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PURPOSE Patients' concerns regarding clinical trial (CT) participation include apprehension about side effects, quality of life (QoL), financial burden, and quality of care. METHODS We prospectively evaluated the experience of patients with multiple myeloma or lymphoma who were treated on CTs (CT group, n = 35) versus patients treated with standard approaches (non-CT group, n = 88) focusing on QoL, financial burden of care, and patients' perception of quality of care over a 1-year period. RESULTS There were no significant differences in any of the patient-reported outcomes in CT versus non-CT groups. We observed an initial decline in overall QoL in the first 3 months across both groups, driven primarily by physical and functional well-being. QoL gradually improved and was above baseline by month 12. Patients reported highest improvement in the functional well-being subdomain. Patients in both groups reported high satisfaction with the quality of care received, and there were no differences in overall satisfaction, communication with team, or access to care. At baseline, 16%-19% of patients reported financial burden, which increased to a peak of 33% in the CT group and to 49% in the non-CT group over the course of 1 year. There was no significant difference in financial burden in the two groups overall. Most of the patients reported getting all the care that was deemed medically necessary in both groups. However, a significant proportion of patients reported having to make other kinds of financial sacrifices because of their cancer (CT group: 33% of patients at baseline and 21%-40% over 1 year; non-CT group: 19% at baseline and 25%-36% over 1 year). CONCLUSION Patients treated on CTs reported comparable QoL and quality of care with the non-CT group. A high proportion of patients reported financial burden over time in both groups. Our findings can serve as a guide to educate patients regarding CT participation and highlight the need to address the significant financial burden experienced by patients with cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the clinical outcomes of patients with primary plasma cell leukemia (pPCL) defined by 5% or greater clonal circulating plasma cells on peripheral blood smear and treated with novel agent induction therapies., Patients and Methods: A cohort of 68 patients with pPCL diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2019, and treated with novel agent induction therapies was evaluated., Results: The median follow-up was 46 (95% CI, 41 to 90) months. The median bone marrow plasma cell content was 85% (range, 10% to 100%) and median clonal circulaitng plasma cell percentage on the peripheral blood smear was 26% (range, 5% to 93%). There was a preponderance of t(11;14) primary cytogenetic abnormality in this cohort. The median time to next therapy (TTNT) and overall survival (OS) for all patients with pPCL patients in this cohort was 13 (95% CI, 9 to 17) and 23 (95% CI, 19 to 38) months, respectively. However, when stratified by cytogenetic risk, the median TTNT and OS were 16 and 51 months for standard risk vs 9 and 19 months for high risk (P=.01 for OS)., Conclusion: Primary plasma cell leukemia remains an aggressive disease with poor prognosis despite novel agent-based therapies. Some patients have better than expected survival and this phenomenon may be influenced by the absence of high-risk cytogenetics. Newer treatment regimens are needed to improve the prognosis of this devastating disease., (Copyright © 2020 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Despite the absence of high-risk cytogenetics and lower International Staging System (ISS) stages, a subset of patients with multiple myeloma (MM) experience poor overall survival (OS). We studied 1461 patients with newly diagnosed MM to identify patient and disease characteristics that predict a high-risk phenotype among standard-risk patients. Fifty-six percent of all patients presented with standard-risk disease. Among them, advanced age, extremes of body mass index, non-hyperdiploid karyotype and abnormal lymphocyte counts were associated with worse OS. Standard-risk patients with 0-1 of these adverse factors (hazard ratio [HR] 0·32, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0·24-0·43, P < 0·001) and 2 adverse factors (HR 0·54, 95% CI 0·41-0·72, P < 0·001) experienced better OS than high-risk patients. Two or more adverse factors were present in 17% of standard-risk patients and were associated with OS comparable to high-risk patients (HR 0·91, 95% CI 0·67-1·24, P = 0·548). Predictive power among standard-risk patients was improved using score groups compared to ISS stages. Patients with standard-risk MM are a heterogeneous group with one in six patients experiencing OS comparable to high-risk disease. Patients at risk can be identified using readily available patient and disease characteristics. These findings emphasize the importance of accurate risk stratification and help explain part of the heterogeneity observed in clinical practice., (© 2019 British Society for Haematology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Systems have been put in place in the Mayo Clinic Stem Cell Transplantation program to reduce day-100 all-cause mortality. Currently our mortality has been reduced to 0.3%. Patients can undergo transplant as an outpatient, with a median hospital duration of 0 days and only 25% of patients requiring a hospital stay of 5 days or greater. Outpatient transplantation is safe and reduces patient-incurred costs., (Copyright © 2017 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)