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Liposomal doxorubicin supercharge-containing frontline treatment for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma or classical Hodgkin lymphoma: preliminary results of a phase II study Myocet™ is doxorubicin encapsulated in a non-pegylated liposomal membrane of phosphatidylcholine and cholesterol (NPLD) that spares the heart muscle from the direct cytotoxic drug. Our data suggest that the NPLD supercharge-driven strategy in high-risk DLBCL/c-HL may be a promising option to test in phase III trials, for improving negative interim-FDG-PET cases incidence. [Extracted from the article]

ULTRASONOGRAPHY-GUIDED CORE-NEEDLE BIOPSY OF LYMPHADENOPATHIES SUSPECTED OF LYMPHOMA: ANALYSIS OF EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF 1000 BIOPTIC PROCEDURES IN A MULTICENTER ITALIAN STUDY For aBc-NHL neoplasms, the sensitivity rate was 100%, that is, 309 of 309 aBc-NHL samples were correctly identified; for iBc-NHL, was 95% with a false negative rate of 5% (13 inconclusive results); for HL, the sensitivity rate was 93% with a false negative rate of 7% (14 inconclusive results); and for NPTC-NHL, the sensitivity rate was 90% with a false negative rate of 10% (3 inconclusive samples). Patients with clinical suspect of lymphoma require prompt and correct diagnosis through the histological examination. [Extracted from the article]

The ELOQUENT-3 trial demonstrated the superiority of the combination of elotuzumab, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone (EloPd) in terms of efficacy and safety, compared to Pd in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM), who had received at least two prior therapies, including lenalidomide and a proteasome inhibitor. The present study is an 18-month follow-up update of a previously published Italian real-life RRMM cohort of patients treated with EloPd. This revised analysis entered 319 RRMM patients accrued in 41 Italian centers. After a median follow-up of 17.7 months, 213 patients (66.4%) experienced disease progression or died. Median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were 7.5 and 19.2 months, respectively. The updated multivariate analysis showed a significant reduction of PFS benefit magnitude both in advanced International Staging System (ISS) (II and III) stages and previous exposure to daratumumab cases. Instead, advanced ISS (II and III) stages and more than 2 previous lines of therapy maintained an independent prognostic impact on OS. Major adverse events included grade three-fourths neutropenia (24.9%), anemia (13.4%), lymphocytopenia (15.5%), and thrombocytopenia (10.7%), while infection rates and pneumonia were 19.3% and 8.7%, respectively. A slight increase in the incidence of neutropenia and lymphocytopenia was registered with longer follow-up. In conclusion, our real-world study still confirms that EloPd is a safe and possible therapeutic choice for RRMM. Nevertheless, novel strategies are desirable for those patients exposed to daratumumab., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The reliability and safety of front-line ultrasonography guided core needle biopsy (UG-CNB) performed with specific uniform approach have never been evaluated in a large series of patients with lymphadenopathies suspected of lymphoma. The aim of this study was to assess the overall accuracy of UG-CNB in the lymph node histological diagnosis, using a standard reference based on pathologist consensus, molecular biology, and/or surgery. We retrospectively checked the findings concerning the application of lymph node UG-CNB from four Italian clinical units that routinely utilized 16-gauge diameter modified Menghini needle under power-Doppler ultrasonographic guidance. A data schedule was sent to all centers to investigate the information regarding techniques, results, and complications of lymph node UG-CNB in untreated patients over a 12-year period. Overall, 1000 (superficial target, n = 750; deep-seated target, n = 250) biopsies have been evaluated in 1000 patients; other 48 biopsies (4.5%), screened in the same period, were excluded because inadequate for a confident histological diagnosis. Most patients were suffering from lymphomas (aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma [aBc-NHL], 309 cases; indolent B-cell [iBc]-NHL, 279 cases; Hodgkin lymphoma [HL], 212 cases; and nodal peripheral T-cell [NPTC]-NHL, 30 cases) and 100 cases from metastatic carcinoma; 70 patients had non-malignant disorders. The majority of CNB results met at least one criterion of the composite reference standard. The overall accuracy of the micro-histological sampling was 97% (95% confidence interval: 95%-98%) for the series. The sensitivity of UG-CNB for the detection of aBc-NHL was 100%, for iBc-NHL 95%, for HL 93%, and for NPTC-NHL 90%, with an overall false negative rate of 3.3%. The complication rate was low (6% for all complications); no patient suffered from biopsy-related complications of grade >2 according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. Lymph node UG-CNB as mini-invasive diagnostic procedure is effective with minimal risk for the patient., (© 2023 The Authors. Hematological Oncology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

We evaluated the impact of liposomal doxorubicin (NPLD) supercharge-containing therapy on interim fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (interim-FDG-PET) responses in high-risk diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) or classical Hodgkin lymphoma (c-HL). In this phase II study (2016-2021), 81 adult patients with advanced-stage DLBCL (n = 53) and c-HL (n = 28) received front-line treatment with R-COMP-dose-intensified (DI) and MBVD-DI. R-COMP-DI consisted of 70 mg/m 2 of NPLD plus standard rituximab, cyclophosphamide, vincristine and prednisone for three cycles (followed by three cycles with NPLD de-escalated at 50 mg/m 2 ); MBVD-DI consisted of 35 mg/m 2 of NPLD plus standard bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine for two cycles (followed by four cycles with NPLD de-escalated at 25 mg/m 2 ). Patients underwent R-COMP-DI and MBVD-DI with a median dose intensity of 91% and 94% respectively. At interim-FDG-PET, 72/81 patients (one failed to undergo interim-FDG-PET due to early death) had a Deauville score of ≤3. At end of treatment, 90% of patients reached complete responses. In all, 20 patients had Grade ≥3 adverse events, and four of them required hospitalisation. At a median 21-months of follow-up, the progression-free survival of the entire population was 77.3% (95% confidence interval 68%-88%). Our data suggest that the NPLD supercharge-driven strategy in high-risk DLBCL/c-HL may be a promising option to test in phase III trials, for improving negative interim-FDG-PET cases incidence., (© 2022 The Authors. British Journal of Haematology published by British Society for Haematology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Longitudinal strain is an early marker of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction in several cardiac diseases. Our aim was to differentiate cardiac amyloidosis (CA) at diagnosis from hypertensive LV hypertrophy (LVH) by analysis of longitudinal myocardial deformation., Methods: Thirty healthy controls (C), 30 newly diagnosed, never treated hypertensives with LVH (H-LVH), and 33 patients with CA at diagnosis underwent echo Doppler including speckle tracking-based automated function imaging (AFI). Averaged peak systolic global longitudinal strain (GLS, 18 segments) and basal, middle, and apical longitudinal strain (BLS, MLS, and ALS, respectively, six segments each) were calculated., Results: Left ventricular mass index, relative wall thickness, and ejection fraction did not differ between H-LVH and CA. E/e' ratio was higher in CA than in H-LVH (P<.001) and C (P<.0001). GLS was lower in CA than in C (P<.0001), without difference with H-LVH. ALS did not differ among the three groups, MLS was significantly lower in both CA and H-LVH than in C but BLS was lower in CA compared to both H-LVH and C (both P<.0001). In the pooled population, E/e' was independently associated with BLS (β=-0.54, P<.0001). At receiver operating curve analysis, CA was predicted by BLS≤-11.3% (sensitivity=63.3%, specificity=100%) and E/e'≥12.3 (sensitivity=69.7%, specificity=83.3%). The best AUC (=0.819) was obtained by the combination E/e'+BLS., Conclusions: Our findings highlight a real difference of E/e' ratio and longitudinal strain of LV basal segments between hypertensive LVH and CA, which could be used to differentiate the two diseases., (© 2016, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are clonal disorders characterised by ineffective haematopoiesis with high risk of leukaemia progression. The relevance of immune-dysregulation for emergence, dominance and progression of dysplastic clones has been suggested, but valuable criteria to obtain insight into these connections are lacking. This study showed significant increase of CD8 lymphocytes and mature B cells in the bone marrow (BM) compared to peripheral blood (PB) of low risk MDS patients. Different BM levels of Regulatory T cells (Treg) identified two sub-groups in these patients; only the sub-group with lower Treg percentage showed BM recruitment of CD8 lymphocytes. Different levels of CD54 on BM CD8 cells revealed two sub-groups of Intermediate-1 (Int-1) patients. The sub-group with higher CD54 expression on BM CD8 showed high levels of this molecule also on CD4 cells. BM recruitment of CD8 lymphocytes in the low risk group and/or the presence of high CD54 expression on BM CD8 in Int-1 patients were associated with more pronounced dyserythropoiesis and erythropoietin treatment. Our data shed light on the involvement of immune-mediated mechanisms in Low and Int-1 risk MDS patients and suggest that BM versus PB levels of immune effectors could represent useful criteria for a more homogeneous grouping of MDS patients.