[Efficacy of a bendamustine and rituximab combination in first-line therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia: Results of the BEN-001 study]. / Éffektivnost' kombinatsii bendamustina i rituksimaba v pervoi linii terapii KhLL: rezul'taty issledovaniia BEN-001.

AIM: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of the BR regimen containing bendamustine in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who have not previously received specific therapy. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The results of the Russian prospective observational multicenter study BEN-001 (2012-2015) covering 196 CLL patients from 34 centers of the Russian Federation were analyzed. The diagnosis was confirmed by the results of peripheral blood lymphocyte immunophenotyping. A centralized approach was employed to make IGHV gene mutational status analysis, FISH examination, and minimal residual disease according to standardized methods. Quality-of-life (QOL) indicators were estimated using the EQ-5D and FACT-Leu questionnaires. Survival rates were calculated applying by the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: The patients' median age was 61 years. 41% of patients had a decline in estimated creatinine clearance less than 70 ml/min/1.73 m2. The combination of bendamustine and rituximab could achieve a common response in 83.2% of the patients, including complete remission in 59.7%. Eradication of minimal residual disease was achieved in 23 (27.4%) of 84 patients. Two-year progression-free survival rates were 85.9%. The QOL indicators were noted to be improved during the treatment. CONCLUSION: The investigation shows the good tolerability of bendamustine when it is used in clinical practice. Due to the high cost of new drugs (ibrutinib, obinutuzumab, ofatumumab, etc.) and toxicity of the FCR regimen, the combination including bendamustine can be the best first-line therapy option for all CLL patients, regardless of their age and comorbidity.

MARKERS OF THE PROSTATE BASAL LAYER CELLS ARE EFFECTIVE INDICATORS OF ITS MALIGNANT TRANSFORMATION.

Development of local or general forms of prostate cancer (PC) depends on formation of metastasis the biological nature of which is based on epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT). ÅÌÒ presents highly conservative reversible program that is maintained by specific transcription factors which suppress E-cadherin expression and support production of mesenchymal polarity factors. The goal of this work was to study the functionally distinct markers in malignant prostate tissue of patients with prostate cancer using the histological evaluation, reverse polymerase chain reaction and immunobloting. Our results showed that mostly evident alterations in prostate tissue of patients with prostate cancer were associated with the cells of basal layer. Expression levels of the markers of this layer: Å-cadherin and ÑK5, were decreased, while that of AMACR ­ increased. These results support an idea that the basal cells are primarily targeted during transformation and acquired the luminal phenotype in the course of the following differentiation. The functional analysis of these results may be performed in future using selected prostate cancer stem cells.