Long-term results of brentuximab vedotin in relapsed and refractory Hodgkin lymphoma: multi-center real-life experience.

Classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) is considered a curable disease; however, approximately one-third of responders experience disease relapse following first-line therapy. Several studies have shown the efficacy of brentuximab vedotin (BV) in patients with relapsed/refractory HL. We present a retrospective analysis of 58 patients with relapsed/refractory HL treated with BV in a named patient program from 11 centers. The median follow-up duration was 20 (range, 4-84) months. The best overall response rate was 64% (complete response [CR], 31%; partial response [PR], 33%). The 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 12% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.05-0.22) and 26% (95% CI, 0.16-0.38), respectively. Among patients who achieved CR, the estimated 5-year PFS and OS rates were 32% (95% CI, 0.13-0.54) and 60% (95% CI, 0.33-0.78), respectively. A total of 26 patients underwent subsequent stem cell transplantation. The 5-year PFS and OS rates for 10 patients who had consolidative stem cell transplantation were 28% and 30%, respectively. Twenty-seven patients required further therapy following BV. At the time of the analysis, 12 patients (21%) were alive. Five patients (9%) had long-term remission after achieving CR with BV monotherapy, with a median PFS of 76 months. Three of them (5%) did not receive any other treatment following BV and their median PFS was 75 months. Our long-term results showed that a small subset of patients with relapsed/refractory cHL may benefit from and even be cured with BV monotherapy.

Complete heart block in a neutropenic patient with invasive aspergillosis.

A patient with leukemia who developed complete heart block after the diagnosis of pulmonary aspergillosis is reported. The patient had probable invasive pulmonary aspergillosis with a sudden tachypnea, dyspnea, fever, bilateral pulmonary infiltrates and acute respiratory insufficiency after chemotherapy. On the sixth day of antifungal therapy, she developed complete atrioventricular block. Complete heart block has not been reported during liposomal amphotericin B (LAMB) therapy. Local or hematogenous involvement of the myocardium with aspergillosis may be the most likely explanation of the complete heart block.

Serum mannose-binding lectin levels are decreased in behcet's disease and associated with disease severity.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate serum levels of mannose-binding lectin (MBL), a complement-like protein of collectin family, in patients with Behcet's disease (BD). METHODS: MBL levels were measured in sera of 130 patients with BD, 64 patients with recurrent oral ulcerations (ROU), and 105 healthy controls (HC) with ELISA. RESULTS: Patients with BD had significantly lower median serum MBL levels compared to HC (1857 vs 3136 ng/ml, p = 0.001). No significant difference was observed in median serum MBL levels between BD and ROU (2309 ng/ml, p = 0.252). Low MBL levels (/= 4) was more frequently observed in BD patients with very low serum MBL levels (

Myelodysplastic syndrome with pseudoreticulocytosis.

A patient with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) with refractory anemia who had marked reticulocytosis in the absence of hemolytic anemia and/or blood loss is reported. Erythrocyte survival test showed that more than 50% of the patient's reticulocytes were still present on day seven. This should be due to the prolongation of reticulocyte maturation in MDS, and is known as pseudoreticulocytosis. This phenomenon which mimicks hemolytic anemia is an unusual presentation of myelodysplastic syndrome, with only 7 patients with pseudoreticulocytosis being reported previously.