Prognostic relevance of sarcopenia, geriatric, and nutritional assessments in older patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: results of a multicentric prospective cohort study.

This prospective study aimed to investigate the prognostic effect of sarcopenia, geriatric, and nutritional status in older patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Ninety-five patients with DLBCL older than 70 years who were treated with immunochemotherapy were included. The lumbar L3 skeletal muscle index (L3-SMI) was measured by computed tomography at baseline, and sarcopenia was defined as low L3-SMI. Geriatric assessment included G8 score, CIRS-G scale, Timed Up and Go test, and instrumental activity of daily living. Nutritional status was assessed using the Mini Nutritional Assessment and the body mass index, and several scores used in the literature incorporating nutritional and inflammatory biomarkers, namely the Nutritional and inflammatory status (NIS), Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index, Prognostic Nutritional Index, and Glasgow Prognostic Score.Fifty-three patients were considered sarcopenic. Sarcopenic patients displayed higher levels of inflammation markers and lower levels of prealbumin than non-sarcopenic patients. Sarcopenia was associated with NIS, but was not associated with severe adverse events and treatment disruptions. They were, however, more frequent among patients with elevated NIS. Sarcopenia did not appear in this study as a prognostic factor for progression-free survival (PFS) or overall survival (OS). However, NIS emerged as predictive of the outcome with a 2-year PFS rate of 88% in the NIS ≤ 1 group and 49% in the NIS > 1 group and a significant effect in a multivariate analysis for both PFS (p = 0.049) and OS (HR = 9.61, CI 95% = [1.03-89.66], p = 0.04). Sarcopenia was not associated with adverse outcomes, but was related to NIS, which appeared to be an independent prognostic factor.

Retrospective analysis of the safety of peripherally inserted catheters versus implanted port catheters during first-line treatment for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

OBJECTIVES: Both peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) and implanted port catheters (PORTs) are commonly used for the delivery of immunochemotherapy. We compared the safety of the two types of devices in a homogeneous and monocentric population of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients who were treated with first-line immunochemotherapy by evaluating the numbers of catheter-related venous thromboses (VTs) and infections that occurred in the six months after implantation according to the type of device. METHODS: Using a propensity score, the adjusted relative risk (ARR) between the type of catheter and the occurrence of catheter-related complications (infection and/or VT) of interest was retrospectively determined. RESULTS: 479 patients were enrolled (266 PORTs/213 PICCs), and 26 VTs (5.4%) and 30 infections (6.3%) were identified in the period following PICC/PORT implantation. The adjusted relative risk (ARR) of catheter-related complications (infection and/or VT) according to the type of device was 2.6 (95% CI =1.3-5.9, p = .0075). This risk increase associated with the PICC device was significant for both infections (ARR = 3.2; 95% CI = 1.3-10.9) and thrombosis (ARR = 4; 95% CI = 1.5-11.6). CONCLUSION: Our study supports the preferential use of PORTs for the first line of treatment for DLBCL patients.

Complete hematologic response after belinostat treatment and allogeneic stem cell transplantation for multiple relapsed/refractory angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma: A case report.

Key Clinical Message: This case report highlights the potential of belinostat for the treatment of relapsed/refractory peripheral T-cell lymphomas, for which effective therapies are still scarce. Abstract: Peripheral T-cell lymphomas have an aggressive disease course associated with poor outcomes. We report a young patient with highly pretreated relapsed/refractory nodal follicular helper T-cell lymphoma (angioimmunoblastic-type [nTFHL-AI]), who successfully received an allogeneic stem cell transplantation following belinostat therapy. The complete hematologic response achieved has lasted more than 2 years.

Testing independence between two sequential gap times in the presence of covariates.

In the risk analysis of sequential events, the successive gap times are often correlated, e.g. as a result of an individual heterogeneity. Correlation is usually accounted for by using a shared gamma-frailty model, where the variance φ of the random individual effect quantifies the correlation between gap times. This method is known to yield satisfactory estimates of covariate effects, but underestimates φ, which could result in a lack of power of the test of independence. We propose a new test of independence between two sequential gap times where the first is the time elapsed from the origin. The test is based on an approximation of the hazard of the second event given the first gap time in a frailty model, with a frailty distribution belonging to the power variance function family. Simulation results show an increased power of the new test compared with the test derived from the gamma-frailty model. In the realistic case where hazards are event specific, and using event-specific approaches, the proposed estimation of the variance of the frailty is less biased than the gamma-frailty based estimation for a wide range of values (φ < 2.5 with the set of parameters considered), and similar for higher values. As an illustration, the methods are applied to a previously analysed asthma prevention trial with results showing a significant positive association between the successive times to asthmatic events. We also analyse data from a cohort of HIV-seropositive patients in order to assess the effect of risk factors on the occurrence of two successive markers of progression of the HIV disease. The results demonstrate the ability of the proposed model to account for negative correlations between gap times.