Thyroid autoimmunity and hypothyroidism are associated with deep molecular response in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia on tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

PURPOSE: Thyroid alterations including de novo appearance of thyroid autoimmunity are adverse effects of tyrosine kinase inhibitors, used in solid and hematologic cancer therapy, but the relationship between thyroid alterations during this treatment and the outcome of chronic myeloid leukemia remains unclear. Aim of this study was to investigate whether the presence of thyroid alterations may affect the clinical outcome of chronic myeloid leukemia on tyrosine kinase inhibitors. METHODS: We evaluated thyroid function and autoimmunity in 69 chronic myeloid leukemia patients on long-term therapy looking at the association between thyroid abnormalities and disease molecular response. RESULTS: Overall, 24 of 69 (34.8%) had one or more thyroid abnormalities during therapy. A high percentage of patients (21/69, 30.4%) showed thyroid autoimmunity (positive thyroid autoantibodies with ultrasound hypoechogenicity), while clinical and subclinical hypothyroidism and subclinical hyperthyroidism were, respectively, found in 4 of 69 (5.8%) and 3 of 69 (4.3%) of cases. Second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors resulted significantly associated (14/32, 43.7%) with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, compared to first generation (7/37, 18.9%; p = 0.03). Interestingly, we also found a significant association between euthyroid (14/26, 53.8%) and hypothyroid Hashimoto's thyroiditis (4/26, 15.4%) in patients with deep molecular response, as compared to euthyroid (3/43, 7%; p = 0.0001) and hypothyroid (0/43, 0%; p = 0.02) Hashimoto's thyroiditis patients with major molecular response. CONCLUSIONS: Our study confirms and extends our knowledge on the tyrosine kinase inhibitors effects on thyroid, showing that thyroid autoimmunity is frequently observed in chronic myeloid leukemia patients on long-term therapy and is associated with a better oncological response.

Response to donor lymphocyte infusions for chronic myeloid leukemia is dose-dependent: the importance of escalating the cell dose to maximize therapeutic efficacy.

Donor lymphocyte infusions (DLI) are an effective treatment for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in relapse after allografting but the optimal cell dose has yet to be identified. To address this question, we investigated the factors affecting the dose required to achieve remission (effective cell dose, (ECD)) in 81 patients treated with an escalating dose regimen. The overall proportion of patients who achieved a molecular remission was 88%. The cumulative proportion of remitters increased significantly at each dose level. With a CD3(+) cell dose < or =10(7)/kg, 56% of patients in molecular/cytogenetic relapse obtained molecular remission, whereas only 20% of those in hematologic relapse did so. At the same cell dose, 58% of patients who received lymphocytes from volunteer unrelated donors achieved remission, as compared to 29% of those who received DLI from sibling donors. We conclude that the response to DLI is dose-dependent and that the ECD is influenced by the quantity and phase of CML at relapse and degree of donor/recipient histocompatibility.

HCV-NS3 and IgG-Fc crossreactive IgM in patients with type II mixed cryoglobulinemia and B-cell clonal proliferations.

We demonstrate that in three cases of MC (two with immunocytoma), the IgM-RF+ component of their cryoprecipitated represents the circulating counterpart of the B-cell receptor (BCR) of the monoclonal overexpanded B-cell population. These IgMs were isolated and used to demonstrate a crossreactivity against both hepatitis C virus (HCV) NS3 antigen and the Fc portion of IgG. Epitopes were identified in a fraction of exemplary samples by using epitope excision approach (NS(31250-1334) and IgG Fc(345-355)). The same phenomenon of crossreactivity has been shown to occur in vivo after immunization of a mouse with the NS3(1251-1270) peptide. To verify if the same reaction was also present in MC samples characterized by an oligo/polyclonal B-cell proliferation, IgM crossreactivity was tested in 14 additional samples. Five out of the 14 were reactive against HCV NS3 and 11 out of 14 were reactive against IgG-Fc peptide. The data support the role of HCV NS3 antigen in a subset of patients with MC, whereas the high frequency of the IgG-Fc epitope suggests that these B cells originate from precursors strongly selected for auto-IgG specificity. We suggest that engagement of specific BCRs by NS3 (or NS3-immunocomplex) antigen could explain the prevalence of IgM cryoglobulins in these patients.

Chronic fatigue is the most important factor limiting health-related quality of life of chronic myeloid leukemia patients treated with imatinib.

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important goal of therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients treated with current molecular-targeted therapies. The main objective of this study was to investigate factors associated with long-term HRQOL outcomes of CML patients receiving imatinib. Analysis was performed on 422 CML patients recruited in an observational multicenter study. HRQOL was assessed with the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36). Key socio-demographic and clinical data were investigated for their association with HRQOL outcomes. Chronic fatigue and social support were also investigated. Univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were used to identify independent factors associated with HRQOL outcomes. Fatigue was the only variable showing an independent and consistent association across all physical and mental HRQOL outcomes (P<0.01). Differences between patients reporting low versus high fatigue levels were more than eight and seven times the magnitude of a clinically meaningful difference, respectively, for the role physical (Δ=70 points) and emotional scale (Δ=63 points) of the SF-36. Fatigue did not occur as an isolated symptom and was most highly correlated with musculoskeletal pain (r=0.511; P≤0.001) and muscular cramps (r=0.448; P≤0.001). Chronic fatigue is the major factor limiting HRQOL of CML patients receiving imatinib.

Outcome of patients developing GVHD after DLI given to treat CML relapse: a study by the Chronic Leukemia Working Party of the EBMT.

We studied GVHD after donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) in 328 patients with relapsed CML between 1991 and 2004 . A total of 122 patients (38%) developed some form of GVHD. We analyzed GVHD by clinical presentation (acute or chronic GVHD) and onset time after the first DLI (early (< or =45 days) or late (>45 days)). There was a significant overlap between onset time and clinical presentation. Some form of GVHD occurred at a median of 104 days, acute GVHD at 45 days and chronic GVHD at 181 days after DLI. The clinical presentation was acute GVHD in 71 patients, of whom 31 subsequently developed chronic GVHD subsequently. De novo chronic GVHD was seen in 51 patients. OS for all patients was 69% (95% confidence interval (CI) 63-75) at 5 years, DLI-related mortality was 11% (95% CI 8-15) and disease-related mortality was 20% (95% CI 16-25). Risk factors for developing GVHD after DLI were T-cell dose at first DLI, the time interval from transplant to DLI and donor type. In time-dependent multivariate analysis, GVHD after DLI was associated with a risk of death of 2.3-fold compared with patients without GVHD. Clinical presentation as acute GVHD and early onset GVHD were associated with increased mortality.

Proteins specifically hyperexpressed in a coeliac disease patient with aberrant T cells.

An aberrant T cell population is the basis for diagnosis of refractory coeliac disease and determines the risk of enteropathy-associated T cell lymphoma. This disease is serious with a poor survival. Pathogenetic mechanisms sustaining aberrant T cell proliferation remain unknown. Recently, alemtuzumab has been proposed as a promising new approach to treat these patients. Only few single cases have been tested at present; nevertheless, in all the cases a clinical improvement was observed. However, whether intraepithelial lymphocytes have been targeted effectively by alemtuzumab is still debated. This study reports, using two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D DIGE), hyperexpressed proteins associated specifically with aberrant T cells found in a patient with coeliac disease by comparison of the protein expression of this sample with that of patients with coeliac disease and polyclonal T cells or with control subjects. The data demonstrated a significantly higher expression of IgM, apolipoprotein C-III and Charcot-Leyden crystal proteins in a duodenal biopsy specimen of the patient with clonal T cells compared with that of other patients. These preliminary results allow hypothesizing different clinical effects of alemtuzumab in patients with coeliac disease and aberrant T cell proliferation, because as well as the probable effect on T cells, alemtuzumab could exert its effect by acting on inflammatory associated CD52(+) IgM(+) B cells and eosinophil cells, known to produce IgM and Charcot-Leyden crystal proteins, that we demonstrated to be altered in this patient. The results also emphasize the possible association of apolipoprotein with aberrant T cell proliferation.

Type II mixed cryoglobulinaemia as an oligo rather than a mono B-cell disorder: evidence from GeneScan and MALDI-TOF analyses.

OBJECTIVE: To identify and characterize rheumatoid factor (RF)-producing B-cells and cryoprecipitate immunoglobulin (Ig) M in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive patients. METHODS: We purified and characterized, by peptide mass fingerprinting integrated with an NCBI IgBlast data bank search, the IgM component of cryoprecipitate and analysed the VDJ pattern of bone marrow B-cells by gene scan analysis of 17 HCV-positive patients with type II mixed-cryoglobulinaemia. RESULTS: IgM purified from all of the patients presented an RF specificity. In three of these patients a high and predominant B-cell clone (>or=30%) was found in the bone marrow. B-cell-receptor sequences were determined and immunophenotyping of these clones was performed. Peptide masses originating after tryptic digestion of the B-cell-receptor combinatory regions and those originating by tryptic digestion of the cryoprecipitated IgM from the same patient were comparable. In the remaining patients an oligoclonal/polyclonality was found. However, in some of these patients we were able to find peptides that matched with the B-cell-receptor sequences of overexpanded B cells, indicating that, even in the absence of a clear monoclonal expansion, a fraction of total cryoprecipated IgM may derive from overexpanded B-cell clones found in patients' bone marrow. CONCLUSIONS: In the majority of mixed cryoglobulinaemia-HCV-positive patients, both in the serum and in B cells from the bone marrow, an oligoclonal pattern is the main molecular picture. When a monoclonal B-cell clone is found, its B-cell-receptor shows an antigen-binding fragment identical to that of cryoprecipitable RF-IgM. Phenotypically, B cells are CD20-positive but CD5-negative, suggesting that the B-1 B-cell subset is not likely to produce high-affinity IgM-RF molecules.

Identification of a novel human DRB1*13 allele by sequence-based DRB typing.

Herein, we report on a novel DRB1 allele (DRB1*1368) identified during sequence-based HLA-DRB typing. This new DRB1 allele is identical to DRB1*1301 at exon 2 except for a single-nucleotide substitution at codon 37, changing the amino acid Asn to Asp.