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•Frontal midline θ (Fmθ) increases when tracking error exceed a threshold in controls.•Above threshold Fmθ scales with tracking error in controls.•Fmθ failed to increase and scale ...with error following cerebellar damage.•Cerebellum generates prediction error entraining θ rhythm in frontal midline cortex.•Cerebellum activates the executive network when above-threshold errors occur.
Frontal midline θ (Fmθ) activity occurs in medial prefrontal cortices (mPFC), when expected and actual outcomes conflict. Cerebellar forward models could inform the mPFC about this mismatch.
To verify this hypothesis we correlated the mPFC activation during a visuomotor tracking task (VM) with performance accuracy, in control and cerebellum-lesioned participants. Additionally, purely visual (V), motor (M) and a motor plus visual tasks (V + M) were performed.
An Independent Component, with a mid-frontal topography scalp map and equivalent dipole location in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex accounted for Fmθ.
In control participants Fmθ power increased during VM, when the error level crossed a threshold, but not during V + M, M and V. This increase scaled with tracking error.
Fmθ power failed to increase during VM in cerebellar participants, even at highest tracking errors.
Thus, in control participants, activation of mPFC is induced when a continuous monitoring effort for online error detection is required. The presence of a threshold error for enhancing Fmθ, suggests the switch from an automatic to an executive tracking control, which recruits the mPFC.
Given that the cerebellum stores forward models, the absence of Fmθ increases during tracking errors in cerebellar participants indicates that cerebellum is necessary for supplying the mPFC with prediction error-related information. This occurs when automatic control falters, and a deliberate correction mechanism needs to be triggered.
Further studies are needed to verify if this alerting function also occurs in the context of the other cognitive and non-cognitive functions in which the cerebellum is involved.
Because of a lack of specific clonality markers, information on lineage involvement and cell of origin of acute myeloid leukemia with normal karyotype (AML-NK), is missing. Because Nucleophosmin ...(NPM) gene is frequently mutated in AML-NK and causes aberrant NPM cytoplasmic localization (NPMc+), it was used as an AML lineage clonality marker. Clonal NPM exon 12 mutations were detected in myeloid, monocytic, erythroid, and megakaryocytic cells but not in fibroblasts or endothelia that were laser-microdissected from 3 patients with NPMc+ AML. Aberrant cytoplasmic expression of mutated NPM proteins was identified with anti-NPM antibodies in 2 or more myeloid hemopoietic cell lineages in 99 (61.5%) of 161 of NPMc+ AML paraffin-embedded bone marrow biopsies; lymphoid involvement was excluded in 3 investigated cases. These findings suggest that NPMc+ AML derives from either a common myeloid or earlier progenitor. Immunohistochemical studies show that varying combinations and ratios of NPMc+ leukemic cells from distinct lineages are responsible for heterogeneity within each French-American-British (FAB) classification type and for NPMc+ AML falling into different FAB categories. These findings question the value of FAB criteria in subdividing the WHO category of “AML not otherwise characterized” and suggest that, for clinical use, NPMc+ AML be provisionally regarded as a separate AML with prognostic significance.
Patients who relapse after an autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT) have a very poor prognosis. We have retrospectively analyzed diffuse large B cell lymphoma patients who ...underwent an allo-SCT after an auto-SCT relapse reported in the Gruppo Italiano Trapianto di Midollo Osseo (GITMO) database. From 1995 to 2008, 3449 autologous transplants were reported in the GITMO database. Eight hundred eighty-four patients relapsed or progressed after transplant; 165 patients, 19% of the relapsed patients, were treated with allo-transplant. The stem cell donor was related to the patient in 108 cases. A reduced intensity conditioning regimen was used in 116. After allo-SCT, 72 patients (43%) obtained a complete response and 9 obtained a partial response with an overall response rate of 49%; 84 patients (51%) experienced rapid progression of disease. Ninety-one patients died, 45 due to disease and 46 due to treatment-related mortality. Acute graft-versus-host disease was recorded in 57 patients and a chronic GvHD in 38 patients. With a median follow-up of 24 months (2–144) after allo, overall survival (OS) was 39%, and after a median of 21 months (2–138) after allo, progression-free survival (PFS) was 32%. Multivariate analysis indicated that the only factors affecting OS were status at allo-SCT, and those affecting PFS were status at allo-SCT and stem cell donor. This retrospective analysis shows that about one-fifth of patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma who experience relapse after autologous transplantation may be treated with allogeneic transplantation. Moreover, the only parameter affecting either OS or PFS was the response status at the time of allo-SCT.
Treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) has evolved over recent years, resulting in a cure rate of 75-80%. However, the prognosis of older patients with APL remains poorer as compared to ...young adults because of substantial morbidity of either induction or consolidation therapy. We describe therapeutic results in a series of 34 consecutive APL patients aged over 60 years, with particular emphasis on those patients managed outside of clinical trials because of comorbidities at diagnosis. All patients were programmed to receive the GIMEMA AIDA protocol, based on all transretinoic acid as induction followed by chemotherapy as consolidation. The median age was 70 years. Twenty-three patients (68%) received the protocol, while 11 (32%) were given a personalized approach. The median age was 69 years for patients on protocol as opposed to 75 years for the remaining ones (p=0.02). Six patients (18%) died within two days of diagnosis; among these, only one was on the AIDA protocol. Overall, complete response (CR) was achieved in 68% of cases; the CR rate was 74% for patients on the protocol as opposed to 54 % for those not. The most frequent cause of death was cerebral hemorrhage. Patients accrued into the GIMEMA AIDA protocol achieved longer survival (median not reached vs. 10 months, p=0.03). In conclusion, our data demonstrate that at least 30% of older APL patients are not eligible to accrual in multicenter trials; furthermore, in this subset, the possibility of early death is substantial. However, when CR is achieved, a personalized consolidation approach can be adopted with the possibility of achieving long-term disease control.
Shortly before the all-transretinoic acid (ATRA) era, the GIMEMA cooperative group initiated a randomized study comparing idarubicin (IDA) alone with IDA plus arabinosylcytosine (Ara-C) as induction ...treatment in patients with newly diagnosed hypergranular acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Of the 257 patients evaluable for induction treatment, 131 were randomized to receive IDA alone (arm A) and 126 to receive IDA + Ara-C (arm B). Treatment in arm A consisted of 10 mg/m2 IDA daily for 6 consecutive days, whereas in arm B it consisted of 12 mg/m2 IDA daily for 4 days combined with 200 mg/m2 Ara-C daily in continuous infusion for 7 days. Once in complete remission (CR), patients received 3 consolidation courses of standard chemotherapy, and those still in CR at the end of the consolidation were randomized to receive or not receive 1 mg/kg 6-mercaptopurine daily and intramuscular injections of 0.25 mg/kg methotrexate weekly for 2 years. Overall, 100 (76.3%) patients in arm A and 84 (66.6%) patients in arm B achieved CR (P = NS). Event-free survival (EFS) rates were 35% and 23% for patients in arm A and arm B, respectively (P = .0352). Multivariate analysis revealed that EFS was favorably influenced by induction treatment with IDA alone (P = .0352) and unfavorably influenced by white blood cell (WBC) counts greater than 3000/μL (P = .0001) and increasing age (P = .0251). These results indicate that anthracycline monochemotherapy with IDA favorably influences the EFS of patients with newly diagnosed hypergranular APL.
Myelomonocytic acute myeloid leukemia (M4-AML) is frequently associated with the cytogenetic marker inv(16) and/or the presence of eosinophilia. The aim of this study was to analyze the incidence and ...prognostic role of these factors in a large series of patients.
Adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia consecutively enrolled in the GIMEMA trials AML10 and LAM99p were retrospectively analyzed.
Among 1686 patients, 400 cases of M4-AML were identified; of these, 78% had neither eosinophilia nor inv(16), 6% had eosinophilia only, 8% had inv(16) only and 8% had both. Univariate analysis showed that both eosinophilia and inv(16) were correlated with a higher probability of complete remission, lower resistance to chemotherapy and increased overall survival. Multivariate analysis showed that the simultaneous presence of the two factors significantly increased the probabilities of both complete remission and overall survival. The presence of only one of the two factors also increased the probabilities of complete remission and overall survival, but not to a statistically significant extent. The relapse-free survival of the responding patients was not influenced by the two factors.
In a large series of patients with M4-AML we confirmed the favorable role of inv(16), but the weight of this factor among the whole M4 population was of limited relevance. Eosinophilia, which affects a small proportion of cases, also emerged as a favorable prognostic factor. Based on the results of this large case population, overall and relapse-free survival rates of patients with M4-AML are not significantly better than those of patients with non-M4 AML, while the concomitant presence of both inv(16) and eosinophilia was associated with a significantly improved prognosis.
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