Light chain deposition disease: pathogenesis, clinical characteristics and treatment strategies.

Light chain deposition disease (LCDD) is a rare hematologic disorder characterized by the deposition of non-amyloid monoclonal light chains in several organs. Together with renal impairment is being the primary morbidity associated with this disease. Due to its rarity, randomized clinical trials lack to explore treatment strategies and there are no approved or universally accepted standard of care treatment options. We aimed to provide a systematic summary of histological and clinical aspects of LCDD and treatment options of available literature therapies strategies. Currently, drugs used to treat multiple myeloma are recommended when LCDD patients also presented multiple myeloma. Anyway, in patients with LCDD that is not associated to multiple myeloma, haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (ASCT) and chemotherapy with thalidomide, dexamethasone, bortezomib are also recommended. In eligible patients, bortezomib-based chemotherapy followed by ASCT appears to be an effective treatment option with durable hematologic remission and organ responses. Although it appears that the patients undergoing ASCT seem to achieve deeper and durable hematologic remissions and organ responses, no statistically significant superiority can be demonstrated over non-transplant or standard chemotherapy-based approaches. As retrieved by our review, bortezomib-based therapy appears to be favorable strategy as long as no dose modification is required for renal impairment, and early hematologic responses as a recovery of renal function. Encouraging data were also demonstrated by treatment lenalidomide or melpalan based. Moreover, new myeloma treatment strategies, as monoclonal antibody Daratumumab, seem to be effective in LCDD. Instead, renal allograft is not recommended, due to high incidence of relapse.

[18F]-florbetaben PET/CT is sensitive for cardiac AL amyloidosis.

Often differential diagnosis between AL and ATTR amyloidosis is difficult. Concerning ATTR, sensitive diagnostic tool, as diphosphonate scintigraphy, was validated, instead of no imaging approach is as accurate in AL. Cardiac ultrasound and circulating biomarkers may raise the clinical suspicion but biopsy remains the only option for diagnosis. We aimed to explore the sensitivity of 18F-Florbetaben PET respect to blood tests or periumbilical fat (POF), cardiac, bone marrow (BM) or other tissues biopsies in a cohort of 33 patients.

Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe COVID-19 in hematological patients who received or not pre-exposure prophylaxis with tixagevimab/cilgavimab: a target trial emulation.

We emulated a hypothetical target trial in which hematological subjects cared at the University Hospital of Pisa (Italy) received or not SARS-CoV-2 prophylaxis with tixagevimab/cilgavimab. Subjects who received prophylaxis (cases) were compared to those who did not (controls). The main outcome was SARS-CoV-2 infection in the subsequent 6 months. Inverse probability weighting (IPW) was used to adjust for confounders. A multivariable analysis was performed to identify variables associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. We recruited 462 patients: 228 received prophylaxis, 234 were controls. COVID-19 was lower in cases compared to controls (16.7% vs 24.8%, p = 0.03, after IPW 14.3% vs 24.6%, p = 0.01). On multivariable analysis, B-cell depleting therapies (HR 2.09, 95%CI 1.05-4.18, p = 0.037) were associated with increased risk of COVID-19, while tixagevimab/cilgavimab prophylaxis (HR 0.45, 95%CI 0.27-0.73, p = 0.001) and previous SARS-CoV-2 infection (HR 0.27, 95%CI 0.14-0.51, p < 0.001) were protective. In conclusion, prophylaxis with monoclonal antibodies may reduce the risk of COVID-19 in hematological patients.

Pre-existing frontal lobe dysfunction signs as predictors of subsequent neurotoxicity in CAR T cell therapy: insights from a case series.

BACKGROUND: Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapies are innovative treatments against hematological malignancies, with increasing therapeutic indications. Despite their great efficacy, these therapies are hampered by high rates of neurotoxicity (immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity (ICANS)). In the past few years, several risk factors have been associated with ICANS and grouped together in the attempt to build validated models able to predict neurologic complications. However, little is known about pre-existing neurologic conditions possibly related to the development of neurotoxicity. METHODS AND RESULTS: In our case series, including sixteen consecutive patients treated with CAR T cells, we observed that (i) neurotoxicity only occurred in the two patients who presented subtle clinical signs of frontal lobe impairment at baseline and (ii) neurologic manifestations of ICANS consisted of language disturbances and cortical frontal myoclonus, which were both manifestations of a frontal predominant dysfunction. DISCUSSION: Based on our experience, we suggest that a pre-existing frontal lobe impairment, even if at a subclinical level, may eventually drive to ICANS, which in turn shows symptoms compatible with a frontal encephalopathy. It is remarkable that this focal neurotoxicity involved the same CNS regions that were responsible of subtle neurological signs at baseline. Future studies on larger numbers of patients are needed to confirm the possible role of baseline frontal lobe dysfunction as a predictor of ICANS, in order to enhance efforts to safely deliver CAR T cell therapy.

Carfilzomib plus dexamethasone in patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma: A retro-prospective observational study.

OBJECTIVE: We investigate safety and efficacy in common clinical practice of the combination of carfilzomib and dexamethasone (Kd56) approved for the ENDEAVOR trial for the treatment of relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. METHODS: We retro-prospective analyzed 75 patients in three centers in Tuscany, 48 of whom had a clinically relevant comorbidity and 50 of whom were older than 65 years, treated with a median use in the fourth line of therapy. We assessed the efficacy based on the International Myeloma Working Group criteria. RESULTS: The overall response rate was 60%. Median PFS was 10 months in the general cohort; in patients treated for more than 1 cycle of therapy PFS was 12 months. Quality of response to Kd56 treatment was found to positively impact PFS. Refractory status to previous line of therapy or to lenalidomide or an history of exposure to pomalidomide, seemed to have no impact on survival. We also showed a low adverse events rate, with no neuropathy events, and a relatively small number of cardiovascular events above grade 3 (10%). CONCLUSION: Kd56 is an effective and well tolerated regimen in highly pretreated and elderly patients with a good safety profile.