0000000000020978

AUTHOR

Pere Barba

Spanish Society of Hematology and Hemotherapy expert consensus opinion for SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in onco-hematological patients.

Abstract In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, different vaccines in front of SARS-CoV-2 have been approved and administered in different vulnerable populations. As patients with cancer were excluded from pivotal trials of vaccination, little is known on their immunogenic response to these vaccines, particularly in patients with severely impaired immune system. In response to that uncertainty, the Spanish Society of Hematology and Hemotherapy launched an initiative aimed to provide recommendations for vaccination of the main hematological conditions. This document is based on the available information on COVID-19 outcomes, prior knowledge on vaccination in hematological patients, recent pu…

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CD34+ Cell Selection versus Reduced-Intensity Conditioning and Unmodified Grafts for Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in Patients Age >50 Years with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia and Myelodysplastic Syndrome .

Reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) and T cell depletion (TCD) through CD34+ cell selection without the use of post-transplantation immunosuppression are 2 strategies used to reduce nonrelapse mortality (NRM) in older patients after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT). To compare the efficacy of the RIC and TCD approaches, we evaluated the outcomes of patients age >50 years with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who underwent allo-HCT from an HLA-matched donor with one of these strategies. Baseline characteristics were comparable in the patients receiving TCD (n = 204) and those receiving RIC (n = 151), except for a higher proportion o…

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Effect of Sirolimus Exposure on the Need for Preemptive Antiviral Therapy for Cytomeglovirus Infection after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

The current study evaluates the clinical effect of sirolimus exposure on the occurrence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNAemia necessitating preemptive antiviral therapy. A total of 167 consecutive recipients of reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) who received sirolimus- and tacrolimus-based graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis and whose CMV serostatus was positive for donors and/or recipients were included in this multicenter retrospective study. A parametric model with consecutive sirolimus blood levels describing the time to CMV DNAemia-RAT was developed using NONMEM version 7.4. Overall, 122 of 167 patients (73%) were all…

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Umbilical cord blood transplantation in adults with advanced hodgkin's disease: high incidence of post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease

We report the outcome of 30 consecutive patients with Hodgkin disease (HD) who underwent single-unit UCBT. Most (90%) patients had failed previous autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The conditioning regimens were based on combinations of thiotepa, busulfan, cyclophosphamide or fludarabine, and antithymocyte globulin. The cumulative incidence (CI) of myeloid engraftment was 90% [95% confidence interval (C.I.), 74-98%] with a median of 18 d (range, 10-48). CI of acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) grades II-IV was 30% (95% C.I., 17-44%), while the incidence of chronic GVHD was 42% (95% C.I., 23-77%). The non-relapse mortality (NRM) at 100 d and 4 yr was 30% (95% C.I., 13-4…

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Prognostic heterogeneity of adult B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia patients with t(1;19)(q23;p13)/TCF3-PBX1 treated with measurable residual disease-oriented protocols.

Programa para el Tratamiento de Hemopatias Malignas (PETHEMA) Group (Spanish Society of Hematology, SEHH).

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Assessment of the association between cytomegalovirus DNAemia and subsequent acute graft-versus-host disease in allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation: A multicenter study from the Spanish hematopoietic transplantation and cell therapy group.

The potential role of active CMV infection in promoting acute Graft-versus-Host Disease (aGvHD) in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) remains a matter of debate. We further addressed this issue conducting a retrospective, observational, multicenter study of 632 patients subjected to allogeneic peripheral blood HSCT at 20 Spanish centers. Monitoring of CMV DNA load in plasma or whole blood was performed by real-time PCR assays. Cumulative incidence of CMV DNAemia was 48.9% (95% CI, 45%-52.9%), of any grade aGvHD, 45.6; 95% (CI, 41.3%-50.1%), and of grade II-IV aGvHD, 30.7 (95% CI, 24.9%-36.4%). Overall, development of CMV DNAemia at any level resulted in an increa…

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Cytomegalovirus DNAemia and risk of mortality in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: Analysis from the Spanish Hematopoietic Transplantation and Cell Therapy Group

The net impact of cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNAemia on overall mortality (OM) and nonrelapse mortality (NRM) following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) remains a matter of debate. This was a retrospective, multicenter, noninterventional study finally including 749 patients. CMV DNA monitoring was conducted by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays. Clinical outcomes of interest were OM and NRM through day 365 after allo-HSCT. The cumulative incidence of CMV DNAemia in this cohort was 52.6%. A total of 306 out of 382 patients with CMV DNAemia received preemptive antiviral therapy (PET). PET use for CMV DNAemia, but not the occurrence of CMV DNAemia, taken …

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Real-World Evidence of Tisagenlecleucel for the Treatment of Relapsed or Refractory Large B-Cell Lymphoma

Introduction Tisagenlecleucel (tisa-cel) is a second generation, CD19-targeted Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for relapsed or refractory (R/R) large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL). The pivotal phase 2 trial JULIET included 93 patients and reported an overall response rate (ORR) of 52% and a complete response rate of 40% among treated patients. However, very little is known regarding its safety and efficacy in the commercial or real-world setting as well as from an intention-to-treat perspective. In our study, we report clinical outcomes of patients with R/R LBCL treated with commercial tisa-cel in 10 Spanish institutions. Methods Data were collected retrospectively from all consecut…

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A Time-to-Event Model for Acute Kidney Injury after Reduced-Intensity Conditioning Stem Cell Transplantation Using a Tacrolimus- and Sirolimus-based Graft-versus-Host Disease Prophylaxis.

There is a paucity of data evaluating acute kidney injury (AKI) incidence and its relationship with the tacrolimus-sirolimus (Tac-Sir) concentrations in the setting of reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). This multicenter retrospective study evaluated risk factors of AKI defined by 2 classification systems, Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcome (KDIGO) score and "Grade 0-3 staging," in 186 consecutive RIC allo-HSCT recipients with Tac-Sir as graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis. Conditioning regimens consisted of fludarabine and busulfan (n = 53); melphalan (n = 83); or a combination of thiotepa, fludarabine, and busulfan (n = 50). …

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Single umbilical cord blood with or without CD34+ cells from a third-party donor in adults with leukemia

We retrospectively compared the clinical outcomes of adults with acute leukemia who received single-unit umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplantation (sUCBT) (n = 135) or stem cell transplant using coinfusion of a UCB graft with CD34+ cells from a third-party donor (Haplo-Cord) (n = 72) at different institutions within the Grupo Espanol de Trasplante Hematopoyetico. In multivariable analysis, patients in the Haplo-Cord group showed more rapid neutrophil (hazard ratio [HR], 2.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.5-3.3; P < .001) and platelet recovery (HR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.2-2.3; P = .015) and lower incidence of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) (relative risk, 0.5; 95% CI, 0.3-0.8; P = .01)…

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Umbilical cord blood transplantation from unrelated donors in patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Clinical Trial; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; There are very few disease-specific studies focusing on outcomes of umbilical cord blood transplantation for Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. We report the outcome of 45 patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia who underwent myeloablative single unit cord blood transplantation from unrelated donors within the GETH/GITMO cooperative group. Conditioning regimens were based on combinations of thiotepa, busulfan, cyclophospamide or fludarabine, and antithymocyte globulin. At the time of transplantation, 35 patients (78%) were in first complete remission, four (8%) …

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Feasibility of thiotepa addition to the fludarabine-busulfan conditioning with tacrolimus/sirolimus as graft vs host disease prophylaxis.

In classical reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) regimens, including the fludarabine and busulphan (BF) combination, sirolimus and tacrolimus (SIR-TAC) as graft vs host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis has shown acceptable results. The outcomes of SIR-TAC in a more intense RIC regimen as Thiotepa-fludarabine-busulfan (TBF) have been hardly investigated. This retrospective study included all consecutive patients receiving an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for myeloid malignancies (January 2009-2017) conditioned with either TBF or BF and receiving SIR-TAC. Patients receiving TBF presented higher non-relapse mortality (31.6 vs 12.3%,p = .01), along with shorter overall survival …

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Ex vivo T-cell depletion vs post-transplant cyclophosphamide, sirolimus, and mycophenolate mofetil as graft-vs-host disease prophylaxis for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Objective To compare the efficacy and safety of CD34+ selected ex vivo T-cell depletion (TCD) vs post-transplant cyclophosphamide, sirolimus, and mycophenolate mofetil (PTCy-Sir-MMF) as graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis. Methods We retrospectively included patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) with either TCD (n = 38) or PTCy-Sir-MMF (n = 91). Results Cumulative incidence of neutrophil and platelet recovery was 92% vs 99% (P = .06) and 89% vs 97% (P = .3) in TCD and PTCy-Sir-MMF, respectively. Cumulative incidences of aGHVD grade II-IV, III-IV, and moderate to severe cGVHD were 11% vs 19% (P = .2), 3% vs 2% (P = .9), and 3% vs 36% (P < …

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Real‐world evidence of tisagenlecleucel for the treatment of relapsed or refractory large B‐cell lymphoma

Abstract Tisagenlecleucel (tisa‐cel) is a second‐generation autologous CD19‐targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T‐cell therapy approved for relapsed/refractory (R/R) large B‐cell lymphoma (LBCL). The approval was based on the results of phase II JULIET trial, with a best overall response rate (ORR) and complete response (CR) rate in infused patients of 52% and 40%, respectively. We report outcomes with tisa‐cel in the standard‐of‐care (SOC) setting for R/R LBCL. Data from all patients with R/R LBCL who underwent leukapheresis from December 2018 until June 2020 with the intent to receive SOC tisa‐cel were retrospectively collected at 10 Spanish institutions. Toxicities were graded accor…

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The presence of genomic imbalances is associated with poor outcome in patients with burkitt lymphoma treated with dose-intensive chemotherapy including rituximab.

Part of this study has been reported as an oral presentation at the EHA Meeting in Vienna 2015.

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