Acquired Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura After BNT162b2 COVID-19 Vaccine: Case Report and Literature Review.

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a thrombotic microangiopathy that is deadly if not treated promptly. The treatment of choice in patients presenting with TTP is plasma exchanges. However, immunosuppressive therapy and caplacizumab have significantly improved outcomes in TTP. This microangiopathy is classically divided into 2 entities: hereditary and acquired TTP (aTTP), caused by an autoantibody against ADAMTS 13. We present a case study of a patient wth TTP occurring after a second dose of the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) COVID-19 vaccine along with a review of the literature. A 55-year-old patient presented with gastrointestinal symptoms, anemia, and severe thrombocytopenia. The blood film revealed the presence of schistocytes. A diagnosis of aTTP was established because the patient had severe ADAMTS 13 deficiency and autoantibodies against ADAMTS 13 were positive. This episode occurred 10 days after the patient received the COVID-19 vaccine. The patient received plasma exchanges, prednisone, rituximab, and caplacizumab and achieved complete remission. Ten patients with aTTP induced by the COVID-19 vaccine have been reported in the literature. Most of these situations occurred after the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 7 patients were noted to have received the BNT162b2 vaccine. Caplacizumab was used in 6 patients, and complete remission was achieved in 8 patients.

Evolution in the real-world therapeutic strategies in more than 20,000 women with breast cancer having received human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-targeted treatments: Results from the french personalized reimbursement model database (2011-2018).

BACKGROUND: There is a growing need for real-world data on cancer treatments usage, especially to assess compliance with recommendations. We developed a French project using hospital data to analyse evolution in the therapeutic strategies implemented in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-overexpressed (HER2+) breast cancer (BC) and exposed to injectable HER2-targeted therapies, i.e. trastuzumab, pertuzumab or trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data from 26,350 women with BC were extracted in September 2018 from the Electronic Pharmacy Record systems of 120 French randomly recruited hospitals. Evolution in the treatments used, and combination regimens were described from 2011, in accordance with the BC stage and treatment line. RESULTS: Overall, 21,119 patients treated since 2011 were analysed: 16,398 patients with early BC (eBC) and 6030 patients with metastatic BC (mBC) including patients treated at both stages. In eBC, 89.2% of patients received trastuzumab combined with at least taxanes (trastuzumab-taxane-anthracycline: 62.6%). Patients with mBC were treated in the first line (80.3%) and/or the second line (40.1%) and/or ≥ the third line (28.3%). After its approval in 2014, pertuzumab was first used in first-line therapy combinations in 67.4% of the total cases, while trastuzumab-taxane decreased from 47.2% to 9.2%. Similarly, T-DM1 was used as the second-line treatment in 53.8% of cases. CONCLUSIONS: Given recent changes in available treatments for patients with HER2+ BC, this large French project provides robust information on real-world evolution in therapeutic strategies. Our data suggest there is room for significant improvement in optimal drug utilisation. Such data will be useful to build drug-related indicators for future value-based pricing solutions.

Secondary thrombotic microangiopathy in two patients with Philadelphia-positive hematological malignancies treated with imatinib mesylate.

Drug-mediated thrombotic microangiopathy may cause life-threatening medical emergencies. Novel targeted therapies have dramatically changed the prognosis of a number of oncological diseases. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors of the Breakpoint Cluster Region-Abelson (BCR-ABL) oncoprotein are used in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia or Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Imatinib mesylate, which was the first anti-BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has demonstrated a high tolerance profile and efficacy in these patients for many years. Good results have also been observed in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors. In this study, we describe two patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive hematological malignancies who presented with secondary thrombotic microangiopathy that was most likely linked to the use of imatinib. Other potential causes of thrombotic microangiopathy were discarded, and the predisposing role of some comorbidities and potential short or long-term drug-drug interactions was assessed. The clinical and biological data were more indicative of atypical secondary hemolytic uremic syndrome in one of the cases and of secondary thrombotic microangiopathy with renal and cardiac impairment in the other, which is also categorized as secondary hemolytic uremic syndrome. The outcome was favorable after imatinib discontinuation and the treatment of severe cardiac and renal failures.