Hypovitaminosis D in Haematological Malignancies: Cause or Consequence?

Vitamin D is a pleiotropic hormone, widely controversial for its role in the development of chronic diseases and cancers, including haematological malignancies, and also for its impact on overall survival. Observational and interventional studies are being conducted on hypovitaminosis D and haematological malignancies and their subtypes in order to improve the therapeutic management of patients. We carried out a prospective observational study over three years on a population of 251 patients followed up for newly diagnosed haematological malignancies to investigate the impact of vitamin D deficiency on this category of patients. Our population was dominated by the lymphoproliferative syndrome and included 125 patients (49.8%). Anthropometric data showed a significant difference in body mass index between the sexes with a p value of 0.001. Vitamin D levels at diagnosis were inadequate in more than half the patients (56%). This hypovitaminosis was linked to the female sex (p = 0.006), obesity (p = 0.031) and the digestive involvement of the lymphoma (p = 0.03). There was also a relationship between vitamin D deficiency and hypoalbuminemia (p = 0.02). This relationship was confirmed in multivariate analysis, with hypoalbuminemia being a factor associated with the deficiency (p = 0.022, OR = 0.95, IC95% 0.91-0.93). However, we did not find any impact on overall survival.

[Prolonged molecular response induced by imatinib in Philadelphia positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia A case report and brief review]. / Rémission moléculaire prolongée induite par l'imatinib dans la leucémie aiguë lymphoblastique avec chromosome de Philadelphie Cas clinique et revue de la littérature.

Philadelphia or BCR-ABL positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (PH+ ALL) is the most common and severe of adult ALL. The only potentially curator treatment remains allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells transplantation (SCT) in first complete remission. The use of imatinib has revolutionized the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia. Its incorporation into PH + ALL protocols also improved the prognosis of this disease giving better complete remission rates compared to chemotherapy alone. The treatment of patients not eligible for SCT remains controversial. Prolonged use of high dose tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) (ie: imatinib at 600 or 800 mg/j) as maintenance therapy seems to be a reasonable approach. We present a case of prolonged molecular remission of PH+ ALL under TKI alone as maintenance therapy.