Pooled analysis of first-line treatment with targeted agents in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia aged 80 years and older.

Patients aged 80 years and older make up a fifth of patients with CLL but are underrepresented in clinical trials. We analyzed the outcomes of these patients treated with targeted agents in the front-line setting in six trials of the German CLL Study Group. Targeted agents included venetoclax, ibrutinib, and idelalisib, mainly used in combination with anti-CD20 antibodies. Among 716 patients, 33 matched the selection criteria (5%). Of those, the majority had relevant comorbidity, organ dysfunctions, and/or high-/very high-risk disease. The overall response rate was 73%. The median progression-free survival was 49.2 months compared with those not reached in younger patients. There were 11 documented deaths of which two were deemed related to therapy. Additional results including 40 patients treated with BTK-inhibitors from the GCLLSG registry suggest that treatment with targeted agents is feasible and effective. Dedicated studies are warranted for this particular subgroup of patients.

Early report on the severity of COVID-19 in hematologic patients infected with the SARS-CoV2 omicron variant.

INTRODUCTION: Patients with hematologic disease are at high risk of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 due to disease-inherent and therapy-related immunodeficiency. Whether infection with the SARS-CoV2 omicron variant leads to attenuated disease severity in these patients is currently unknown. METHODS: We assessed clinical and laboratory parameters in 61 patients with underlying hematologic conditions with a SARS-CoV2 omicron variant infection confirmed by nucleic acid amplification testing. RESULTS: Fifty patients reported symptoms of COVID-19, most commonly fatigue (37 patients, 60.66%) and cough (32 patients, 52.46%). 39.34% of patients reported fever. Dyspnea was reported by 10 patients and 7 patients (11.48%) required oxygen therapy. Anosmia and ageusia were relatively rare, occurring in less than 10% of patients. Severity of SARS-CoV2 infection could be assessed in 60 patients. Five cases of critical illness leading to ICU admission occurred during the observation period. Overall mortality was 9.84% in this patient cohort, with heterogeneous causes of death. The majority of omicron-infected hematologic patients experienced mild symptoms or remained asymptomatic. DISCUSSION: In this study, symptoms of COVID-19 tended to be milder than described for previous SARS-CoV2 variants. However, the extent to which attenuated severity of omicron-variant SARS-CoV2 infection is caused by altered viral pathogenicity or pre-existing host immunity cannot be inferred from our data and should be investigated in larger prospective studies.

Thymic hyperplasia after mRNA based Covid-19 vaccination.

Reactive lymphadenopathy with increased 18F-Fluordeoxyglucose uptake in positron emission tomography/computed tomography scans is known after mRNA vaccination (BNT162B2, mRNA-1273) against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2. Besides this, increased 18F-Fluordeoxyglucose uptake in the thymus might occur after mRNA vaccination as shown in our case of a young patient with mantle cell lymphoma. Especially in patients with lymphoma but also in other patients with cancer it is critical to distinguish between immune responses and involvement of the disease to avoid inadequate treatment decisions.