Effect of Stem Cell Transplant on Survival in Adult Patients With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: NCDB Analysis.

BACKGROUND: A retrospective analysis was performed to investigate the survival outcomes in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) based on treatment received. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data from 17,504 men and women (≥18 years of age) registered in the National Cancer Database who were diagnosed with ALL between 2004 and 2013 and had follow-up to the end of 2014, were analyzed. The primary predictor variable was treatment received, and overall survival was the outcome variable. Additional variables addressed and adjusted included gender, age, race, Charleston Comorbidity Index, level of education, income, insurance, distance traveled, facility type and diagnosing/treating facility. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 48.8 years with a standard deviation of 19.3 years. In multivariate analysis, after adjusting for secondary predictor variables, treatment modality was a statistically significant predictor of overall survival from ALL. Relative to patients who were treated with chemotherapy only, the patients who got chemotherapy and stem cell transplant had a decreased risk of mortality by 39%. Of the 5,409 patients between the ages of 18 and 39 years i.e. adolescent and young adults (AYA), no statistically significant survival difference was found between patients treated with stem cell transplant and those not. CONCLUSION: Stem cell transplant led to improved survival for all age groups except the AYA.

Dasatinib-Induced Rhabdomyolysis in a 33-Year-Old Patient with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia.

Rhabdomyolysis is a life-threatening syndrome due to breakdown of the skeletal muscle. It can be caused by massive trauma and crush injuries or occur as a side effect of medications. Here, we describe a case of a 33-year-old male with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with severe life-threatening rhabdomyolysis due to a rare offending agent.

Use of Eltrombopag in Improving Poor Graft Function after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation.

Eltrombopag is a thrombopoietin agonist and has been used in aplastic anemia and post-transplantation thrombocytopenia. The c-MPL receptor is present on hematopoietic stem cells. There are no reports of eltrombopag utilization for improving poor graft function in the post-transplant setting. Here were report a case of a young female with post-transplant poor graft function as evident from the low absolute neutrophil count, anemia, and thrombocytopenia on day 60. Eltrombopag was started on day 72 and resulted in improvement in all 3 cell lines. The counts continued to be stable even after eltrombopag was discontinued. The patient tolerated the drug without significant side effects for 1 year.

Excellent response to chemotherapy post immunotherapy.

INTRODUCTION: Immunotherapy in the form of immune checkpoint inhibitors has changed the landscape of cancer treatment. Newer monoclonal antibodies are coming up and are being tested in various cancers during different stages of treatment. With the increasing use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the management of various types of cancers, the question is raised as to what next can be offered to a patient who has progressed on this newer treatment. Does Sequence matter? There have been reports of improved responses to chemotherapy after immunotherapy in the form of vaccines. Here we present a case series of 6 patients who progressed on immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors after initial modality of treatment (chemotherapy/radiation), subsequently received chemotherapy with excellent response. METHODS: We have a cohort of six patients who had disease progression on second line Immunotherapy for solid or hematological malignancies and had ECOG < 2. All these patients received third line salvage chemotherapy. Three patients had metastatic head and neck cancer, 2 had non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and one had T -cell rich B- cell lymphoma. Prior review and approval were obtained from our institutional review board. RESULTS: All patients had an excellent response to chemotherapy in third line setting, after immune checkpoint inhibitors and most of them achieved a complete response. CONCLUSION: Targeting cancer with chemotherapy after failure of immunotherapy is a valid option and can lead to better response rates and PFS which may lead to OS. This effect may be secondary to immunotherapy removing the inhibition exerted by tumor cells or other immune cells initially followed by cytotoxic chemotherapy mediated killing of tumor cells.

Successful Treatment of Richter Transformation with Ibrutinib in a Patient with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia following Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant.

Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who progress to Richter transformation (RT) have a poor prognosis. Multi-agent chemotherapy regimens do not have good response rates. There are few case reports on the use of ibrutinib in RT. Here, we present a patient who was heavily pretreated for CLL, including allogeneic stem cell transplant, and progressed to RT. She had a mixed response to multi-agent chemotherapy and was started on ibrutinib. She had a complete response for 16 months on single-agent ibrutinib with minimal toxicity.

Effect of Radiation Therapy on Survival in Hodgkin's Lymphoma: A SEER Data Analysis.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Hodgkin's Lymphoma (HL) is curable in up to 80% of patients due, in part, to simultaneous advances in chemotherapy regimens as well as radiation therapy planning and delivery. Concerns regarding the historical use of large-field radiotherapy on overall survival have been published. In this study, we performed a Surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) data analysis to evaluate the impact of patients and treatments related factors on survival in HL. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data from 39,700 adult patients registered in the SEER data with diagnosis of HL, between 1983-2011 and follow-up through 2012 were analyzed. Impact of patient demographics (sex, age, race, ethnicity, year of diagnosis, family income, education, unemployment, poverty level and stage of disease) and treatment characteristics (delivery of radiotherapy) on survival were evaluated via multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Median age was 36 years. Most patients were Ann Arbor Stage II (39%) at diagnosis with the remainder distributed evenly between the remaining stages (I, III, IV: 19-21%). In multivariate analysis, after adjusting for secondary predictor variables including stage of disease, Radiation therapy (RT) was a statistically significant predictor of overall survival from HL (HR=0.72, (95% CI=0.68-0.75). At follow up of more than 25 years, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that RT improved survival for all patients, irrespective of stage. Factors associated with worse survival included older age, male sex, extra nodal disease, advanced stage, African-American race, and non-Hispanic ethnicity. CONCLUSION: Radiation therapy improved survival in patients with all stages of HL. Demographic and disease factors associated with worse survival in this study may be related to particular patterns of care and warrant additional study.

Reversal of isolated 20q deletion with vitamin B12 replacement in a patient with pernicious anaemia.

Severe vitamin B12 deficiency is well known to cause morphological alterations in bone marrow. In rare instances, these myelodysplastic and megaloblastic changes can coexist with cytogenetic abnormalities. Here, we report a case of a 38-year-old African-American woman with pernicious anaemia, who was found to have an isolated 20q deletion and which resolved after vitamin B12 replacement. We also discuss various mechanisms in which vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to chromosomal abnormalities. A literature review is also performed to evaluate various other chromosomal aberrations associated with B12 deficiency.

Cord blood chimerism and relapse after haplo-cord transplantation.

Haplo-cord stem cell transplantation combines the infusion of CD34 selected hematopoietic progenitors from a haplo-identical donor with an umbilical cord blood (UCB) graft from an unrelated donor and allows faster count recovery, with low rates of disease recurrence and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). But the contribution of the umbilical cord blood graft to long-term transplant outcome remains unclear. We analyzed 39 recipients of haplo-cord transplants with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), engrafted and in remission at 2 months. Median age was 66 (18-72) and all had intermediate, high, or very-high risk disease. Less than 20% UCB chimerism in the CD33 lineage was associated with an increased rate of disease recurrence (54% versus 11% p < 0.0001) and decrease in one year progression-free (20% versus 55%, p = 0.004) and overall survival (30% versus 62%, p = 0.02). Less than 100% UCB chimerism in the CD3 lineage was associated with increase rate of disease recurrence (46% versus 12%, p = 0.007). Persistent haplo-chimerism in the CD3 lineage was associated with an increased rate of disease recurrence (40% versus 15%, p = 0.009) Chimerism did not predict for treatment related mortality. The cumulative incidence of acute GVHD by day 100 was 43%. The cumulative incidence of moderate/severe chronic GVHD was only 5%. Engraftment of the umbilical cord blood grafts provides powerful graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effects which protect against disease recurrence and is associated with low risk of chronic GVHD. Engraftment of CD34 selected haplo-identical cells can lead to rapid development of circulating T-cells, but when these cells dominate, GVL-effects are limited and rates of disease recurrence are high.

Tolosa-hunt syndrome in double-hit lymphoma.

Tolosa-Hunt syndrome (THS) is a painful condition characterized by hemicranial pain, retroorbital pain, loss of vision, oculomotor nerve paralysis, and sensory loss in distribution of ophthalmic and maxillary division of trigeminal nerve. Lymphomas rarely involve cavernous sinus and simulate Tolosa-Hunt syndrome. Here we present a first case of double-hit B cell lymphoma (DHL) relapsing and masquerading as Tolosa-Hunt syndrome. The neurological findings were explained by a lymphomatous infiltration of the right Gasserian ganglion which preceded systemic relapse. As part of this report, the diagnostic criteria for Tolosa-Hunt syndrome and double-hit lymphoma are reviewed and updated treatment recommendations are presented.

Double hit lymphoma - a case of unusual response after sequential aggressive chemotherapy and review of the literature.

Lymphomas with recurrent chromosomal breakpoints activating multiple oncogenes, including MYC, BCL2, and BCL6 are often referred to as "Dual Hit" or "Double Hit" lymphomas (DHL). In the updated classification for malignant lymphomas by the World Health Organization (WHO), the novel category of "B-cell lymphoma unclassifiable with features intermediate between diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and Burkitt's lymphoma (BL)" was proposed in an attempt to create a (temporary) container for aggressive mature B-cell lymphomas that should not be diagnosed as either BL or DLBCL. DHL make up an important part of this novel WHO category, the other part representing heterogeneous cases of aggressive B-cell lymphoma that have features of BL. DHL are highly aggressive lymphomas with generally poor response to first line and salvage treatment. Limited data is available to guide therapeutic decisions, and despite aggressive measures including high dose (HD) chemotherapy followed by autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (AHCT), outcome is unsatisfyingly poor. Herein, we report a case of a patient with DHL and review the relevant literature.

Oligosecretory biclonal multiple myeloma.

Among the plasma cell dyscrasias, non-secretory myeloma is one of the rarest. This diagnosis is based on the absence of monoclonal proteins in the serum and urine. When serum free light chains are trace and the kappa: lambda ratio normal, clonality may however be established by PCR. We present a case of an oligosecretory myeloma confirmed by PCR, which would have hitherto been classified as non-secretory.

Cisplatin-gemcitabine therapy in metastatic breast cancer: Improved outcome in triple negative breast cancer patients compared to non-triple negative patients.

UNLABELLED: Triple negative or basal-like breast cancers lack expression of estrogen, progesterone and HER2neu receptors. There are no specific treatment guidelines for this group of patients, however, it has been postulated that their phenotypic and molecular similarity to BRCA-1 related cancers would confer sensitivity to certain cytotoxic agents like cisplatin (CDDP). The aim of the study was to retrospectively examine the clinical outcome at our institution of patients with metastatic breast cancer treated with CDDP and gemcitabine combination chemotherapy who had triple negative breast cancer compared to non-triple negative breast cancer. Thirty-six patients with metastatic breast cancer were treated with CDDP and gemcitabine combination chemotherapy, 17 of whom were triple negative (47%) and 19 were non-triple negative (53%). The median progression free survival for triple negative and non-triple negative metastatic breast cancer patients were 5.3 months and 1.7 months respectively (p = 0.058). By multivariate Cox proportional hazard model after adjusting for age, race and menopausal status the risk of progression was reduced by 47% for triple negative compared to non-triple negative metastatic breast cancer patients (HR = 0.53, p = 0.071). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest an improved outcome for metastatic triple negative breast cancer patients compared to non-triple negative breast cancer patients when treated with cisplatin and gemcitabine combination chemotherapy.