A CD36-dependent non-canonical lipid metabolism program promotes immune escape and resistance to hypomethylating agent therapy in AML.

Environmental lipids are essential for fueling tumor energetics, but whether these exogenous lipids transported into cancer cells facilitate immune escape remains unclear. Here, we find that CD36, a transporter for exogenous lipids, promotes acute myeloid leukemia (AML) immune evasion. We show that, separately from its established role in lipid oxidation, CD36 on AML cells senses oxidized low-density lipoprotein (OxLDL) to prime the TLR4-LYN-MYD88-nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) pathway, and exogenous palmitate transfer via CD36 further potentiates this innate immune pathway by supporting ZDHHC6-mediated MYD88 palmitoylation. Subsequently, NF-κB drives the expression of immunosuppressive genes that inhibit anti-tumor T cell responses. Notably, high-fat-diet or hypomethylating agent decitabine treatment boosts the immunosuppressive potential of AML cells by hijacking CD36-dependent innate immune signaling, leading to a dampened therapeutic effect. This work is of translational interest because lipid restriction by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved lipid-lowering statin drugs improves the efficacy of decitabine therapy by weakening leukemic CD36-mediated immunosuppression.

[Efficacy and Safety of Decitabine Combined with Modified CAG Regimen in Patients Aged ≥ 70 Years with Newly Diagnosed Acute Myeloid Leukemia].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of decitabine combined with modified CAG regimen (D-CAG regimen) in patients aged ≥70 years with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML). METHODS: The clinical data of 59 AML patients (≥70 years old) who were newly diagnosed and treated in the Hematology Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from November 2010 to June 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Among the 59 AML patients, 28 were males and 31 were females, with a median age of 74 (70-86) years. The complete remission (CR) rate was 69.4% (34/49), and the median duration of CR was 10.7 (0.6-125.4) months after 2 courses of D-CAG treatment. According to the British Medical Research Council (MRC) classification, there was only one patient in the favorable-risk group, and the CR rate was 71.8% (28/39) in the intermediate-risk group, and 55.6% (5/9) in the adverse-risk group, respectively. There was no statistical difference in the CR rate between the intermediate-risk and adverse-risk group. Referring to ELN 2017 genetic risk classification, CR rate was 88.2% (15/17) in the favorable-risk group, 45.5% (5/11) in the intermediate-risk group, and 66.7% (14/21) in the adverse-risk group. There was no significant difference in CR rate between the favorable-risk and adverse-risk categories, but both were significantly higher than that in the intermediate-risk group (P <0.05). Next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis showed that 11 gene mutations with a frequency of more than 10%, including TET2 mutation (35.6%), ASXL1 mutation (30.5%), NPM1 mutation (28.8%), FLT3-ITD mutation (27.1%), DNMT3A mutation (22.0%), IDH1 mutation (15.3%), CEBPA single mutation (13.6%), TP53 mutation (13.6%), IDH2 mutation (11.9%), RUNX1 mutation (11.9%), and NRAS mutation (10.2%). There were no statistical differences in mutation frequency of these 11 genes between CR group and non-CR group. Compared with normal karyotypes, patients with complex karyotypes were more likely to develop TP53 mutations (P <0.001), while FLT3-ITD and DNMT3A mutations were more likely to occur in patients with normal karyotypes (P =0.04, P =0.047). The median follow-up, overall survival (OS), and event-free survival (EFS) of all the patients was 11.7 (1.5-128.2) months, 12.3 (1.5-128.2) months, and 8.5 (1.5-128.2) months, respectively. The median OS and EFS of CR patients were 19.8 and 13.3 months, respectively, which were significantly longer than 6.4 and 5.7 months in patients experiencing treatment failure (P < 0.001, P =0.009). In regard to genes with mutation frequency >10%, there were no statistical differences in CR rate, median OS, and median EFS between mutated and wild-type patients by Chi-square test and survival analysis. Univariate analysis showed that age, hemoglobin, lactate dehydrogenase, cytogenetics and CR were factors affecting prognosis, while multivariate analysis showed that only CR failure was an independent adverse prognostic factor for OS. The major adverse reactions to D-CAG regimen were grade 3-4 myelosuppression, pulmonary infection, and fever (infection focus was not identified). CONCLUSION: D-CAG regimen is safe and effective in the treatment of AML patients ≥70 years old, and can partially improve the prognosis of elderly and high-risk patients.

[The Risk and Survival Analysis of Multiple Malignancies in Hematologic Malignancy Patients: A Single Chinese Center Retrospective Study, 2009 through 2017].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the risk and location of multiple malignancies in patients with hematologic malignancies who were followed up for 9 years in Jiangsu Province Hospital and to evaluate the impact of the second primary malignancy on survival of patients. METHODS: The incidence and survival of multiple malignancies in 7 921 patients with hematologic malignancies from 2009 to 2017 were analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: A total of 180 (2.3%, 180/7 921) patients developed second malignancy, of whom 58 patients were diagnosed with hematologic malignancies as the first primary malignancy, and 98 patients developed hematologic malignancies as second primary malignancy, and the other 24 cases were diagnosed with the second malignancy within 6 months after the first primary malignancy was diagnosed, which was difined as multiple malignancies occurring simultaneously. In 180 patients, 18 cases developed two hematologic malignancies successively, and 11 patients developed more than 3 primary cancers (among them, 2 female patients were diagnosed with 4 primary cancers). Patients with lymphoma and multiple myeloma (MM) as the second primary malignancy had poorer survival than patients with lymphoma and MM as the first primary malignancy. Patients with chronic myeloid leukemia as the second primary malignancy were also associated with inferior overall survival. CONCLUSION: In this study, 2.3% of hematologic malignancy patients had multiple mali-gnancies, lymphoma and MM as the second primary malignancy had poor survival.

[The Expression and Function of NK Cells in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the expression characteristics of antigens and functional markers of natural killer (NK) cells in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). METHODS: Multi-parameter flow cytometry was used to detect NK cell surface markers and their functional indicators in 56 newly diagnosed AML patients and 24 healthy controls, including activating receptors NKG2D, NKP46, DNAM-1, and killing indicators granzyme B, perforin. RESULTS: Referring to the WHO hematopoiesis and lymph tissue tumor classification criteria, 56 cases were roughly divided into three types: AML M1, M2, and M4/M5. However, there was no differences about NK cells among the three types, so it was no longer subdivided. NK cells were divided into two groups: CD3-CD56hiCD16- (CD56hiNK) and CD3-CD56dimCD16+ (CD56dimNK). Compared with CD56dimNK cell population, except for NKP46, the positive expression levels of NKG2D and other receptors of CD56hiNK cells in AML patients decreased (P<0.001). Compared with healthy controls, the proportion of CD56hiNK cells in AML patients increased, while the number and proportion of NK cells and proportion of CD56dimNK cells significantly decreased (P<0.05). The proportion of perforin in CD56hiNK cells significantly increased (P<0.05). The expression of DNAM-1 in CD56hiNK cells, NKG2D, DNAM-1, and perforin in CD56dimNK cells decreased significantly (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in expression of other functional indexes in AML patients compared with corresponding indexes of healthy controls. In addition, the proportion of CD56hiNK cells was positively correlated with the expression of CD34+ in AML (r=0.303). CONCLUSION: Compared with CD56dimNK, the ratio of CD56hiNK and the expression of functional markers in AML patients are lower. Compared with healthy controls, the number and expression ratio of NK cells in AML patients decrease and the expression of functional markers is abnormal, indicating that its function is impaired.

[Analysis of the Differential Expression of circRNA in Acute Myeloid Leukemia by GEO Database].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the difference expression of circular RNA (circRNA) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) by using bioinformatics method. METHODS: The microarray chip data of AML was searched and downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) of the National Center for Bioinformatics (NCBI). The differences between AML samples and control samples were analyzed by R software. The interaction between deregulated circRNA, miRNA and mRNA were predicted by miranda software and miRTarBase software. The circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory network was constructed by using the cytoHubba plugin based on the Cytoscape software. RESULTS: A total of 203 differential expression of circRNAs were finally collected, including down-regulated 161 circRNAs and up-regulated 42 circRNAs. CircRNA/miRNA/mRNA interaction network was constructed through software prediction. hsa_circ_0001080, hsa_circ_0004511, hsa_circ_0054211, hsa_circ_0001944 may be positively regulated the gene expression in AML. CONCLUSION: Abnormal expression of circRNA in AML may become a new target for AML treatment.

[A Retrospective Analysis of TKI Discontinuation in Patients with CML].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the clinical characteristics of the patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) discontinued tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) therapy and the outcome of the patients. METHODS: 35 cases of CML patients experienced initiative discontinuation of TKI therapy in our hospital from June 1st 2015 to December 31th 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. The TFR of the patients and the factors affecting it were analyzed. RESULTS: The median duration of TKI administration was 72 (range 35-173) months in the 35 patients. Among these patients, 8 had experienced TKI dose reduction or suspension. All the enrolled patients have achieved at least MMR. The median time for these patients achieving MMR was 15 (range 3-75) months after administration of TKI, and for MMR maintenance before TKI suspension was 55 (range 13-164) months. After TKI withdrawal the median follow up time was 20.3 (range 3-57.9) months, 22 out of 35 patients kept TFR, among them, 2 （5.71%） patients restarted TKI after 12 month suspension, and maintained MMR during suspension. 13 （37.1%）patients lost MMR, among them, 9 patients restarted TKI treatment, and 5 of them achieved MR4.0 after the median duration of 3(2-5) month. No patients were found to have disease progression. The estimated TFR rate was 57.8% and 51.8% at 12 and 24 months after discontinuation, respectively. Other clinical characteristic related to relapse were also analyzed, including the cumulative TKI administration duration, cumulative MMR duration, time to achieve MMR, median age at diagnosis, risk stratification by Sokal score, TKI dose reduction and discontinuation history, and second-generation TKI administration before stopping TKI, however, no statistical difference was found. CONCLUSION: TKI discontinuation is practical for CML patients in our center.

Decitabine in combination with low-dose cytarabine, aclarubicin and G-CSF tends to improve prognosis in elderly patients with high-risk AML.

We evaluated the risk status and survival outcomes of 125 elderly acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients treated with decitabine in combination with low-dose cytarabine, aclarubicin, and G-CSF (D-CAG). The risk status was evaluated by determining the frequency of recurring gene mutations using next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis of 23 selected genes and cytogenetic profiling of bone marrow samples at diagnosis. After a median follow-up of 12 months (range: 2-82 months), 86 patients (68.8%) had achieved complete remission after one cycle of induction, and 94 patients (75.2%) had achieved it after two cycles. The median overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were 16 and 12 months, respectively. In 21 AML patients aged above 75 years, the median OS and DFS were longer in the low- and intermediate-risk group than the high-risk group, but the differences were not statistically significant. The median OS and DFS were similar in patients with or without TET2, DNMT3A, IDH2, TP53 and FLT3 mutations. Multivariate analysis showed that patient age above 75 years, high-risk status, and genetic anomalies, like deletions in chromosomes 5 and/or 7, were significant variables in predicting OS. D-CAG regimen tends to improve the prognosis of a subgroup of elderly patients with high-risk AML.

[Distribution of Natural Killer Cell in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Myelodysplastic Syndromes and Its Correlation with Prognosis].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the distribution of peripheral blood lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells, and its influence on the prognosis of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). METHODS: The lymphocytes proportion, absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC), NK cell proportion and absolute NK cell counts (ANKC) as well as the related data of 95 MDS patients diagnosed between 2013 and 2017 analyzed retrospectively. The correlation of ALC and ANKC with prognosis was also analyzed. RESULTS: As compared with low ALC patients, MDS patients with ALC≥0.885×109/L had a higher overall response rate (66.7% vs 35.8%) (P＜0.01). The ALC of effective patients after treatment significatitly increased in compaison of ALC at diagnosis. Multivariate analysis indicated that patients with ALC≥0.885×109/L had long overall survival (OS) time in comparison with patients with low level (16.4 vs 12.4 months) (P＜0.05). The OS time of patients with ANKC≥0.110×109/L was shorter in comparison with patients with low level (10.9 vs 16.3 months) (P＜0.01). Otherwise, blast, cytogenetic risks and treatment response were also independent risk factors of MDS (P＜0.05). Revised International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R) combined with ANKC could improve predictive accuracy of IPSS-R alone (AUC 0.718 vs 0.674) (P＜0.05). CONCLUSION: Lymphocytes and NK cells are important for the prognosis evaluation of MDS patients.

[Analysis of Clinical and Laboratory Features of Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia(AML)-M1/M2 with Cuplike Nuclei Morphology].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical and laboratory features of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with cuplike nuclei morphology. METHODS: One hundred and seventy patients diagnosed with AML (M1andM2) between December 2009 and December 2016 were included in the study. Bone marrow smears were prepared for morphologic alanalysis, the immunophenotype was analyzed by flow cytometry and the RHG-banding was for conventional cytogenetic assay (CCA) ,gene mutation was detected by sequencing. RESULTS: Among the 170 AMLpatients, 67 were diagnosed as M1 and 103 patients was diagnosed as M2, 43 patients(25.3%) defined as cuplike nuclei-positive, among them 38patients (88.4%) were M1 while only 5 patients (11.6%) were with M2(P<0.01). No significant value about sex(P> 0.05) between cuplike nuclei-positive and -negative group, while older patients were found in cuplike nuclei-positive group (P<0.05). Higher peroxydas (POX) ratio (P<0.05) and integration (P<0.05) were found in cuplike nuclei- positive group. Furthermore, the patients with cuplike nuclei-positive lack the expressions of CD34 (P<0.01) and HLA-DR(P<0.01) while no other immunophenotype markers were found. Among the 152 patients (89.4%) for genetic analysis ,83.8% karyotype of the cuplike nuclei-positive group were normal while only 54.8 of negative group was normal by CCA. Molecular biology analysis showed that the patients in cuplike nuclei-positive group have significantly highe rNMP1 (P<0.01) and FLT3(P<0.01) mutations as compared with the negative group. Furthermore, the relationship of the ratio o fcuplike nuclei and the type of gene mutations were investigated, and no significant associations were found. However, it was found that the patients with FLT3 mutation displayed more biological nuclear invagination than the patients with NPM1 mutations (P<0/01). CONCLUSION: AML patients with positive cuplike nuclei have characteristic morphological changes, typical immunophenotype with HLA-DR- and CD34-, normal karyotype accompanied by NPM1 and FLT3 mutations.

[Mean Corpuscular Volume Can Be A Predictor for Therapeutic Response of Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia].

OBJECTIVE: The past studies found that the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with imatinib can induce the macrocytic anemia, moreover the incidence of anemia increases along with enhancement of imatinib concentration. This study was aimed to evaluate the potential relation of erythrocyte mean corpuscular volume (MCV) increase after the treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) with the therapeutic response in patients with CML-chronic phase (CML-CP). METHODS: The clinical and hematologic data including MCV, molecular and cytogenetic response of 119 patients with CML-CP were collected after treatment with TKIs, and the relation of MCV changes after treatment with the clinical characteristics and therapeutic efficacy for patients with CML-CP was analyzed. RESULTS: The MCV in patients treated with TKIs for 12 months significantly increased as compared with that at initial diagnosis (P<0.05). The proportion of patients with increased MCV in group of complete cytogenetic response (CCyR) was significantly higher than that in group of non-CCyR (P<0.05). As compared with decreased MCV group, the patients in increased MCV group much more easily achieved CCyR after treatment for 6, 12 months (P<0.05, P<0.05) respectively, furthermore, much more easily maintained MMR (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The MCV as a parameter which is easily acquired may be a new marker for prodecting the therapeutic response of patients treated with TKIs.

HLA-Mismatched Microtransplant in Older Patients Newly Diagnosed With Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Results From the Microtransplantation Interest Group.

IMPORTANCE: The outcome of older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains unsatisfactory. Recent studies have shown that HLA-mismatched microtransplant could improve outcomes in such patients. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate outcomes in different age groups among older patients with newly diagnosed AML who receive HLA-mismatched microtransplant. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This multicenter clinical study included 185 patients with de novo AML at 12 centers in China, the United States, and Spain in the Microtransplantation Interest Group. Patients were divided into the following 4 age groups: 60 to 64 years, 65 to 69 years, 70 to 74 years, and 75 to 85 years. The study period was May 1, 2006, to July 31, 2015. EXPOSURES: Induction chemotherapy and postremission therapy with cytarabine hydrochloride with or without anthracycline, followed by highly HLA-mismatched related or fully mismatched unrelated donor cell infusion. No graft-vs-host disease prophylaxis was used. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary end point of the study was to evaluate the complete remission rates, leukemia-free survival, and overall survival in different age groups. Additional end points of the study included hematopoietic recovery, graft-vs-host disease, relapse rate, nonrelapse mortality, and other treatment-related toxicities. RESULTS: Among 185 patients, the median age was 67 years (range, 60-85 years), and 75 (40.5%) were female. The denominators in adjusted percentages in overall survival, leukemia-free survival, relapse, and nonrelapse mortality are not the sample proportions of observations. The overall complete remission rate was not significantly different among the 4 age groups (75.4% [52 of 69], 70.2% [33 of 47], 79.1% [34 of 43], and 73.1% [19 of 26). The 1-year overall survival rates were 87.7%, 85.8%, and 77.8% in the first 3 age groups, which were much higher than the rate in the fourth age group (51.7%) (P = .004, P = .008, and P = .04, respectively). The 2-year overall survival rates were 63.7% and 66.8% in the first 2 age groups, which were higher than the rates in the last 2 age groups (34.2% and 14.8%) (P = .02, P = .03, P < .001, and P < .001, respectively). The 1-year cumulative incidences of nonrelapse mortality were 10.2%, 0%, 3.4%, and 26.0% in the 4 age groups and 8.1% in all patients. The median times to neutrophil and platelet recovery were 12 days and 14 days after induction chemotherapy, respectively. Five patients had full or mixed donor engraftment, and 30.8% (8 of 26) of patients demonstrated donor microchimerism. Two patients (1.1%) developed severe acute graft-vs-host disease. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Microtransplant achieved a high complete remission rate in AML patients aged 60 to 85 years and higher 1-year overall survival in those aged 60 to 74 years.

[Distribution of Type 9 T Helper Cells and Expression of Transcriptional Factors in Acute Myeloid Leukemia].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the distribution of T helper (Th9) cells and its relationship with clinical characteristics of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and to analyze the activating levels of different transcriptional factors in Th9 cells. METHODS: The peripheral blood specimens of 102 AML patients and 83 healthy persons as controls were collected, then the T cells of peripheral blood in AML patients and controls were isolated by using CD3 magnetic beads, the mRNA expression of IL-9 was detected by real-time quantitative PCR, the Th9(CD4+IL-9+) cell levels in diffrent stages and activating level of Th9 coexpression with IL-9 were detected by flow cytometry. RESULTS: The mRNA expression of IL-9 in peripheral blood of AML M2 and M3 patients was significantly higher than that in control groups (P<0.01), at same time the CD4+IL-9+ cell rate was significantly higher than that in control group also(P<0.01). The results of dynamically monitoring the distribution of Th9 cells in AML-M2 and M3 patients showed that the Th9 cell rate and the mRNA expression of IL-9 in newly diagnosed M2 and M3, and relapsed M2 groups were significantly higher than those of M2 and M3 in remission (P<0.01); the detection results of IL-9- co-expression with transcriptional factors (SMAD3+, IRF-1+ and IRF-4+) indicated that the percantage of Th9 pSMAD3+ cells in peripheral blood of newly diagnosed and relapsed M2 and M3 patients was significantly higher than that in M2 and M3 patients in remission (P<0.01); on the contrary, the percentage of Th9 IRF-1+ cells in peripheral blood of M2 and M3 patients in remission was significantly higher than that in newly diagnosed M2 and M3 patients (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: The distribution of T helper cells in peripheral blood of AML-M2 and M3 patients significantly increases, moreover, correlates with disease status. The prediction of Th9 cell functions should be performed in combination with it transcriptional factors which have inmportant significance for microenvironment of tumors in AML patients.

TP53-induced glycolysis and apoptosis regulator protects from spontaneous apoptosis and predicts poor prognosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

OBJECTIVES: Circulating chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells appear not to be overly utilizing aerobic glycolysis. However, recurrent contact with CLL cells in a stromal microenvironment leads to increased aerobic glycolysis and the cells' overall glycolytic capacity, which promotes cell survival and proliferation. TP53-induced glycolysis and apoptosis regulator (TIGAR) has been directly implicated in cellular metabolism in the control of glycolysis. TIGAR inhibits glycolysis and protects cells from intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS)-associated apoptosis. METHODS: TIGAR mRNA expression was investigated by quantitative PCR in 102 newly diagnosed CLL patients. Furthermore, the relationship between the expression of TIGAR and its clinical characteristics and prognosis were investigated. Moreover, we also investigated the correlation between TIGAR expression and apoptosis in primary CLL cells. RESULTS: Our data revealed that TIGAR overexpression was correlated with the protection from spontaneous apoptosis in CLL cells, and is strongly associated with advanced Binet stage, unmutated immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable region (IGHV) status, CD38 positivity, ß2-microglobulin and p53 aberrations. Higher expression of TIGAR was associated with shorter treatment-free survival (median: three months vs. 51 months, P=0.0108), worse overall survival (median: 74 months vs. not reached, P=0.0242), and the diverse responses to fludarabine-based chemotherapy. TIGAR expression in patients resistant to chemotherapy was significantly higher than in patients sensitive to chemotherapy (mean: 0.3859±0.1710 vs. 0.0974±0.0291, P=0.0290). CONCLUSION: Taken together, our findings revealed that high TIGAR expression is closely correlated with worse clinical outcome in CLL patients, and depicted how bioenergetic characteristics could be therapeutically exploited in CLL.

[Nilotinib treatment for patients with imatinib-resistant or intolerant chronic myeloid leukemia].

This study was purposed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of nilotinib for treating patients with imatinib-resistant or intolerant chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). A total of 23 patients with imatinib-resistant or intolerant CML were enrolled in this study. These patients received nilotinib orally 600-800 mg every day, their curative efficacy, tolerance and overal survival were evaluated. The results showed that all the patients treated with nilotinib obtained complete hematologic remission (CHR), out of them 82.6% patients achieved complete cytogenetic remission (CCyR) and 56.5% patients achieved complete molecular remission (CMR), their adverse events mostly were mild to moderate, generally were transient and easily cured; the median treatment time with nilotinib was 13.5 (1-44) months, and the median follow-up time was 40 (12-102) months. It is concluded that nilotinib has been confirmed to be effective for patients with imatinib-resistant or intolerant CML, and may be selected as a second generation of tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI).

Haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation following myeloablative conditioning regimens in hematologic diseases with G-CSF-mobilized peripheral blood stem cells grafts without T cell depletion: a single center report of 38 cases.

Many Chinese patients with hematologic diseases, who need allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), lack a human leukocyte antigen-matched donor. To save these patients and to avoid collecting donor bone marrow graft, we adopted haploidentical peripheral blood HSCT with granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) mobilized peripheral blood stem cells as the grafts without ex vivo T cell depletion. Thirty-eight patients were enrolled, and they received myeloablative preconditioning. Thirty-five patients attained a successful neutrophil and platelet recovery. The median time for the neutrophil recovery was 16 days (range of 10-23 days), and the median time for the platelet recovery was 19 days (range of 10-66 days). During the follow-up at a median time of 33.1 weeks (range of 1.1-412.6 weeks), eleven (28.9 %) patients developed aGVHD grade I-II and seven (18.4 %) patients developed aGVHD grade III-IV. The incidence of cGVHD was 27.6 %, and nine (23.7 %) patients died within the first 100 days after transplantation. The cumulative survival proportions at 1 and 2 years were 52.51 ± 8.57 % and 43.76 ± 9.11 %, respectively. These results suggested that the G-CSF-primed peripheral blood stem cell grafts, without in vitro T cell depletion, could be an appropriate stem cell source for Haplo-HSCT.

High-dose idarubicin plus busulfan as conditioning regimen to autologous stem cell transplantation: promising post-remission therapy for acute myeloid leukemia in first complete remission?

The optimal post-remission therapy (PRT) for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains uncertain. We reported 32 AML patients in first complete remission (CR1) undergoing autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (ASCT) with a characteristic conditioning regimen, termed I-Bu, based on high-dose idarubicin plus busulfan, which considerably strengthened antileukemic activity. Most patients were in better or intermediate-risk group except that cytogenetic or molecular risk information was missing for 18.7 % of the patients. Unpurged peripheral blood stem cells were used in all the cases. The adverse effects were mild and reversible. Only one case of transplant-related mortality was observed. All the patients in this study acquired hematopoietic reconstitution after ASCT. After a median follow-up of 30 (6-119) months, 24 patients (75.0 %) were alive in which 20 (62.5 %) patients were in continuous CR. There were 11 (34.4 %) patients who relapsed after HSCT. Cumulative relapse probability was about 40 % after 24 months. Median OS and DFS have not been reached. Patients in the better and intermediate-risk group had different clinical outcomes, but the differences were not statistically significant. ASCT with I-Bu regimen is possibly promising PRT for better and intermediate-risk AML patients in CR1.

Clinical efficacy and safety of imatinib in the management of Ph(+) chronic myeloid or acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Chinese patients.

Imatinib mesylate is considered the standard first-line systemic treatment for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and functions by targeting BCR-ABL tyrosine kinases. Imatinib has substantially changed the clinical management and improved the prognosis of CML and Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphocytic leukemia (Ph(+) ALL). Here, we review the pharmacology, mode of action, and pharmacokinetics of imatinib; Chinese efficacy studies in CML and Ph(+) ALL; safety and tolerability; patient-focused perspectives, such as quality of life, patient satisfaction, acceptability, and adherence; and uptake of imatinib.