Currently, there is no consensus regarding optimal front-line treatment for younger high-risk patients with large B cell lymphoma. American recommendations list only R-CHOP as standard, while ...European also include R-ACVBP and R-CHOEP14. We have been routinely using the latter regimen at our institution since 2011 and performed this retrospective real-life single-center study to analyze outcomes. Between September 2011 and April 2019, 66 newly diagnosed patients aged 18 to 60 years with B-large cell lymphoma and high-risk age-adjusted International Prognostic Index score were scheduled to receive 6 or 8 cycles of bi-weekly chemoimmunotherapy with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, etoposide, steroids, and rituximab (R-CHOEP14). After a median follow-up of 4.7 years, the estimated 3-year progression-free survival was 87% (95% CI 80–96%) and 3-year overall survival 90% (95% CI 83–98%). Grade ≥ 3 hematological side effects occurred in 83% and infectious in 41% of patients; one patient died of toxicity. Grade ≥ 2 cardiac toxicity occurred in 21% of patients, more frequently than previously reported. The cumulative 5-year risk of congestive heart failure with all-cause mortality as the competing risk was 17%. R-CHOEP14 is a very effective and manageable regimen for younger high-risk patients with B-large cell lymphoma, but the risk of cardiotoxicity warrants further investigations.
A 54-year-old male patient with acute lymphoblastic leukemia was referred to the Department of Oral Medicine. He had a primary refractory disease and was treated according to HOVON71 and HAM ...protocol. Sixteen days after the start of the HAM protocol the patient developed palatal dark red/brownish lesion and maxillary vestibular exophytic lesion. Biopsy specimens from oral lesions were taken and microbiologic evaluation confirmed the presence of
Aspergillus fumigatus
and
Rhizopus genus
. The treatment of the patient consisted of the inferior maxillectomy and intravenous posaconazole and amphotericine B for the following 28 days. Since the coinfection with
Aspergillus
and
Rhizopus
is extremely rarely seen in the oral cavity, a diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma easily presents itself.
Chronic kidney dysfunction is associated with increased mortality in multiple cancer types. Preliminary evidence suggests the same to be true for B-large cell lymphomas (B-LCL). To analyze the ...relationship of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and outcome of B-LCL in detail we collected data on outcomes of 285 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed B-LCL treated at our institution with standard rituximab-containing regimens who did not have preexisting kidney disease or urinary tract obstruction at presentation. Median age was 59, range 18 to 87, 145 were male and 140 females. Forty-four had GFR < 60 mL/min, 123 had 60 to 90 mL/min, and 118 > 90 mL/min. Median follow-up of surviving patients was 49 months and estimated 3-year survival 76%. In univariate analysis age (P < .001), GFR (P = .014), stage (P < .001), performance status (P = .044), chemotherapy regimen (P < .01), and international prognostic index (IPI) (P < .001) were statistically significant prognostic factors. In multivariate analysis, age and GFR remained the only independent prognostic factors. Subtracting 1 from the IPI score of patients who had GFR > 90 mL/min and IPI > 1 resulted in a prognostic index that divides patients into 3 prognostic groups (low risk = 0-1, intermediate risk = 2-3 and high risk = 4-5) with an acceptable patient distribution frequency (38%, 39%, and 23%, respectively) and improved statistical significance and separation in comparison to IPI (5-year survival rates of 92%, 74%, and 42%, respectively). GFR is an important independent prognostic factor for B-LCL that should be taken into account in clinical decision making and data analysis and probably be incorporated in prognostic indices.
Sažetak. Unatrag nekoliko godina u hematologiji i onkologiji globalno sve češći problem postaje prikladna opskrba „starijim i manje zanimljivim“ kemoterapeuticima. Zbog povremene nestašice ...karmustina, jednog od osnovnih kemoterapeutika pri kondicioniranju prije autologne transplantacije krvotvornih matičnih stanica (ATKS) u oboljelih od limfoma, u našem se centru od 2016. godine on zamjenjuje bendamustinom. U ovom radu retrospektivno analiziramo tijek ATKS-a u 41 bolesnika koji su primili bendamustin u sklopu protokola BeEAM te ga uspoređujemo s tijekom ATKS-a u 40 bolesnika koji su primili karmustin u sklopu protokola BEAM. Medijan oporavka vrijednosti neutrofila (> 0,5 × 109/l) u skupini koja je primila bendamustin iznosio je 11 dana, dok je u skupini kondicioniranoj karmustinom iznosio 10 dana. Medijan oporavka vrijednosti trombocita (> 20 × 109/l) bio je duži kod skupine koja je primala bendamustin (16 prema 13 dana) te su ti bolesnici bili duže ovisni o transfuzijama eritrocita (7 prema 5 dana). Infektivne komplikacije nisu bile češće nakon primjene bendamustina, ali smo nakon primjene karmustina imali veću pojavu mukozitisa II. – III. stupnja (35% prema 12%). Nakon primjene bendamustina zabilježen je jedan slučaj nefrotoksičnosti i kardiotoksičnosti terapije, dok kod primjene karmustina te komplikacije nisu zabilježene. Pri upotrebi bendamustina kod kondicioniranja u naših bolesnika u ovom trenutku nije utvrđena znatnija hematološka toksičnost u odnosu prema karmustinu, ali su prisutni dulji period oporavka vrijednosti trombocita te niža incidencija mukozitisa.
Summary
Philadelphia-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), essential thrombocythemia (ET), polycythemia vera (PV), and myelofibrosis (MF), are rare clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorders ...accompanied by a strong inflammatory milieu, which is directly responsible for constitutional symptoms associated with the disease, such as fever, weight loss or night sweats. Non-hematologists sometimes (and often wrongly) consider the fever in MPN patients to be a symptom of an underlying disease, which may have devastating consequences. Serum procalcitonin (PCT) is a circulating biomarker commonly used to improve the diagnostic accuracy of bacterial infections and to guide antibiotic therapy. The aim of this study was to test whether PCT could aid the clinician in the early diagnosis of bacterial infections in MPNs. This study investigated PCT in 41 ambulatory MPN patients (13 ET, 13 PV and 15 MF) who had no signs of infection and compared it to 10 MPN patients with microbiologically and/or serologically documented bacterial infections. Median PCT in MPN patients was 0.02 ng/mL (range 0.01–0.09 ng/mL). No difference in PCT was found between ET, PV and MF patients (
p
= 0.993), whereas MPN patients with documented bacterial infections had significantly higher PCT (median PCT 2.45, range 0.90–5.40 ng/mL) when compared to MPN patients with (median PCT 0.03 ng/mL) or without constitutional symptoms (median PCT 0.02 ng/mL;
p
< 0.001 for both analyses). These results clearly show that PCT should not be considered as a disease biomarker in MPNs and careful clinical assessment for the signs of infection is needed when MPN patients present with fever and high PCT.
Objectives: Philadelphia-negative chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), essential thrombocythemia (ET), polycythemia vera (PV) and myelofibrosis (MF), are characterized by clonal ...myeloproliferation and a strong inflammatory atmosphere. YKL-40, expressed in granulocytes, macrophages, megakaryocytes and malignant cells, is an acute phase reactant with an important role in tissue remodeling and atherosclerotic inflammation. The aim of this study was to investigate serum YKL-40 levels in MPNs and to assess its clinical correlations.
Methods: ELISA test was used to measure serum YKL-40 levels in 111 MPN patients and in 32 healthy controls.
Results: Serum YKL-40 levels were higher in ET, post-ET MF, PV, post-PV MF and primary MF patients, when compared to healthy controls (p < 0.001). Higher serum YKL-40 levels were associated with parameters indicative of the increased inflammatory state (higher C-reactive protein, poor performance status, presence of constitutional symptoms and cardiovascular risk factors). Additionally, higher serum YKL-40 levels in MF patients were associated with blast phase disease, lower hemoglobin and higher Dynamic International Prognostic Scoring System score. In the multivariate Cox regression models, higher serum YKL-40 levels in ET and PV patients were independently associated with an increased risk of thrombosis (HR 4.64, p = 0.031) and impaired survival in MF patients (HR 4.31, p = 0.038).
Conclusion: These results indicate that higher circulating YKL-40 levels in MPNs might have a pathophysiological role in disease progression and thrombosis development. Assessing circulating YKL-40 could help in identification of ET and PV patients at a high risk of future cardiovascular events and has a good potential for improving prognostication of MF patients.
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