Treatment with dasatinib or nilotinib in chronic myeloid leukemia patients who failed to respond to two previously administered tyrosine kinase inhibitors - a single center experience

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate hematological, cytogenetic and molecular responses as well as the overall, progression-free and event-free survivals of chronic myeloid leukemia patients treated with a third tyrosine kinase inhibitor after failing to respond to imatinib and nilotinib/dasatinib. METHODS: Bone marrow karyotyping and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction were performed at baseline and at 3, 6, 12 and 18 months after the initiation of treatment with a third tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Hematologic, cytogenetic and molecular responses were defined according to the European LeukemiaNet recommendations. BCR-ABL1 mutations were analyzed by Sanger sequencing. RESULTS: We evaluated 25 chronic myeloid leukemia patients who had been previously treated with imatinib and a second tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Nine patients were switched to dasatinib, and 16 patients were switched to nilotinib as a third-line therapy. Of the chronic phase patients (n=18), 89% achieved a complete hematologic response, 13% achieved a complete cytogenetic response and 24% achieved a major molecular response. The following BCR-ABL1 mutations were detected in 6/14 (43%) chronic phase patients: E255V, Y253H, M244V, F317L (2) and F359V. M351T mutation was found in one patient in the accelerated phase of the disease. The five-year overall, progression-free and event-free survivals were 86, 54 and 22% (p<0.0001), respectively, for chronic phase patients and 66%, 66% and 0% (p<0.0001), respectively, for accelerated phase patients. All blast crisis patients died within 6 months of treatment. Fifty-six percent of the chronic phase patients lost their hematologic response within a median of 23 months. CONCLUSIONS: Although the responses achieved by the third tyrosine kinase inhibitor were not sustainable, a third tyrosine kinase inhibitor may be an option for improving patient status until a donor becomes available for transplant. Because the long-term outcome ...

Brazilian experience using high-dose sequential therapy (HDS) followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (ASCT) for malignant lymphomas / Experiência brasileira utilizando terapia sequencial de alta dose seguido de transplante autólogo de célula-tronco hematopoética para linfomas malignos

Using the overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DFS) and progression free survival (PFS), as well as associated toxicity, the purpose of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of HDS followed by ASCT as salvage therapy. A retrospective analysis was performed of 106 patients with high grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma receiving HDS followed by ASCT, between 1998 and 2006. Median age was 45 years (Range: 8-65), with 66 (62 percent) men. Histopathological classification was: 78 percent DLBCL patients, 12 percent T and anaplastic and 9 percent Mantle cell lymphomas; 87 percent had B cell and 12 percent T cell lymphomas; 83 percent were stage III-IV (Ann Arbor Staging), 63 percent had B symptoms, 32 percent had bone marrow involvement, 62 percent bulky disease and 42 percent high-intermediate or high risk IPI. After HDCY, 9 patients died, 7 from toxicity and 2 from sepsis. Eighty patients underwent ASCT, 47 percent were in complete remission (CR) and 15 percent died, all from toxicity. Their OS was 45 percent over 8 years. During the follow-up, another 35 patients died [4 CR, 1 partial response (PR), 2 relapsed disease (RD) and 28 disease progression (DP)], 11 (31 percent) had not performed ASCT. OS was 37 percent; DFS was 49 percent and PFS 28 percent. OS by diagnosis was 42 percent for DLBCL, 40 percent for T-cell (8 y) and 20 percent for Mantle Cell (6 y) (P=NS). OS by B symptom patients was 22 percent vs. 58 percent (P=0.002) and PFS was 23 percent vs. 37 percent (P=0.03). Patients who achieved CR after HDCY (38) had significantly better OS and PFS (38 percent and 17 percent) than patients who remained in DP (P<0.0001). Cox Regression demonstrated therapeutic lines before HDCY (Relative risk - RR = 1.41; CI 95 percent: 1.04-1.90; P= 0.02) and PD both before (RR = 2.70; CI 95 percent: 1.49-4.91, P<0.001) and after HDCY (RR = 5.38; 95 percent CI: 2.93-9.87; P<0.0001). Conclusions: Our study suggests HDS is an efficient treatment to ...

A proposta deste trabalho foi avaliar a eficácia da HDS seguida do transplante autólogo como terapia de salvamento através da sobrevida global, livre de doença e livre de progressão bem como sua toxicidade. Realizou-se estudo retrospectivo com 106 pacientes com LNH de alto grau de malignidade entre 1998 e 2006. A mediana de idade foi 45 anos (8-65); 62 por cento homens; DLBCL, 78 por cento; 12 por cento, T e anaplásico e 9 por cento, linfoma da zona do manto; 87 por cento, células B; 83 por cento estádios III-IV; 63 por cento com sintomas B; 32 por cento com infiltração da medula óssea ao diagnóstico; 62 por cento com grande massa e 42 por cento com IPI de alto risco ou intermediário. Após alta dose de ciclofosfamida (HDCY), nove pacientes faleceram. Oitenta pacientes realizaram o transplante, sendo que 47 por cento estavam em RC e 15 por cento faleceram devido à toxicidade. A sobrevida global foi de 45 por cento em oito anos para estes pacientes. Trinta e cinco pacientes não realizaram o transplante por causas diversas. Sobrevida global para todos os pacientes foi de 42 por cento, DLBCL, 40 por cento; T-cell, 40 por cento e zona do manto, 20 por cento (P=NS). Pacientes que obtiveram RC após HDCY tiveram melhor sobrevida global e livre de progressão (38 por cento e 17 por cento, respectivamente) do que os que permaneceram em PD (P<0.0001). O modelo de Cox resultou que o número de linhas terapêuticas antes da HDCY (RR 1.41 IC 95 por cento: 1.04-1.90, P=0.02) e PD antes da HDCY (RR 2.70, IC 95 por cento: 1.49-4.91, P<0.001) e após HDCY (RR 5.38, IC 95 por cento: 2.93-9.87, P<0.0001). Nosso estudo sugere que HDS é um método eficiente de tratamento para melhorar o status e reduzir a massa tumoral. Em relação à toxicidade, é factível, especialmente em pacientes de prognóstico ruim

Leucemia Mielóide Crônica: causas de falha do tratamento com mesilato de imatinibe / Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: causes of treatment failure with imatinib

O mesilato de imatinibe (MI) é atualmente o tratamento de escolha da Leucemoa Mielóide Crônica (LMC), mas, apesar dos excelentes resultados, não é capaz de erradicar completamente a doença, podendo ocorrer resistência ao tratamento. O mecanismo mais conhecido de resistência é o desenvolvimento de mutações do BCR-ABL, que impedem a ação ligação adequada do imatinibe à quinase, além de amplificação gênica e evolução clonal. No entanto, há uma série de outros mecanismos envolvidos e ainda pouco estudados, como alterações na absorção, efluxo e influxo de droga para o interior das células. Devem-se também considerar outros fatores, como aderência ao tratamento e uso de medicamentos concomitantes que podem interferir com imatinibe, diminuindo sua ação. O entendimento desses mecanismos poderá contribuir no desenvolvimento de novas estratégias para o tratamento dos casos resistentes.

Imatinib is currently the treatment of choice of CML, but despite of the excellent results, it is not able to completely eradicate the disease and resistance may occur. The most studied mechanism is the presence of ABL kinase mutations that interfere with imatinib binding and action, gene amplification and clonal evolution. However, there are other mechanisms involved and less studied such as drug absorption and influx and efflux of imatinib. Besides the true causes of resistance, compliance is always a concern and also drug interaction should be checked. An understanding of these mechanisms will certainly contribute to develop new strategies for the treatment of resistant cases.

Alta frequência de fatores de alto risco e de mortalidade precoce em pacientes brasileiros com leucemia promielocítica aguda / Increased frequency of high risk factors and elevated early mortality among Brazilian patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia

O tratamento da leucemia promielocítica aguda (LPA) com antrciclínicos e ácido trans-retinóico (ATRA) tem sido amplamente empregado e resultou em taxas de sobrevida a longo prazo de 80% a 90% em diferentes ensaios clínicos. A despeito da alta prevalência de LPA na América Latina, a efetividade de regimes de tratamento com ATRA e antraciclínicos não é conhecida. No Brasil, mais de 20% das leucemias mielóides agudas são do subtipo LPA. Neste estudo descrevemos uma análise retrospectiva de 157 pacientes brasileiros com LPA. Comparado com pacientes de países desenvolvidos, observamos uma alta prevalência de pacientes de alto risco e ma sobrevida e três anos de 49,9%. A taxa de mortalidade precoce foi de 28%, principalmente devido a sangramento (88,6%), com 45,2% dos pacientes apresentando evidências laboratoriais de coagulação intravascular disseminada ao diagnóstio. A despeito do fato de que nõ foram excluídos pacientes com base na idade ou no performance status, esta alta taxa de óbito mostra que é necessária uma melhora urgente no acesso dos pacientes a centros médicos especializados.

Therapy based on anthracyclines and all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) hás been widely used for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and result in long term survival rates of 80% to 90% in different clinical trials. Despite the higher incidence of APL in Latin America, the effectiveness of ATRA + anthracyclines treatment is not known. In Brazil, more than 20% of acute myeloid leukemia are of the APL subtype. We describe a retrospective analysis including 157 Brazilian APL patients. Compared to developed countries, a higher incidence of higher incidence of high risk patients was observed and the overwall survival in three years was only 49.9%. Early mortality was 28%, mainly due to bleeding (88.6%), and laboratorial evidence of disseminated intravascular coagulation at diagnosis was present in 45.2% of the patients. Despite the fact that no patient was excluded based on age and performance status, the high death rates shows that urgent improvement in acess to specialized medical care is necessary in Brazil. Aiming to improve the outcome of APL patients in developing countries, the American Society of Hematology launched the International Consortium on APL, an educational iniative based on the use of an unified simplified treatment protocol, on line discussion tools and centralized laboratory diagnosis.

Avaliação das proteínas reguladoras do ciclo celular e apoptose nos Linfomas não-Hodgkin agressivos e influência na resposta ao tratamento / Evaluation of cell cycle and apoptosis-regulating proteins in aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and influence in response to treatment

Os linfomas não-Hodgkin (LNH) agressivos constituemum grupo heterogêneo de neoplasias hematológicas.Os LNH difusos de grandes células B compreendem cercade 20-25% dos LNH. O tratamento quimioterápico podecurar apenas 40%-50% dos pacientes adultos com linfomasagressivos. São considerados indicadores prognósticos:idade, número de sítios extranodais, LDH, performancestatus e estadiamento clínico.Além desses fatores, anormalidades das proteínasreguladoras do ciclo celular e da apoptose parecem ser umimportante mecanismo de desenvolvimento de neoplasiase podem ter um papel no prognóstico dos linfomas agressivos.A expressão das proteínas reguladoras do ciclo celular,p...Avaliamos também a expressão de proteínas reguladorasda apoptose (p53, Bcl-2, Bax, Bak e Mcl-1) de 33pacientes com LNH difusos de grandes células B e analisamosa relação entre a expressão dessas proteínas comdados clínicos e resposta à quimioterapia.Nossos resultados mostraram que a expressão dap53 foi considerada um parâmetro imunohistoquímico independenterelacionado a um pior prognóstico nesseslinfomas. Apesar da alta expressão observada das proteínasBcl-2, Bax, Bak e Mcl-1, não foi encontrado associaçãocom prognóstico ou resposta ao tratamento.

Aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHL) forma heterogeneous group in terms of clinical presentation,histology, immunophenotype, response to treatment andprognosis. Diffuse large B-cell NHL (DLCL) constitute upto 20-25% of NHL in many series. Combinationchemotherapy may cure 40-50% of adult patients. Severalclinical prognostic factors have been described to predictclinical outcome, as age, LDH, performance status andstage and are useful for identifying high-risk patients, whowould benefit from a more intensive approach.Abnormalities of cell cycle and apoptosis regulatingproteins seem to be an important mechanism oftumorigenesis and may play a role in the prognosis ofaggressive NHL.The expression of p53, p21/WAF-1, Mdm2 , c-Mycand proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) proteins wereexamined by the immunohistochemistry of paraffinembedded samples of 113 high grade non-Hodgkin’slymphomas (NHL) and in 62 patients with aggressive NHLcorrelated to clinical data. Expression of p53, ....NHL patients with a hyper-expression of p53 protein(n=17). DNA extraction was performed in 15 patients andPCR amplification of exons 5-9 was possible in 7 cases.We found a point mutation in exon 6 (Val→Glu;T→A), ina patient with a p53 hyper-expression and p21 negativeexpression.We also evaluated the expression of apoptosisregulatingproteins (p53, Bcl-2, Bax, Bak and Mcl-1) ofparaffin-embedded samples of 33 patients with diffuse largeB-cell NHL, and assessed the relationship of these proteinsto clinical outcome and response to chemotherapy.Our results showed that p53 expression was anindependent immunohistochemical parameter related to apoor prognosis in these lymphomas. Bcl-2, Bax, Bak andMcl-1 proteins, though highly expressed in almost all caseswere not associated with prognosis or response totreatment.

Múltiplas infecções oportunistas em um paciente com leucemia linfocítica crônica tratado com cladribina / Several opportunistic infections in a young patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated with cladribine

Imunodeficiência humoral é uma característica intrínseca da leucemia linfocítica crônica B. A quimioterapia, principalmente quando o paciente é politratado, e em especial os análogos da purina, ampliam o espectro de susceptibilidade destes pacientes a agentes infecciosos oportunistas devido ao efeito imunossupressor celular destas drogas. Relatamos um paciente com leucemia linfocítica crônica submetido a várias linhas de quimioterapia, inclusive o 2-CdA, que apresentou múltiplas complicações infecciosas associadas a grave imunodeficiência celular.

Hypogamaglobulinemia is frequently associatedwith B-CLL rendering the patients prone to bacterialinfections. The use of purine analogs that causedepletion of T lymphocytes in the treatment of thisdisease, increases the spectrum of susceptibility ofthese patients to oportunistic agents. We report acase of a young B-CLL patient treated with 2-CdA,who presented multiple infectious complicationsduring the course of his disease associated with asevere cellular immune deficiency.

Edema agudo pulmonar fatal pós transplante autólogo de medula óssea com célula progenitora periférica condicionado com o protocolo BEAM / Fatal acute lung edema after autologous bone marrow transplantation with peripherical steem cell conditioning BEAM protocol

Este relato apresenta um caso de paciente jovem com linfoma näo Hodgkin refratário que apresentou um edema pulmonar agudo fatal após transplante autólogo de células-tronco periféricas. Embora a causa exata do mecanismo do evento seja desconhecida, o texto discute todas as possibilidades, incluindo anafilaxia ao dimetilsulfoxido e disfunçäo cardíaca ventricular transitória secundária ao regime de condicionamento.