Low-affinity immunoglobulin gamma Fc region receptor III-B (FcγRIIIB, CD16B) deficiency in patients with blood and immune system disorders.

Low-affinity immunoglobulin gamma Fc region receptor III-B (FcγRIIIB) deficiency is present in ˜0·05% of the general population. Among our patients, FcγRIIIB deficiency was less frequent in those with immune-system disorders (one of 1815 patients, 0·05%) than in those with blood disorders (nine of 2147 patients, 0·42%, P = 0·023): mainly primary immune thrombocytopenia (4·34%), therapy related myeloid neoplasms (1·16%) and myelodysplastic syndrome with excess blasts (1·28%). Four of the nine (44·4%) patients with blood disorders were diagnosed with or quickly evolved to acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), suggesting that FcγRIIIB deficiency could be an adverse prognostic factor for progression to AML that should be confirmed in large multicentre studies.

Proliferation to Apoptosis Tumor Cell Ratio as a Biomarker to Improve Clinical Management of Pre-Malignant and Symptomatic Plasma Cell Neoplasms.

Proliferation and apoptosis of neoplastic cells are prognostic biomarkers in plasma cell neoplasms (PCNs). The prognostic capacity of proliferation to apoptosis ratio (Ratio-PA) in the era of immunomodulatory treatments is re-evaluated in 316 gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), 57 smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM), and 266 multiple myeloma (MM) patients. Ratio-PA of 0.77 ± 0.12, 1.94 ± 0.52, and 11.2 ± 0.7 (p < 0.0001) were observed in MGUS, SMM, and MM patients. Ten-year overall survival (10y-OS) rates for patients with low/high Ratio-PA were 93.5%/77.3% p < 0.0001) for MGUS, 82.5%/64.7% (p < 0.05) for SMM, and 62.3%/47.0% (p < 0.05) for MM. For patients with low, intermediate, and high risk, 10y-OS for low/high Ratio-PA were 95.5%/72.9% (p < 0.0001), 74.2%/50.4% (p < 0.0001), and 35.3%/20.0% (p = 0.836), respectively. Ratio-PA was an independent prognostic factor for OS (HR = 2.119, p < 0.0001, Harrell-C-statistic = 0.7440 ± 0.0194) when co-analyzed with sex, age, and standard risk. In patients with Ratio-PAhigh, only first-line therapy with VRd/VTd, but not PAD/VCD, coupled with ASCT was associated with high 10y-OS (82.7%). Tumor cell Ratio-PA estimated at diagnosis offers a prognostic biomarker that complements standard risk stratification and helps to guide the clinical management of pre-malignant and symptomatic PCNs. Every effort should be made to provide first-line therapies including VTd or VRd associated with ASCT to patients with Ratio-PAhigh at higher risk of progression and death.

Safety and efficacy of bosutinib in fourth-line therapy of chronic myeloid leukemia patients.

Bosutinib is a second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor (2GTKI) approved at 400 mg once daily (QD) as first-line therapy in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients and at 500 mg QD in patients who are resistant to or intolerant of prior therapy. In clinical practice, bosutinib is often given to patients who have failed imatinib, nilotinib, and dasatinib (i.e., as fourth-line treatment), despite the limited data on its clinical benefit in this setting. We have retrospectively evaluated the results of bosutinib in a series of 62 CML patients who have failed to prior treatment with all three, imatinib, nilotinib, and dasatinib. Median time on TKI treatment before bosutinib start was 105 (9-163) months, and median duration on bosutinib was 9 months (1-30). Overall, probabilities to achieve complete cytogenetic response (CCyR) and major molecular response (MMR) were 25% and 24% respectively. After a median follow-up period of 14 months, the event-free survival and progression-free survival were 68 and 85%, respectively. Sixty-four percent of patients in CCyR at the time of bosutinib start were able to achieve MMR. In contrast, patients without CCyR, probabilities to obtain CCyR and MMR were 25% and 14%. Bosutinib was well tolerated in this heavily pretreated patients' cohort. Pleural effusions and diarrhea were the most frequent grade II-IV side effects, leading to treatment discontinuation in 16% of patients. Bosutinib is an effective treatment option for patients who have failed previous 2GTKIs due to intolerance. However, efficacy seems to be related to the molecular response that the patient achieved prior to bosutinib.

Bosutinib shows low cross intolerance, in chronic myeloid leukemia patients treated in fourth line. Results of the Spanish compassionate use program.

The role of bosutinib as rescue treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients after failing three previous tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) is currently unknown. We report here the largest series (to our knowledge) of patients treated with bosutinib in fourth-line, after retrospectively reviewing 30 patients in chronic phase, and pretreated with imatinib, nilotinib, and dasatinib. With a median follow up of 11.1 months, the probability to either maintain or improve their CCyR response was 56.6% (17/30) and 11 patients (36.7%) achieved or maintained their baseline MMR. In patients not having baseline CCyR, the probabilities of obtaining CCyR, MMR, and MR4.5 were 13, 11, and 14%, respectively. The probabilities of obtaining MMR and deep molecular response MR4.5 in patients with baseline CCyR were 40.0% (6/15) and 20.0% (3/15). At 20 months, progression-free survival was 73%. Grade 3-4 hematological toxicities were more frequent in resistant than intolerant patients (45.4 vs. 0.0%). Nonhematological toxicities were also more frequent in resistant patients, being diarrhea the most conspicuous one. Bosutinib seems to be an appropriate treatment option for patients resistant or intolerant to three prior TKI's.

Blood-based risk stratification for pre-malignant and symptomatic plasma cell neoplasms to improve patient management.

Standard risk stratification (sRisk) guides clinical management in monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM) and multiple myeloma (MM). Nonetheless, clinical results are considerably heterogeneous among patients with similar risk status. Blood and bone marrow samples from 276 MGUS, 56 SMM and 242 MM in regular clinical practice were analyzed at diagnosis by flow cytometry. Higher levels of aberrant circulating plasma cells (cPC) (> 0.0035% of leukocytes), combined with albumin, beta2-microglobuline and lactate-dehydrogenase levels, offered minimally-invasive risk stratification (RcPC) with results comparable to sRisk. RcPC and sRisk 10-year progression-free-survival (10y-PFS) rates were: 93.8% vs. 95.1% for low-risk, 78.4% vs. 81.7% for intermediate-risk and 50.0% vs. 47.8% for high-risk MGUS; 58.3% vs. 57.8% low-risk, 44.4% vs. 45.8% intermediate-risk and 8.9% vs. 15.0% high-risk SMM; and 44.4% vs. 44.4% low-risk, 36.1% vs. 36.8% intermediate-risk, and 13.3% vs. 16.2% high-risk MM. Circulating-PC > 0.0035% vs. cPC<0.0035% was an independent prognostic factor for PFS (HR=4.389, P=1.2×10-15, Harrell C-statistic =0.7705±0.0190) and over-all survival (OS, HR=4.286, 2.3×10-9, Harrell C-statistic =0.8225±0.0197) that complemented sRisk in patients with low-sRisk (10y-PFS rates 48.1% vs. 87.3%, P=1.2×10-8) and intermediate-sRisk (10y-PFS rates 28.9% vs. 74.1%, P=8.6×10-12). Patients with high cPCs values are associated with higher proliferation and lower apoptosis rates of PC. Circulating-PC > 0.0035% identified MGUS, SMM and MM patients at higher risk of progression or death and predicted a cohort of patients that after relapse from stringent complete response showed shorter OS. These patients could benefit from early consolidation therapy, tandem ASCT or intensive maintenance.

Predictive value of 1q21 gain in multiple myeloma is strongly dependent on concurrent cytogenetic abnormalities and first-line treatment.

Improved therapies in multiple myeloma (MM) have forced a constant risk stratification update, first Durie-Salmon, then international scoring systems (ISS), next revised-ISS (RISS) including high-risk cytogenetic abnormalities (HRCAs) such as del(17p) and t(4;14), and now R2-ISS including 1q21 gain has been proposed. Predictive value of 1q21 gain by itself or in concurrence with other cytogenetic abnormalities is evaluated in 737 real-world plasma cell neoplasm (PCN) patients under current therapies. Ten-year progression-free survival (10y-PFS) rates for patients with 2, 3 and >3 copies of 1q21 were 72.2%, 42.5% and 43.4% (P<1.1×10-17). Cox regression analysis confirmed that 1q21 gain was an independent prognostic factor for PFS (HR=1.804, P<0.0001, Harrell C-statistic =0.7779±0.01495) but not for OS (P=0.131). Gain of 1q21 was strongly associated with hypodiploidy (38.8% vs. 7.0%, P=1.3×10-22), hyperdiploidy (44.1% vs. 16.4%, P=1.6×10-13), HRCAs (12.6% vs. 3.5%, 1.8×10-5), IGH breaks (12.3% vs. 2.1%, P=2.1×10-7) and del(13q) (8.0% vs. 4.0%, P=0.031). In our series, 1q21 gain by itself did not improve RISS predictive capacity in patients either eligible or ineligible for autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). However, compared with patients with other 1q21 gains: concurrence with hyperdiploidy improved the prognosis of ASCT-eligible patients from 62.5% to 96.0% 10-year overall-survival (10y-OS, P<0.002); concurrence with hypodiploidy improved the prognosis of ASCT-ineligible patients from 35.7% to 71.0% (P=0.013); and concurrence with del(13q) worsened the prognosis of ASCT-ineligible patients from 12.5% to 53.4% (P=0.035). Gain of 1q21 should be patient-wisely evaluated, irrespective of the RISS, considering its concurrence with other cytogenetic abnormalities and eligibility for ASCT.

Correction: Increasing TIMP3 expression by hypomethylating agents diminishes soluble MICA, MICB and ULBP2 shedding in acute myeloid leukemia, facilitating NK cell-mediated immune recognition.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.16657.].

Overexpression of KIR inhibitory ligands (HLA-I) determines that immunosurveillance of myeloma depends on diverse and strong NK cell licensing.

Missing self recognition makes cancer sensitive to natural killer cell (NKc) reactivity. However, this model disregards the NKc licensing effect, which highly increases NKc reactivity through interactions of inhibitory killer cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (iKIR) with their cognate HLA-I ligands. The influence of iKIR/HLA-ligand (HLA-C1/C2) licensing interactions on the susceptibility to and progression of plasma cell (PC) dyscrasias was evaluated in 164 Caucasian patients and 286 controls. Compared to controls, myeloma accumulates KIR2DL1-L2+L3- genotypes (2.8% vs. 13.2%, p < 0.01, OR = 5.29) and less diverse peripheral repertoires of NKc clones. Less diverse and weaker-affinity repertoires of iKIR2D/HLA-C licensing interactions increased myeloma susceptibility. Thus, the complete absence of conventional iKIR2D/HLA-C licensing interactions (KIR2DL1-L2+L3-/C2C2, 2.56% vs. 0.35%; p < 0.05; OR = 15.014), single-KIR2DL3+/C1+ (20.51% vs. 10.84%; p < 0.05; OR = 2.795) and single-KIR2DL2+/C1+ (12.82% vs. 4.9%; p < 0.01; OR = 5.18) interactions were over-represented in myeloma, compared to controls. Additionally, KIR2DL1-L2+L3- (20% vs. 83%, p < 0.00001) as well as KIR3DL1- (23% vs. 82%, p < 0.00001) genotypes had a dramatic negative impact on the 3-y progression-free survival (PFS), particularly in patients with low-tumor burden. Remarkably, myeloma-PCs, compared to K562 and other hematological cancers, showed substantial over-expression of HLA-I ("increasing-self" instead of missing-self), including HLA-C, and mild expression of ligands for NKc activating receptors (aRec) CD112, CD155, ULBP-1 and MICA/B, which apparently renders myeloma-PCs susceptible to lysis mainly by licensed NKc. KIR2DL1-L2+L3-/C2C2 patients (with no conventional iKIR2D/HLA-C licensing interactions) lyse K562 but barely lyse myeloma-PCs (4% vs. 15%; p < 0.05, compared to controls). These results support a model where immunosurveillance of no-missing-self cancers, e.g., myeloma, mainly depends on NKc licensing.

The gene expression response of chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells to IL-4 is specific, depends on ZAP-70 status and is differentially affected by an NFκB inhibitor.

Interleukin 4 (IL-4), an essential mediator of B cell development, plays a role in survival of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells. To obtain new insights into the function of the IL-4 pathway in CLL, we analyzed the gene expression response to IL-4 in CLL and in normal B cells (NBC) by oligonucleotide microarrays, resulting in the identification of 232 non-redundant entities in CLL and 146 in NBC (95 common, 283 altogether), of which 189 were well-defined genes in CLL and 123 in NBC (83 common, 229 altogether) (p<0.05, 2-fold cut-off). To the best of our knowledge, most of them were novel IL-4 targets for CLL (98%), B cells of any source (83%), or any cell type (70%). Responses were significantly higher for 54 and 11 genes in CLL and NBC compared to each other, respectively. In CLL, ZAP-70 status had an impact on IL-4 response, since different sets of IL-4 targets correlated positively or negatively with baseline expression of ZAP-70. In addition, the NFκB inhibitor 6-Amino-4-(4-phenoxyphenethylamino)quinazoline, which reversed the anti-apoptotic effect of IL-4, preferentially blocked the response of genes positively correlated with ZAP-70 (e.g. CCR2, SUSD2), but enhanced the response of genes negatively correlated with ZAP-70 (e.g. AUH, BCL6, LY75, NFIL3). Dissection of the gene expression response to IL-4 in CLL and NBC contributes to the understanding of the anti-apoptotic response. Initial evidence of a connection between ZAP-70 and NFκB supports further exploration of targeting NFκB in the context of the assessment of inhibition of the IL-4 pathway as a therapeutic strategy in CLL, especially in patients expressing bad prognostic markers.