The prognostic significance of serum XCL1 concentration in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a pilot study.

There is no information about XCL1 in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The objective of this study was to correlate the serum levels of XCL1 and survival in ALL patients. Only ALL patients older than 12 months were considered to participate. Serum XCL1 was measured at diagnosis, end of remission induction, and end of consolidation. Thirty-three ALL patients with median age of 21 years (1-78) were included. Higher XCL1 level (above 50 pg/mL) at ALL diagnosis correlated with higher survival (p = 0.038), whereas XCL1 level at end of induction and consolidation had no significant correlation. Concerning the behavior of serum XCL1 during treatment, higher survival at 5 years was observed in the group with progressively decreased levels of XCL1 (70%) than those with progressively increasing (29%) or no detectable XCL1 (14%). In conclusion, higher serum XCL1 levels at diagnosis and their progressive decline throughout chemotherapy could be correlated with higher survival.

[Bone cement implant as an alternative for orbital floor reconstruction: A case report]. / Implante de cemento óseo como alternativa para la reconstrucción de piso orbitario: reporte de caso.

BACKGROUND: The management of orbitary fractures is one of the most challenging in facial trauma; the variety of reconstruction materials for its treatment is broad and is constantly improving, but despite this there is no consensus for its use or literature that sustains it. OBJECTIVE: To present the use and design of a preformed bone implant as an alternative for the reconstruction of orbital floor fractures in the pediatric age group. CLINICAL CASE: A 7-year old male who suffered a right hemifacial contusion trauma with clinical and tomographic diagnosis of right pure blowout type orbital floor fracture with inferior rectus muscle entrapment and right post-traumatic palpebral ptosis. Successful surgical reconstruction was performed 7 days later with a pre-constructed bone cement implant. Eight weeks after surgery the patient presented with mild residual palpebral ptosis, no ocular movement limitations and no diplopia. CONCLUSIONS: The use of a bone cement implant can be considered appropriate for the reconstruction of these fractures, as another alternative to be used by the ophthalmologist among the variety of all the other materials used for this purpose. We consider that our optimism based on the results obtained in this case obligates us to increase the number of patients treated in order to gather more evidence and do larger follow up.

Allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation using reduced-intensity conditioning in an outpatient setting in ABO-incompatible patients: are survival and graft-versus-host disease different?

BACKGROUND: Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a major cause of morbimortality after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Minor ABO incompatibility has been associated with an increased risk of GVHD. We analyzed the impact of ABO matching on patient outcome after peripheral blood, reduced-intensity allo-HSCT in an outpatient setting, and its relationship with GVHD. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Data of 121 patients were included. All patients received allo-HSCT from HLA-identical siblings as outpatients using a reduced-intensity conditioning regimen. Influence of ABO matching as a risk factor for the development of GVHD and survival was analyzed using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards regression, respectively. RESULTS: Median age was 36 years (range, 1-71 years); 88 patients were ABO identical: 13 presented major mismatch and 20 minor mismatch, with an ABO incompatibility rate of 27.3%. The median follow-up period was 54 months (range, 0.3-120 months). Minor ABO incompatibility patients presented the highest rate of acute GVHD (aGVHD; 25%), in comparison with ABO-identical (20.5%) and major ABO incompatibility patients (15.4%; p = 0.79). The highest incidence of chronic GVHD (cGVHD) occurred in the context of minor ABO incompatibility (35%), in contrast to ABO-identical (30.8%) and major ABO incompatibility (15.4%). Survival was higher for patients in the minor ABO mismatch group; however, there was no significant correlation between ABO matching status and survival (p = 0.45). CONCLUSION: Using this type of peripheral blood stem cell transplantation, minor ABO-mismatched allo-HSCT was associated with a higher incidence of aGVHD and cGVHD and with increased survival, albeit with no significance.

Lower than expected cytogenetic and molecular response to imatinib in Mexican patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia.

Imatinib has been considered as the gold standard for drug therapy of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) because it offers higher cytogenetic response and better quality of life than traditional drugs. In this study we applied the standard 400 mg dose of imatinib in 37 CML Ph (+) Mexican patients, monitoring their cytogenetic response using fluorescent in situ hybridization and carrying out molecular analyses using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The study included 19 male and 18 female patients with a median age of 41 years. The median follow-up time from diagnosis was 56 months. Thirty-six patients (97%) achieved complete hematologic response in a median time of 29 days. Complete cytogenetic response and complete molecular remission was observed in only five (13%) and three (8.1%) patients, respectively, less than the expected rate (50-90%) reported in other studies.