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Considerable progress has been made in treatment of patients with CLL, and new potent drugs have become available. Therefore the Dutch CLL guidelines were revised. Efficacy, quality of life and socio-economic impact were taken into account. This has led to guidelines with chemo-immunotherapy still as the cornerstone of CLL treatment and with novel targeted drugs for specific risk-groups. Introduction: In recent years, considerable progress has been made in the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and new potent drugs have become available. Therefore, the CLL working party revised the Dutch guidelines. Not only efficacy but also quality of life and socio-economic impact were taken into account in the formulation of treatment recommendations. Materials and Methods: The working party discussed a set of questions regarding diagnostic tests and treatment and wrote the draft guideline. This was evidence-based whenever possible, but in cases of low evidence, an expert-based recommendation was formulated with input of the entire working party. The draft guideline was sent to all hematologists in the Netherlands for comment and was subsequently approved. Results: Recommendations were formulated on diagnostic tests and work-up before treatment. Also, recommendations were made for treatment with fludarabine-cyclophosphamide-rituximab, bendamustine-rituximab, chlorambucil with anti-CD20 antibody, ibrutinib, idelalisib-rituximab, venetoclax, and allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Conclusion: In the revised Dutch CLL guidelines, chemo-immunotherapy is still the cornerstone of CLL treatment with novel targeted drugs for specific risk groups. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

One of the major complications that limit the success of allogeneic stem cell transplantation is graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The major target organ in GVHD is the skin. Cutaneous GVHD can eventually lead to fibrosis of the skin. Fibronectin mediates a variety of cellular interactions with the extracellular matrix. The molecular and functional diversity of fibronectin (FN) arises from alternative splicing of pre-mRNA. In normal circumstances endothelial cells and fibroblasts synthesize FN without the ED-A domain. In tissue repair and pathologic circumstances such as fibrosis, the ED-A domain is expressed. We hypothesize that expression of ED-A FN is upregulated in patients with cutaneous GVHD. In frozen skin biopsies the expression of ED-A FN was measured at the protein level by immunohistochemistry and at the mRNA level by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). In normal control skin, immunohistochemistry showed slight deposits of ED-A FN just under the basal layer. The expression of ED-A FN significantly increased in acute cutaneous GVHD (p

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is an important determinant of long-term morbidity and mortality in allogeneic stem cell transplantation patients. Because cGVHD has clinical, histologic, and laboratory findings of autoimmune diseases and anti–B-cell therapy has shown efficacy in autoimmune diseases, we hypothesized that monoclonal anti-CD20 antibody therapy might improve patients with cGVHD. We treated 5 men and 1 woman with therapy-refractory extensive cGVHD with anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody. Intravenous infusion was given at a weekly dose of 375 mg/m2 for 4 weeks. In case of incomplete clinical response, additional courses of 4 weeks were given. Five patients responded to treatment with marked clinical, biochemical, and histologic improvement. One patient failed to respond. Anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody seems to be effective in cGVHD. A controlled trial is mandatory to confirm these results. The outcome of this study suggests a participating role of B cells in the pathogenesis of cGVHD.

The success of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is limited by the major complications, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and relapse. The very beneficial effect of maximal T-cell depletion of the graft for prevention of GVHD has been counterbalanced by an increase in graft failure and relapse of disease. Therefore, we started an approach of partial T-cell depletion of the graft. GVHD and graft-versus-leukaemia (GVL) are strongly correlated after non-T cell-depleted BMT. Here, we report whether the correlation between GVHD and GVL also exists in partial T cell-depleted BMT from sibling donors. We retrospectively studied 117 adult patients with early haematological malignancies. Our method of partial T-cell depletion gave a relapse rate in patients with acute leukaemias similar to that observed in non-T cell-depleted BMT. However, patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia had a relapse rate that was similar to that observed in maximal T cell-depleted BMT. We found a significant correlation between the presence of chronic GVHD and an improved disease-free survival. Nevertheless, overall survival was lower in patients with chronic GVHD. There was no correlation between the occurrence of acute GVHD and disease-free or overall survival.

Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the innate immunity receptor NOD2/CARD15 have been demonstrated to modulate the outcome of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT). The effect of NOD2/CARD15 polymorphism is reported to be associated with type of donor (sibling or matched unrelated donor) as well as type of conditioning regimen. We reviewed NOD2/CARD15 SNPs in all donor/recipient pairs of 192 consecutive patients who received nonmyeloablative allogeneic SCT at our institution between 2002 and 2006. All patients were treated with fludarabine 30 mg/m(2)/day for 3 days followed by 200 cGy total-body irradiation (TBI) (n = 154) or TBI alone (n = 38) and received grafts from HLA-matched related (n = 132) or unrelated (n = 61) donors. NOD2/CARD15 polymorphisms were observed in 36 of 192 (19%) patients and in 35 of 192 (18%) donors. The incidences of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD, cGVHD) were 39% and 49%, respectively, in patients with NOD2/CARD15 variants versus 51% and 61% in patients with wild type. The relapse rate at 3 years was 38% in patients with variants and 36% in patients with wild type. The incidence of transplant-related mortality was 22% for patients with variants and 21% for patients with wild type. Overall survival (OS) at 3 years was 56% in patients with variants and 64% in patients with wild-type NOD2/CARD15. There was no significant impact of NOD2/CARD15 mutations on clinical outcome (all P > .05, Kaplan-Meier and Fine and Gray's tests). These data indicate that mutations in the NOD2/CARD15 gene are not a risk factor for clinical outcome in nonmyeloablative allogeneic SCT. Therefore, screening for NOD2/CARD15 polymorphisms in patients or donors does not have additional value in patients undergoing nonmyeloablative SCT. American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

Chromosome 5 and/or 7 abnormalities are cytogenetic findings indicative of a poor prognosis in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). The only potential cure for such patients is allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). As data on allogeneic SCT in this context are limited we did a retrospective study of allogeneic SCT in patients with AML or MDS who had chromosome 5 and/or 7 abnormalities.This was a retrospective study of 65 patients (16 children, 49 adults) with AML (n=33) or MDS (n=32) who had chromosome 5 and/or 7 abnormalities and who underwent allogeneic SCT in six Dutch Centers between 1983 and 2001. Data on all these patients are recorded in the Netherlands Stem Cell Transplant Registry (Typhon).The 3-year overall survival rate among all patients was 25%. Patients below the age of 40 years had significantly fewer relapses (40%) and better survival (38%) than those above the age of 40 (86% and 8%, respectively). Relapses were less frequent in recipients of unrelated grafts than in those whose grafts were from HLA-identical siblings (30% versus 69%). The development of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) grades II-IV was independently associated with significantly higher transplant-related mortality (TRM). Patients with either chromosome 5 or chromosome 7 abnormalities had a significantly better survival than patients with both chromosome 5 and 7 abnormalities. These patients with poor-risk chromosome 5 and/or 7 abnormalities were compared with a group of patients with a secondary AML/MDS and normal cytogenetics and were found to have significantly more relapses and significantly worse survival but a similar TRM.We conclude that patients with AML or MDS with chromosome 5 and/or 7 abnormalities do rather poorly after allogeneic SCT, mainly because of the very high relapse rate. Nevertheless, this is the only approach that can cure some of these patients.

Subclavian vein thrombosis is a well-recognized complication following central venous catheter insertion. We studied whether the determination of D-dimer levels, fragment 1+2 levels and factor V Leiden can identify patients at high risk of developing subclavian vein thrombosis.The presence of central venous catheter associated thrombosis was analyzed in 235 patients undergoing allogeneic bone marrow transplantation, of whom 30 (13%) developed thrombosis. A case-control study was performed with 30 patients matched for age, gender, and type of transplantation who did not develop thrombosis. Blood was sampled 3-5 days after catheter insertion. D-dimer levels were determined using a latex microparticle assay and an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). An ELISA was used to determine fragment 1+2 levels. The factor V genotype was determined by polymerase chain reaction.The levels of D-dimer and fragment 1+2 were significantly elevated in the patients who developed thrombosis. Five patients tested positive for factor V Leiden and all 5 developed subclavian vein thrombosis. Patients with high D-dimer levels (1300 microg/L measured by latex agglutination and350 microg/L measured by ELISA) had a 7.0 and 6.0 times higher risk of developing subclavian vein thrombosis, respectively. A 5.5-fold increased risk of thrombosis was observed in patients with a fragment 1+2 level higher than 1.300 nmol/L. This resulted in positive predictive values of 0.78, 0.80 and 0.83 for the fragment 1+2, D-dimer and D-dimer latex agglutination assays, respectively. The accompanying negative predictive values were 0.39, 0.40 and 0.42, respectively.We conclude that the measurement of D-dimer and fragment 1+2 levels after central venous catheter insertion, as well as factor V Leiden determination, can be used to identify patients at high risk of developing symptomatic subclavian vein thrombosis.

Abstract 4322 Background Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the innate immunity receptor NOD2/CARD15 have been demonstrated to modulate the outcome of allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The effect of the NOD2/CARD15 polymorphism seems to be associated with donor source as well as type of conditioning regimen. Methods We reviewed NOD2/CARD15 mutations in all donor/recipient pairs of 192 consecutive patients who received non-myeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplantation(SCT) at our institution between 2002 and 2006. All patients were treated uniformly with fludarabine 30 mg/m2/day for 3 days followed by 200 cGy TBI (n=154) or TBI alone (n=38) and received grafts from HLA-matched related (n=132) or unrelated (n=60) donors. Results Mutated alleles were observed in 36 of 192 (19%) patients and in 35 of 192 (18%) donors. These SNPs, however, did not have a significant impact on clinical outcome data (P > 0.05, Kaplan Meier and Fine & Gray's test). Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) occurred in 24 of 61 (39%) patients with the polymorphism and in 66 of 131 (50%) patients without the polymorphism. Chronic GVHD developed in 28 of 55 (51%) patients with SNP pairs and in 79 of 121 (65%) patients with the wild type. The incidence of transplant-related mortality was 21% in both groups, 13 of 61 patients in the group with the polymorphism and 27 of 131 without the polymorphism. Relapse was seen in 23 of 61 (38%) patients with the SNP pairs and in 48 of 131 (37%) wild type patients. Finally, overall survival was 43% (26/61) in patients with the polymorphism and 39% (51/131) in patients without the polymorphism. Conclusion These data indicate that mutations in the NOD2/CARD15 genes do not influence the clinical outcome of non-myeloablative allogeneic SCT directly. Since NOD2/CARD15 variants are not recognized as a single significant prognostic factor, screening for NOD2/CARD15 when selecting a donor does not seem to have additional value in patients undergoing non-myeloablative SCT. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Lung injury limits the success of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The overall incidence varies from 30–50% and noninfectious causes occur in one third to one half of these. We reviewed pulmonary complications in 369 patients who received either allo-BMT or allo-PBSCT at our institution between 1993 and 2003. Control subjects were selected from the same database and matched on sex, underlying diagnosis, age, type of transplantation and cytomegalovirus-serostatus. For all patients the conditioning myeloablative regimen consisted of cyclophosphamide (60 mg/kg/day for 2 days) followed by total body irradiation (total lung dose 850 cGy). The graft was partially T-cell depleted (1–2 x 105 T cells/kg). Sixty-one patients (16.5%) developed pulmonary complications, which were diagnosed at a median of 22 weeks after transplantation (range 2–263). Twenty-one patients (5.7%) developed infectious pneumonia. Non-infectious complications were further subclassified as BO (3.5%), BOOP (0.5%), DAH (0.8%), IPS (5.4%) or mixed etiology (0.5%). Acute GVHD ≥ grade II was significantly more common in patients with pulmonary complications than in the controls (36/61 versus 24/61 patients, P=0.02). There was no significant difference in the incidence of chronic GVHD (in 26/48 pulmonary patients versus 20/55 controls, P=0.1). Median survival was 41 weeks (range 4–583) for the pulmonary patients and 173 weeks (range 8–582) for the control subjects. These data illustrate that the incidence of pulmonary complications is low after T-cell depleted HSCT and demonstrate a clear association with acute GVHD. Improvement of the poor outcome of pulmonary complications is of utmost importance. Current studies at our institution are focused at the detection of early markers so that possible pre-emptive-like therapy can be initiated before symptomatic lung damage arises.