelogenous leukemia.
Despite the substantial clinical activity of fms-related tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) inhibitors in relapsed or refractory (R/R) FLT3-ITD‒positive acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), durable remissions and prolonged survival in this population require allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Quizartinib, a once-daily oral, highly potent, and selective FLT3 inhibitor, significantly prolonged overall survival (OS) and improved clinical benefit compared with salvage chemotherapy (median OS, 6.2 months versus 4.7 months; hazard ratio HR, .76; 95% confidence interval CI, .58 to .98; P = .018; composite complete remission CRc rate, 48% versus 27%; median duration of CRc, 2.8 months versus 1.2 months; mortality rate, .8% versus 14% by day 30, 7% versus 24% by day 60) in patients with R/R FLT3-ITD AML in the phase 3 QuANTUM-R trial. In this post hoc analysis, we described the characteristics of and clinical outcomes in patients who underwent on-study HSCT in QuANTUM-R at the investigator's discretion and institutional practices. Of 367 randomized patients, 78 (32%) in the quizartinib arm and 14 (11%) in the salvage chemotherapy arm underwent on-study allo-HSCT without any intervening therapy for AML after quizartinib or study-specified salvage chemotherapy. Pooled data of patients from both treatment arms showed a longer median overall survival (OS) in transplant recipients versus those treated without allo-HSCT (12.2 months versus 4.4 months; HR, .315; 95% CI, .233 to .427). Pooled data also showed a longer median OS in patients with a last recorded response of CRc before allo-HSCT versus patients without a CRc (20.1 months versus 8.8 months; HR, .506; 95% CI, .296 to .864). By treatment arm, the median OS was 25.1 months with quizartinib and 20.1 months with salvage chemotherapy in patients with a last recorded response of CRc before allo-HSCT. Forty-eight patients in the quizartinib arm continued quizartinib treatment after allo-HSCT. In the 31 patients with a last recorded response of CRc before allo-HSCT who continued quizartinib after allo-HSCT, the median OS was 27.1 months. Continuation of quizartinib after allo-HSCT was tolerable, and no new safety signals were identified. These results suggest that post-transplantation survival following salvage chemotherapy and quizartinib treatment are similar. However, quizartinib response occurs more frequently than with salvage chemotherapy, potentially allowing more patients to undergo transplantation and achieve durable clinical benefit. In addition, post-transplant quizartinib was found to be tolerable and may be associated with prolonged survival in some patients, highlighting its potential value in the management of patients with FLT3-ITD R/R AML.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Pracinostat, a potent oral pan-histone deacetylase inhibitor with modest single-agent activity in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), has shown synergistic antitumor activity when combined with ...azacitidine. This single-group, multicenter phase 2 study assessed the safety and efficacy of pracinostat combined with azacitidine in patients who were at least 65 years old with newly diagnosed AML and who were ineligible for standard induction chemotherapy. Patients received pracinostat 60 mg/d, 3 d/wk, for 3 consecutive weeks, plus azacitidine 75 mg/m2 daily for 7 days in a 28-day cycle. Primary endpoints were complete remission (CR), CR with incomplete count recovery (CRi), and morphologic leukemia-free state (MLFS) rates of the combination. Secondary endpoints included safety, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) of the regimen. Fifty patients (33 de novo, 12 secondary, and 5 therapy-related AML) were enrolled. Twenty-six patients (52%) achieved the primary endpoint of CR (42%), CRi (4%), and MLFS (6%). Median OS and PFS were 19.1 months (95% confidence interval CI, 10-26.5 months) and 12.6 months (95% CI, 10-17.7 months), respectively, with a 1-year OS rate of 62%. Forty-three patients (86%) experienced at least 1 grade 3 or worse treatment-emergent adverse event with the combination, with infections (52%), thrombocytopenia (46%), and febrile neutropenia (44%) reported as the most common toxicities. The 30- and 60-day all-cause mortality rates were 2% and 10%, respectively. DNA sequencing revealed somatic mutations at baseline, and clearance rates correlated with response to treatment. Pracinostat plus azacitidine is a well-tolerated and active regimen in the frontline treatment of older patients with AML unfit for intensive therapy. A larger controlled trial is ongoing. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT01912274.
The treatment of older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) presents critical challenges due to toxicities and comorbid medical conditions. Garcia-Manero and colleagues explore the combination of pracinostat, a potent pan-histone deacetylase inhibitor, and azacytidine in older patients with newly diagnosed AML who were ineligible for standard intensive induction regimens. Their findings support this combination as one that is well tolerated with favorable complete remission and one-year survival rates justifying further evaluation of this approach.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP