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High-risk relapsed or refractory (R/R) classical Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is associated with poor outcomes after conventional salvage therapy and autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (AHCT). Post-AHCT consolidation with brentuximab vedotin (BV) improves progression-free survival (PFS), but with increasing use of BV early in the treatment course, the utility of consolidation is unclear. CD25 is often expressed on Reed-Sternberg cells and in the tumor microenvironment in HL, and we hypothesized that the addition of 90Y-antiCD25 (aTac) to carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, melphalan (BEAM) AHCT would be safe and result in a transplantation platform that is agnostic to prior HL-directed therapy. Twenty-five patients with high-risk R/R HL were enrolled in this phase 1 dose-escalation trial of aTac-BEAM. Following an imaging dose of 111In-antiCD25, 2 patients had altered biodistribution, and a third developed an unrelated catheter-associated bacteremia; therefore, 22 patients ultimately received therapeutic 90Y-aTac-BEAM AHCT. No dose-limiting toxicities were observed, and 0.6 mCi/kg was deemed the recommended phase 2 dose, the dose at which the heart wall would not receive >2500 cGy. Toxicities and time to engraftment were similar to those observed with standard AHCT, though 95% of patients developed stomatitis (all grade 1-2 per Bearman toxicity scale). Seven relapses (32%) were observed, most commonly in patients with ≥3 risk factors. The estimated 5-year PFS and overall survival probabilities among 22 evaluable patients were 68% and 95%, respectively, and non-relapse mortality was 0%. aTac-BEAM AHCT was tolerable in patients with high-risk R/R HL, and we are further evaluating the efficacy of this approach in a phase 2 trial. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT01476839.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is associated with poor survival in older adults, and allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) with reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) has been an increasingly used strategy in this population. At City of Hope we conducted a retrospective analysis of 72 patients who underwent allogeneic HCT with fludarabine and melphalan (FluMel) as the conditioning regimen between 2005 and 2018, from either a matched sibling or fully matched unrelated donor while in complete remission. Tacrolimus and sirolimus (T/S) were used as graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis. Overall survival and progression-free survival at 4 years post-HCT were 58% and 44%, respectively. The cumulative incidences of relapse/progression and nonrelapse mortality at 4 years were 34% and 22%, respectively. Patients with Philadelphia chromosome–positive (Ph+) ALL had a significantly lower cumulative incidence of relapse/progression (20% versus 48% for patients with Ph-negative status, P = .007). In conclusion, RIC HCT with FluMel conditioning and T/S GVHD prophylaxis was associated with favorable outcomes in patients with Ph+ ALL and should be considered as a viable consolidative therapy for adult patients with ALL.

As the world of cellular therapy expands to include immune effector cell (IEC) products such as commercial chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, quality management (QM) professionals are faced with creating either new IEC stand-alone programs or expand existing hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) programs to promote patient safety and be aligned with quality, regulatory, and accreditation requirements. The team professionals at City of Hope (COH) recently expanded the quality HCT program to include IEC products and, in doing so, implemented new regulatory infrastructure while maintaining high quality patient care. At COH, we developed the quality structure of our cellular therapy program through collaborations between quality, regulatory, and CAR T patient care committees, which included physicians and nurse coordinators. To ensure the quality of our program, we monitor data collection and reporting, perform quarterly proactive audits of, for example, outcome analysis, and measure selected end-points for benchmarking purposes. QM professionals play a critical role in the monitoring and evaluation processes and provide guidance on how to implement accreditation requirements and what impact the requirements may have on care management. Here we describe the process by which COH expanded our HCT QM program to include IEC therapy. We share examples of how we developed our overall program structure and other key items such as how we addressed patient care management and accreditation to apprise other programs that wish to create and/or expand existing programs.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHCT) is offered increasingly to elderly patients with hematologic malignancies. However, outcome data in those who are 70 years or older are limited, and no standard conditioning regimen has been established for this population. In this retrospective study we evaluated the outcome of 53 consecutive patients aged 70 years and older who underwent alloHCT with melphalan-based reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) at City of Hope. Engraftment was prompt, with median time to neutrophil engraftment of 15 days. More than 95% of patients achieved complete donor chimerism within 6 weeks from HCT, consistent with the "semiablative" nature of this regimen. With a median follow-up of 31.1 months, the 2-year overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and nonrelapse mortality (NRM) were 68.9%, 63.8%, and 17.0%, respectively. Cumulative incidence of relapse at 1 and 2 years was 17.0% and 19.3%, respectively. One hundred–day cumulative incidence of grades II to IV acute graft-versus-host disease was 37.7% (grades III to IV, 18.9%), and 2-year cumulative incidence of chronic graft-versus-host disease was 61.9% (extensive, 45.9%). The only significant predictor for poor OS was high/very high disease risk index. Transplant-related complications and morbidities observed here did not differ from the commonly expected in younger patients treated with RIC. In conclusion, alloHCT with a melphalan-based conditioning regimen is associated with acceptable toxicities and NRM, lower incidence of relapse, and favorable OS and PFS in patients aged 70 years or older.

Background Rearrangements of lysine methyltransferase 2A (KMT2A) gene, previously known as the MLL gene, occur in 3 to 5% of adult patients with de novo AML and are enriched in therapy-related disease after treatment with topoisomerase II inhibitors (Bill, M et al. PNAS. 2020). KMT2A encodes a histone H3 lysine 4 methyltransferase and KMT2A rearrangements result in fusion proteins that induce aberrant Hox gene expression. (Armstrong, SA et al. Nature. 2002) Among patients with KMT2A rearranged AML (rAML) receiving intensive chemotherapy, the fusion partner impacts prognosis, and KMT2A-MLLT3 is associated with an intermediate risk while other KMT2A rearrangements are associated with adverse risk in the ELN classification. (Dohner, H et al. Blood. 2017) Here we evaluate the outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed and relapsed or refractory (R/R) AML with KMT2A rearrangements receiving venetoclax and hypomethylating agents (HMA). Methods Medical records of 333 patients with newly diagnosed or R/R AML receiving venetoclax in combination with HMAs at City of Hope National Medical Center between 11/1/2015 and 4/15/2020 were reviewed. Criteria for inclusion were a pathologically confirmed diagnosis of AML, age > 18 years, treatment with either decitabine or azacitidine in combination with venetoclax. KMT2A rearrangements were detected by karyotype and confirmed by FISH or RNA sequencing. Responses were evaluated per the ELN criteria (Dohner, H et al. Blood. 2017) Minimal residual disease flow cytometry was performed at the University of Washington. Patient characteristics were summarized by frequency and associations between overall response and patient and disease characteristics were tested by Fisher's exact test. OS was evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method and the difference between groups was determined by log-rank test. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS and Prism. Results We identified 18 patients (5.4%) with KMT2A rAML who met criteria for inclusion. MLLT3 was the predominant fusion partner, occurring in nine patients followed by ELL (n=2), AFDN (n=2), MLLT6 (n=1), MLLT10 (n=1), AFF1 (n=1), CBL (n=1), and TET1 (n=1). The cohort included both newly diagnosed (n=10) and R/R (n=8) AML patients. 44% had therapy-related or secondary AML. NRAS or KRAS mutations occurred in 4 out of 13 patients (31%) with available sequencing prior to treatment. Decitabine was the predominant HMA used in combination with venetoclax and 56% of all patients received 10-day dosing during the first cycle. For the total cohort, 9 patients achieved an overall response (ORR 50%), including 8 patients with a complete remission (CR/CRi 44%) and 1 (6%) patient with a morphologic leukemia free state, Figure 1. All six of the responders who were tested for MRD were negative. For treatment naïve patients, we observed a CR/CRi rate of 70% and a median survival of 11 months. On univariate analysis, R/R disease was the only factor associated with a significant decrease in response (ORR 12.5% vs. 80%, p=0.015, Table 1). With a median follow-up of 14.4 months for responding patients, median OS for the cohort was 6.59 months and 19.15 months for responding patients (Figure 2). The presence of NRAS or KRAS mutations was the only factor significantly impacting survival (HR 6.04, log rank 0.05, Table 1). Notably, the KMT2A fusion partner type did not impact response or survival. Allogeneic stem cell transplant was performed in 4 out of 9 (44%) responding patients. Conclusion Here, we show that venetoclax in combination with HMA led to a high rate of response and prolonged survival in a high-risk KMT2A rAML population. The outcomes of newly diagnosed KMT2A rAML patients after treatment with venetoclax and HMA in this study are similar to chemotherapy outcomes in patients aged < 60 years (CR 68% and median OS 0.9 months; Bill, M et al. PNAS. 2020). Consistent with previous studies, we found that MLLT3 was the most common fusion partner, occurring in 50% of patients and that RAS mutations were also common (~30%). In contrast to what has been reported for chemotherapy outcomes and in the ELN classification, the KMT2A-MLLT3 translocation was not associated with improved outcomes when compared to other KMT2A translocations. While this study was limited in being retrospective and having a small and heterogeneous population, our findings suggest that venetoclax and HMA are effective in KMT2A rAML and warrant further investigation. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures Koller: Novartis: Consultancy. Al Malki: Hansa Biopharma: Consultancy; Rigel Pharma: Consultancy; Neximmune: Consultancy; Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Consultancy; CareDx: Consultancy. Aribi: Seagen: Consultancy. Ali: Incyte: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; BMS: Speakers Bureau; CTI BioPharma: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Marcucci: Novartis: Other: Speaker and advisory scientific board meetings; Agios: Other: Speaker and advisory scientific board meetings; Abbvie: Other: Speaker and advisory scientific board meetings. Pullarkat: AbbVie, Amgen, Genentech, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Novartis, Pfizer, and Servier: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Amgen, Dova, and Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria.

CMV recipient seropositivity (R+) and CMVi are independent risk factors for increased mortality after alloHCT. Preemptive therapy (PET) was standard of care until LTV approval by the FDA in November 2017 for CMVi prevention in CMV R+ alloHCT patients (pts). In a registration trial, LTV led to a significant reduction in clinically significant CMVi (CS-CMVi) defined as CMVi requiring PET in both high-risk (HR) or low-risk (LR) recipients. In the HR-group, defined as mismatched related / unrelated donor with at least one mismatch in one of the four HLA-gene loci of HLA-A, -B, -C or -DRB1, haploidentical donor, umbilical cord source or grade ≥2 acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) at randomization, the impact of LTV on CS-CMVi was more robust. Small studies have confirmed the positive impact of LTV on CS-CMVi. Here, we compared the natural history of CMVi and CS-CMVi between the pre-LTV and LTV era in the first 100 days after HR-alloHCT. We also explored the impact on non-relapse mortality (NRM), overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DFS), and incidence of aGVHD between the two eras. In this IRB approved retrospective study, we identified 450 consecutive HR-alloHCT pts who underwent their first HCT from 1/1/2016 to 12/31/2020 at our center. Pre-LTV era was from 1/1/2016 to 2/28/2018 and LTV era was from 3/1/2018 onwards when prophylaxis became standard of care (SOC) for all R+ alloHCT at our institution. In the HR-alloHCT, the uptake of the new SOC was consistent in all HR-R+ pts beginning LTV prophylaxis on day +7 post-HCT. We defined R+ HR-alloHCT pts at high-risk for CMVi or CS-CMVi as described above except for aGVHD (not recorded at time of institution of LTV). CMVi was defined as first time viral load (VL) of >500 genomic copies/ml (gc/ml). CS-CMVi was defined as a VL >500 gc/ml (910 IU/ml) on two consecutive tests done atleast 48 hours apart, that triggered PET (ganciclovir, valganciclovir, foscarnet, cidofovir), or had identification of CMV end organ disease . The incidence of CMVi and CS-CMVi in R+ allo-HCT was compared by LTV era using Gray test. Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests were used for OS and DFS by LTV era. NRM, relapse, acute and chronic GVHD were compared using cumulative incidence curves and Gray test. All tests were 2-sided at 0.05 level. Of the 450 HR-alloHCT pts, 146 were R+ in pre-LTV vs. 246 R+ in LTV era. R+ patient, their eligible underlying disease, and HCT characteristics are shown in Table 1. There was a significant reduction in both CMVi and CS-CMVi in LTV era vs pre-LTV era (24.1% vs 45.2%, and 22.3% vs 44.5% respectively; p Although there were no significant differences in OS, DFS, NRM, relapse, and chronic GVHD between the two eras at 6, 12, and 18 months post-HCT in R+ pts, a trend towards improved OS and DFS in LTV era was noted (p=0.06 and p=0.07) in this patient population. There was a significantly lower rate of grade III-IV acute GVHD in the LTV era (9.2% vs 17.8% at day 100, p=0.012 with HR = 0.49). No case of CMV disease was identified in the first 100 days. LTV has substantially reduced CS-CMVi in the first 100 days post-HCT in HR-R+ pts and resultant burden from PET. We identified a significant reduction in grade III - IV aGVHD in LTV era suggesting that with reduced CMVi, LTV may have a salutary impact on development of aGVHD; this is in agreement with studies showing bidirectional relationship between CMVi and onset of aGVHD. We did not observe a significant difference in OS, DFS, NRM amongst the two eras but there was trend towards higher OS and DFS in LTV era that requires further assessment in a larger multicenter cohort. Lastly, significant burden persists from CS-CMVi in this patient population during the first 100 days of alloHCT that underscores the need of efforts to identify other novel methods to mitigate it. One of the limitations in the LTV era is identifying the clinical scenarios surrounding the CMVi and CS-CMVi that may relate to compliance, absorption from gastrointestinal tract, and affordability or coverage of LTV after discharge from hospital. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures Dadwal: Astellas: Speakers Bureau; Aseptiscope: Consultancy; AlloVir: Research Funding; Shire/Takeda: Research Funding; Merck: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Other: Investigator; Karius: Other: Investigator. Marcucci: Novartis: Other: Speaker and advisory scientific board meetings; Agios: Other: Speaker and advisory scientific board meetings; Abbvie: Other: Speaker and advisory scientific board meetings. Taplitz: Merck: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Artz: Radiology Partners: Other: Spouse has equity interest in Radiology Partners, a private radiology physician practice. Stein: Amgen: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Speakers Bureau; Stemline: Speakers Bureau. Forman: Allogene: Consultancy; Lixte Biotechnology: Consultancy, Current holder of individual stocks in a privately-held company; Mustang Bio: Consultancy, Current holder of individual stocks in a privately-held company. Al Malki: Neximmune: Consultancy; Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Consultancy; CareDx: Consultancy; Rigel Pharma: Consultancy; Hansa Biopharma: Consultancy.

Cytomegalovirus reactivation commonly referred to as CMV infection (CMVi) is a frequent event after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), with studies associating CMVi within the first 100 days post-HCT with higher risk of non-relapse mortality (NRM) and decreased overall survival (OS). In addition, understanding the impact of CMVi on resource utilization during the primary HCT admission is critical. Together, this knowledge of epidemiology and resource utilization may be used to inform preventive strategies to minimize CMVi, e.g., use of antiviral agent letermovir. After receiving IRB approval, we retrospectively reviewed institutional electronic medical records and CMVi database from 824 patients who underwent their first allogeneic HCT between 2011 and 2016 at City of Hope (pre-letermovir era). Patients were censored at death, disease relapse or lost to follow up. Data collected: demographics, HCT indication, conditioning regimen, CMV serostatus of the donor and recipient (D/R), length of stay (LOS) for primary HCT admission (all allo HCT were performed as inpatient), readmission rates in first 100 days, and use of supportive care. CMV viral load of >250 genomic copies/ml constituted a diagnosis of CMVi. CMV viral load surveillance in MUD recipients began at engraftment or day +21 post-HCT, whichever occurred earlier. For Haplo and cord blood (CB) HCT, CMV viral load surveillance started on day +14. The primary endpoint of the study was LOS for HCT admission. Supportive care use, transfusions, growth factors and antiviral usage were secondary endpoints. The differences in resource utilization between different groups were examined by CMVi during the primary HCT admission period, using Wilcoxon test or chi-square test whenever appropriate. Median age of patients at the time of HCT was 52 years (range: 1-78), with 57% of patients being male. The most common diagnoses included: AML (39%), ALL (21%) and MDS/MPN (17%). Patients underwent MUD (n=627, 76%), Haplo (n=102, 12%), or CB-HCT (n=95, 12%), and 44% of patients received myeloablative conditioning regimen. Majority of the patients were CMV seropositive (83.7%). Graft source was peripheral blood stem cells in 75% of the recipients. Most commonly used graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis consisted of post-transplant cyclophosphamide (100%), Tacrolimus/sirolimus (83%), and cyclosporine/cellcept (78%) in Haplo, MUD, and CB-HCT recipients, respectively. During the primary HCT admission, rate of CMVi was 7%, 36% and 28% in all of MUD, Haplo, and CB-HCT, respectively (compared to 25%, 71.6%, and 50.5% in MUD, Haplo and CB-HCT respectively in the first 100 days after HCT). Rate of CMVi in CMV+ recipients was 8.2% in MUD, 41.6% Haplo and 34.2% in CB-HCT (Table 1). Majority of patients with CMVi received antiviral therapy (85.8%), with Haplo and CB-HCT more likely to be treated than MUD (p=0.023). LOS was longer among CMVi patients compared to no CMVi patients in each donor type, median of 59 vs. 36 days for the overall cohort (p0.2). Transfusion of packed red blood cells (PRBC) and platelet units were significantly higher among CMVi recipients of MUD and Haplo (p0.82). There was no significant difference in hospital readmission by CMVi across donor type in the first 100 days (p>0.5). In conclusion, the rate of CMVi during primary HCT admission was high, particularly in the Haplo and Cord HCT (>50% of the CMVi occurring within 100 days of HCT). Given the relatively high CMV viral load cut-off values and later CMV surveillance initiation, the rate could, in fact, have been underestimated in our cohort. CMVi during primary HCT admission was associated with significantly higher health care resource utilization; longer hospital LOS and supportive care utilization (CMV specific antiviral usage, transfusion and growth factors use). Prophylactic strategies to prevent early CMVi in alloHCT should be considered to decrease NRM and improve value based care delivery. Disclosures Dadwal: Shire/ Takeda: Research Funding; Karius: Research Funding; Astellas: Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Other: Advisory board meeting; Ansun Biopharma: Research Funding; Chimerix: Research Funding; Gilead: Research Funding; Merck: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Advisory board meeting, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau. Pullarkat:Dova: Consultancy, Honoraria; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Genetech: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; AbbVie, Inc.: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Servier: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau. Stein:Stemline: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Taplitz:Merck: Other: Immunocompromised Advisory Group. Al Malki:Neximmune: Consultancy; Rigel Pharma: Consultancy; Jazz Pharmacuticals, Inc: Consultancy. Nakamura:NapaJen Pharma: Consultancy; Magenta Therapeutics: Other: Advisory board meeting; Alexion: Other: Support on a meeting presentation; Kyowa-Kirin: Other: Support on a meeting presentation; Celgene: Other: Support on seminar; Viracor: Consultancy; Merck: Other: advisory board meeting; Kadmon Corporation: Other: Advisory board meeting.

The use of post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) as graft-versus-host-disease (GvHD) prophylaxis after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) has increased significantly over the past decade due to expansion of donor pool with haploidentical and mismatched unrelated donors. A recently completed phase 2 study, PROGRESS-2 (NCT02345850), has highlighted the efficacy of PTCy in the matched donor setting. Hemorrhagic cystitis (HC) is the most notable toxicity associated with high dose Cy. However, data specific to the incidence and severity of HC in the post HCT setting is sparse, with no consensus on best practices to prevent HC in patients receiving PTCy. Current strategies to prevent HC in PTCy setting have been adapted from data in pre-HCT Cy (conditioning setting), such as hyperhydration with forced diuresis, continuous bladder irrigation, mesna as an intermittent and continuous infusion, or a combination of these methods. The aim of our study was to describe the incidence and severity of HC in patients undergoing HCT with PTCy as GvHD prophylaxis, identifying potential risk factors and impact of HC on HCT outcomes. We retrospectively reviewed 194 consecutive patients who underwent their first HCT with PTCy from 2014 to 2018 at our center. More than half of the patients (53%) received myeloablative conditioning regimen with majority receiving peripheral blood stem cells (81%) from haploidentical donors (96%). GvHD prophylaxis was unified with PTCy (50 mg/kg on Days +3 and +4), in addition to MMF (1 gm 3x daily starting on Day +5) and tacrolimus (1 mg as a continuous infusion daily starting on Day +5). Standard HC prophylaxis was hyperhydration with forced diuresis and mesna at 320% the daily dose of PTCy. Incidence of HC was based on physician documentation or presence of blood in urinalysis up to Day +100. To determine severity of HC, CTCAE 5.0 grading system was used. Median age of patients was 45 years (range: 2-73), with 60% of patients being male. KPS was ≥80% in 83% of patient and 40% had HCT-CI of ≥2. The most common diagnoses included: AML (41%), ALL (24%) and MDS/MPN (19%). There were 55 patients who received ≥3 lines of therapy, 116 patients received In conclusion, hyperhydration with forced diuresis added to aggressive mesna dosing is an effective strategy in preventing severe HC in HCT patients receiving PTCy as GvHD prophylaxis. Incidence of Grade 3 or 4 HC was low and transient and did not impact HCT outcomes. Viral HC had a significantly later onset than non-viral HC, suggesting a different pathophysiology. Older age and myeloablative conditioning were independent factors for higher incidence of HC in our cohort. Disclosures Ali: Incyte Corporation: Consultancy. Salhotra:Celgene: Research Funding; Kadmon: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Aribi:Seattle Genetics: Consultancy. Pullarkat:Servier: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; AbbVie, Inc.: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Genetech: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Dova: Consultancy, Honoraria; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau. Stein:Amgen: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Stemline: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Marcucci:Merck: Other: Research Support (Investigation Initiated Clinical Trial); Pfizer: Other: Research Support (Investigation Initiated Clinical Trial); Abbvie: Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Speakers Bureau; Iaso Bio: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Other: Research Support (Investigation Initiated Clinical Trial). Nakamura:NapaJen Pharma: Consultancy; Viracor: Consultancy; Kadmon Corporation: Other: Advisory board meeting; Magenta Therapeutics: Other: Advisory board meeting; Celgene: Other: Support on seminar; Kyowa-Kirin: Other: Support on a meeting presentation; Alexion: Other: Support on a meeting presentation; Merck: Other: advisory board meeting. Al Malki:Rigel Pharma: Consultancy; Jazz Pharmacuticals, Inc: Consultancy; Neximmune: Consultancy.

Introduction City of Hope (COH) was one of the first institutions to be granted Immune Effector Cell (IEC) Therapy accreditation by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy, which supports our mission to provide safe, high quality patient care through expanded standardization. As part of the accreditation requirements, COH expanded established processes developed to monitor standard of care (SOC) deviations for the Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Program to our IEC Clinical Program. As part of process improvement, we monitored our IEC Quality program to determine if there were any outcome changes as a result of deviations. Therefore, we performed a retrospective analysis of electronically submitted SOC deviations for patients treated with commercially available chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell products (tisagenlecleucel or axicabtagene ciloleucel [Axi-cel]) between December 2017- March 2020 at COH. Methods During the reporting timeframe, 122 patients were planned to be treated with an IEC product. We retrieved 28 requests for SOC deviations from our electronic database for 24 of 122 patients. We analyzed for volume, trends and patient outcomes of submitted deviation requests, including trends in type of deviation, transfer to the intensive care unit (ICU), length of inpatient hospital stay and safety outcomes at 30 days post infusion. Patients who did not receive their SOC product for any reason during the reporting timeframe, or were lost to follow-up were excluded from the outcomes analysis. Results Sixteen of 24 patients were planned to be treated with SOC Axi-cel and 8 of 24 patients were planned to be treated with tisagenlecleucel; only 19 of 24 patients (10 women and 9 men) underwent infusion with their respective SOC product, 15 with Axi-cel and 4 with tisagenlecleucel. Five of 24 patients, including 1 Axi-cel and 4 tisagenlecleucel patients were excluded due to change in medical condition or infusion after the reporting timeframe. We identified elevated creatinine levels as the most common reason for SOC deviation requests for patients to be treated with tisagenlecleucel (4 of 8 patients), while deviations relating to rest days between lymphodepletion and CAR T cell infusion were the most common submitted deviations for patients planned to be treated with Axi-cel (9 of 16 patients). We also descriptively compared patients who required SOC deviations to a cohort of patients (n=98) who did not require deviations and were treated with either axicabtagene ciloleucel (n=86) or tisagenlecleucel (n=12) during the same timeframe. Eight of 98 (8%) of patients who did not have requests for SOC deviation were transferred to the ICU compared to 4 of 19 (21%) patients who required SOC deviations. Seventeen of 19 and 94 of 98 patients were discharged. The median length of inpatient hospital stay post infusion for SOC deviations cohorts who were discharged was 16 days (11-40) and 15 days (8-100) for non-SOC deviations patients. When we descriptively compared survival outcomes at 30 days post infusion, we found that all (4 of 4) patients who required SOC deviations and received tisagenlecleucel survived compared to 11 of 12 patients without SOC deviations. For patients who received Axi-cel, 14 of 15 patients with SOC deviations survived at day 30 post infusion compared to 85 of 86 patients without SOC deviations. The response to treatment and toxicities will be reported at the meeting. Conclusion These data suggest that careful selection of patients who may benefit from SOC deviations and still receive their infusion may not negatively affect survival outcomes at 30 days. The SOC deviation review process offers physicians a forum to evaluate non-SOC eligible cases and advise on SOC policy changes. While preliminary, our quality review identifies a role for comprehensive analysis of all IEC SOC deviations as part of standard practice, especially as the field of cellular immunotherapy expands to include more SOC cellular products. Overall, further monitoring of SOC deviations in real world patient populations treated with commercially available IEC products will allow us to continue to support patient safety, assess patient care management practices, expand patient access, meet accreditation standards and monitor SOC practice changes while advancing the field of cellular immunotherapy. Disclosures Shouse: Kite Pharma: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Mott:Janssen/Johnson & Johnson: Consultancy; Juno/BMS: Consultancy. Budde:Gilead Sciences: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Mustang Therapeutics: Research Funding; Kite, a Gilead Company: Consultancy; Roche: Consultancy; Amgen: Research Funding.

Background: Adolescents and young adults (AYA: 15–39 years) with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have inferior survival when compared with children (1–14 years). An approach is lacking that includes both patients enrolled and not enrolled in clinical trials, and includes the contribution of health care delivery, treatment, and clinical prognosticators. Methods: We assembled a retrospective cohort of ALL patients diagnosed between 1–39 years (AYA: n = 93; child: n = 91) and treated at a single institution between 1990 and 2010, irrespective of clinical trial enrollment. We modeled relapse risk (i) during therapy and (ii) after completing therapy. Results: On-therapy relapse: AYA experienced an increased risk of on-therapy relapse versus children (HR, 10.5; P = 0.004). In multivariable analysis restricted to AYA, independent predictors of relapse included lack of clinical trial enrollment (HR, 2.6, P = 0.04) and nonwhite race/ethnicity (HR, 2.2; P = 0.05). Relapse after completing therapy: When compared with children, AYA experienced an increased risk of relapse after completing therapy (HR, 7.7; P < 0.001). In multivariable analysis restricted to AYA, longer therapy (months of maintenance: HR, 0.7; P < 0.001; months of consolidation: HR, 0.8; P = 0.03) protected against relapse. Conclusions: Among AYA, aspects of health care delivery (clinical trial enrollment, nonwhite race/ethnicity) are associated with relapse during therapy, and aspects of treatment (shorter duration of maintenance and consolidation) are associated with relapse after completing therapy. Impact: These findings highlight the importance of clinical trial enrollment and therapy duration (maintenance, consolidation) in ensuring durable remissions in AYA ALL. Future studies encompassing health care delivery, treatment, and biology are needed. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 27(10); 1133–41. ©2018 AACR.

Based on promising pilot data a phase II tandem autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (AHSCT) trial for relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) was performed in the US intergroup setting to determine if long-term progression-free survival (PFS) could be improved. Patients were enrolled after salvage therapy and stem cell collection. Sensitivity to salvage was defined by 1999 Standardized Response Criteria and did not include fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography. Cycle 1 consisted of melphalan 150 mg/m2 with half of the stem cells. For stable disease or better, patients received cycle 2 consisting of single doses of etoposide 60 mg/kg and cyclophosphamide 100 mg/kg and either total body radiation 12 Gy in 8 fractions over 4 days or BCNU 150 mg/m2/day for 3 days with the remaining stem cells. Of 98 enrolled patients, 89 were eligible and treated: 82 completed both cycles of AHSCT, 47 (53%) had primary refractory HL, and 72 (81%) were resistant to salvage therapy. There were no treatment-related deaths in the first year after AHSCT. With a median follow-up of 6.2 years (range, 2 to 7.7) for eligible patients who remained alive, the 2-year and 5-year PFS were 63% (95% CI, 52% to 72%) and 55% (95% CI, 44% to 64%) respectively; the 2-year and 5-year overall survival were 91% (95% CI, 83% to 95%) and 84% (95% CI, 74% to 90%), respectively. Univariate Cox regression analysis showed Zubrod performance status and lactate dehydrogenase levels > 1 times upper limit of normal at the time of enrollment were significantly associated with PFS. The observed 5-year PFS of 55% suggests the tandem approach appears to be effective in treating HL patients demonstrated to have poor prognosis in prior single AHSCT trials. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00233987.

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) can be aggressive and intractable in some cases. Patients who relapse after autologous HCT (auto-HCT) have limited treatment options. City of Hope reports our experience in the use of reduced intensity allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) in 24 heavily pretreated patients with relapsed HL, between January 2003 and December 2008. The median number of prior therapies was 5; 20/24 patients had prior auto-HCT. The conditioning regimen for all patients was fludarabine and melphalan. With a median follow-up for living patients of 39.0 months, at 2 years the overall survival (OS) was 60% (95% CI 42, 72) and the progression-free survival was 27% (95% CI 22, 32). Non-relapse mortality was 13.1% (95% CI 5.1, 31.4) at 2 years. The incidence of grade II-IV aGVHD was 45.8% and 8.3% for grade III-IV. Allo-HCT in heavily pretreated relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma is feasible, tolerable, and can induce durable clinical remissions.

The evaluation of hematologic disorders after solid organ transplantation (SOT) must take into account issues unique to the post-transplant setting that influence the development of anemia and single or multi-lineage cytopenias. Attention to the time of onset of cytopenia(s) is important, because the disorders of passenger lymphocyte syndrome, transplant-related thrombotic microangiopathy, hemophagocytic syndrome, and graft-versus-host disease typically occur during the first few months after SOT, and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder usually occurs within the first year. Drug-related anemia and cytopenia(s) occur due to a variety of mechanisms, including drug-induced hemolysis and marrow suppression and perturbation of T-cell subsets by the immunosuppressive agents, leading to immune dysregulation and autoimmunity. Viral infections can cause direct suppression of hematopoiesis, and a variety of opportunistic infections can precipitate acquired hemophagocytic syndrome, a frequently lethal systemic inflammatory disorder. Early investigation of pancytopenia by bone marrow biopsy is warranted, because it is often the presenting symptom of one or multiple life-threatening pathologies after SOT, such as graft-versus host disease, post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, hemophagocytic syndrome, or severe opportunistic infections, and these entities may have a better prognosis if early interventions are undertaken.

Combination tacrolimus and sirolimus graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis for allogeneic transplant in patients conditioned with a fractionated total body irradiation–based regimen has shown encouraging results. We studied this prophylaxis combination in 85 patients receiving a matched-sibling transplant conditioned with 3 different regimens:fludarabine-melphalan (n = 46); total body irradiation–etoposide (n = 28), and busulfan-cyclophosphamide (n = 11). The conditioning regimens were completed on day −4. Sirolimus and tacrolimus were started on day −3 to avoid overlap with conditioning therapy. All patients engrafted, with a median time to neutrophil engraftment of 15 days. The cumulative incidence of acute GVHD grades II to IV and III to IV was 43% and 19%, respectively, with no significant difference by conditioning regimen. The 2-year cumulative incidence of chronic GVHD was 46%. With a median follow-up of 26 months, disease-free survival was 58% and overall survival, 66%. The day-100 and 2-year nonrelapse mortality was 4.8% and 10.2%, respectively. The overall incidence of thrombotic microangiopathy was 19%, and it was significantly higher with busulfan/cyclophosphamide (55%, P = .005). Tacrolimus plus sirolimus is an effective combination for acute GVHD prophylaxis and is associated with very low nonrelapse mortality. Thrombotic microangiopathy is a significant complication with this regimen, particularly in patients receiving busulfan/cyclophosphamide.

Although autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) for patients with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) appears to offer a survival advantage over conventional therapy, only approximately 25% to 35% of patients with primary progressive or poor-risk recurrent HL can achieve durable remission after ASCT, with disease progressive after transplant accounting for most of the treatment failures. We conducted a pilot study to evaluate the toxicities and efficacy of a tandem transplant approach in this subgroup of patients. Between April 1998 and March 2000, 46 patients were enrolled in the study. Eligibility criteria: primary progressive (n = 28) or recurrent HL (n = 18) with at least 1 of the following poor prognostic factors: first complete remission (CR)

Reduced-intensity regimens (RIRs) are being used with increasing frequency in patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) undergoing allogeneic transplantation. The impact of dose reduction on relapse and survival has not been extensively studied. We performed a retrospective analysis of 88 patients conditioned with conventional myeloablative regimens (CMRs) (n = 48) and an RIR (n = 40) of fludarabine 125 mg/m2 and melphalan 140 mg/m2. Compared with the patients receiving CMR, those receiving RIR were older, had more often failed autologous transplantation, and had more frequently received peripheral blood and unrelated donor transplants. Graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis was provided with cyclosporine + methotrexate ± prednisone for the CMR and with cyclosporine + mycophenolate ± methotrexate for the RIR. The relapse rate was significantly lower in the patients receiving CMR than in those receiving RIR (13% vs 28%; P = .05). The 1-year transplantation-related mortality rate was 33% for CMR and 28% for RIR (P = .40). Kaplan-Meier 2-year overall survival and progression-free survival were 52% and 46% for CMR versus 53% and 40% for RIR (P = not significant). Using cumulative incidence functions based on competing risks, univariate analysis, and treatment-related prognostic factors, we found that higher treatment intensity (P = .03; relative risk [RR] = 35%) and absence of previous autologous transplantation (P = .0007; RR = 20%) were associated with a lower relapse rate. Using a Cox univariate proportional hazards model, we found that chemosensitive disease at transplantation (P = .05; RR = 57%) and absence of previous autologous transplantation (P = .002; RR = 37%) were associated with improved survival. Our observation of similar survival in the patients receiving CMR and those receiving RIR confirms that RIRs are feasible alternatives for high-risk patients with NHL; however, the data suggest that reduced treatment intensity and previous autologous transplantation are associated with increased relapse.

We conducted a phase 1/2 trial of high-dose 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan in combination with high-dose etoposide (VP-16) 40 to 60 mg/kg (day -4) and cyclophosphamide 100 mg/kg (day -2) followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in 31 patients with CD20+ non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Patients underwent dosimetry (day -21) with 5 mCi (185 MBq) 111In-ibritumomab tiuxetan following 250 mg/m2 rituximab, followed a week later by 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan to deliver a target dose of 1000 cGy to highest normal organ. Bone marrow biopsy was done on day -7 to estimate radiation dose and stem cells were reinfused when the radiation dose was estimated to be less than 5 cGy. The median 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan dose was 71.6 mCi (2649.2 MBq; range, 36.6-105 mCi; range, 1354.2-3885 MBq). Histology included follicular lymphoma (n = 12), diffuse large B-cell (n = 14), and mantle cell (n = 5). The median number of prior chemo-therapy treatments was 2. The treatment was well tolerated. The median times to reach an absolute neutrophil count greater than 500/μL and platelet count more than 20 000/μL were 10 days and 12 days, respectively. There were 2 deaths and 5 relapses. At a median follow-up of 22 months, the 2-year estimated overall survival and relapse-free survival rates are 92% and 78%, respectively. We conclude that high-dose 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan can be combined safely with high-dose etoposide and cyclophosphamide without an increase in transplant-related toxicity or delayed engraftment. (Blood. 2005;106:2896-2902)

This study was performed to determine the clinical activity and safety of weekly low-dose paclitaxel (90 mg/m2) given as a 1-hour infusion in patients with relapsed and refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Thirty patients were treated on a phase II protocol conducted at the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center and within the Wisconsin Oncology Network (WON). A cycle of therapy was defined as paclitaxel at 90 mg/m2 weekly for 6 consecutive weeks followed by a 2-week rest period. Cycles were repeated as long as there was no disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. In general, the patients were heavily pretreated with a median of 4 prior therapies (range 2-11), and 73% were refractory to the most recent systemic therapy. The median age was 70 (range 44-97). All NHL histological subtypes were eligible. Of the 30 eligible patients enrolled, 26 were evaluable for response and 28 for toxicity. The overall response rate was 23% (95% confidence interval (CI) 9.0-43.7%). One patient had a complete response, and 5 patients had partial responses. The median response duration was 3.2 months (range 1.4-11.8 months). The median event-free survival was 1.9 months. The major toxicity was neuropathy. Despite the limited marrow reserve in this patient population, myelosuppression was minimal. Paclitaxel given in this dose and schedule has modest activity in previously treated non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The response rate appears similar to other reports using different doses and schedules. Myelosuppression appears less with this schedule than with other schedules.

We recently described a novel thiotepa plus etoposide high-dose therapy (HDT) conditioning regimen for aggressive histology non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) that had low regimen-related toxicity (RRT) and an efficacy rate comparable to other NHL HDT regimens. In this report, we describe the UW experience with the addition of total body irradiation (TBI) and pre-transplant involved-field radiation (IFRT) to the thiotepa + etoposide HDT regimen. Between 1992 and 1999, 28 patients with indolent or mantle cell lymphoma were treated on this protocol. With a median follow-up of 64 mo, the median event-free survival (EFS) was 24 months, and the median overall survival (OS) had not been reached. The median number of grade 3 - 4 non-hematologic toxicities was five. There were five deaths (18%) in the first three months after HDT due to RRT. In contrast, the thiotepa + etoposide conditioning regimen (without TBI or IFRT) given to 65 intermediate grade NHL patients resulted in only one treatment-related death and considerably fewer grade 3 - 4 toxicities. Given the relatively short EFS in this cohort of indolent NHL patients, we conclude that the combination of IFRT and TBI plus thiotepa and etoposide resulted in a HDT regimen with excessive toxicity and this protocol was closed at our institution.

The prognosis of patients with primary refractory acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is poor. Our initial report suggested that some patients could achieve durable remission after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). Herein, we update our initial experience and report further analysis of this group of patients to determine whether there are pre-SCT prognostic factors predictive of posttransplantation relapse and survival. We reviewed the records of 68 patients who consecutively underwent transplantation at the City of Hope Cancer Center with allogeneic SCT for primary refractory AML between July 1978 and August 2000. Potential factors associated with overall survival and disease-free survival were examined. With a median follow-up of 3 years, the 3-year cumulative probabilities of disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), and relapse rate for all 68 patients were 31% (95% confidence interval [CI], 20%–42%), 30% (95% CI, 18%–41%), and 51% (95% CI, 38%–65%), respectively. In multivariate analysis, the only variables associated with shortened OS and DFS included the use of an unrelated donor as the stem cell source (relative risk, 2.23 [OS] and 2.05 [DFS]; P = .0005 and .0014, respectively) and unfavorable cytogenetics before SCT (relative risk: 1.68 [OS] and 1.58 [DFS]; P = .0107 and .0038, respectively). Allogeneic SCT can cure approximately one third of patients with primary refractory AML. Cytogenetic characteristics before SCT correlate with transplantation outcome and posttransplantation relapse.

Hodgkin lymphoma is considered highly curable with approximately 70% of patients achieving long term disease control using ABVD induction chemotherapy [1]. The standard management for relapsed/refractory patients is salvage chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation [2]. Unfortunately, this approach is only effective for about 50% of the patients [3,4]. For patients who relapse after autologous stem cell transplantation, the prognosis is poor and treatment options remain largely palliative. Allogeneic stem cell transplantation is an option for a subset of patients but its use is limited by transplant associated morbidities/mortality and lack of long term disease control [5-7]. Brentuximab vedotin, or SGN-35, is an antibody-drug conjugate that selectively delivers monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE), an antimicrotubule agent, into a CD30-expressing cell. CD30 is expressed on the surface of Reed-Sternberg cells in Hodgkin lymphoma [8,9]. Chen et al. reported a 75% objective response rate in a multi-center phase II study involving patients with relapsed/refractory Hodgkin lymphoma [10]. Brentuximab vedotin recently received FDA approval for the treatment of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma after failure of autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) or failure of at least two prior multi-agent chemotherapy regimens in patients who are not ASCT candidates. Since brentuximab vedotin utilizes an antibody to CD30 to target delivery of the MMAE, loss of CD30 is a possible mechanism of acquired drug resistance. We report on two patients with relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma that initially achieved partial remissions with brentuximab vedotin and then developed progressive disease, whose relapsed tumors were found to retain expression of CD30. The first case, a 27 year old woman, presented with cough and mediastinal lymphadenopathy. She underwent a mediastinascopy and was found to have nodular sclerosing Hodgkin lymphoma. Her disease was staged at IVA due to liver involvement. She was treated with 6 cycles of induction chemotherapy including adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine (ABVD) and achieved a complete remission. Her remission lasted for about a year and then she relapsed with nodal disease. She was then treated with two cycles of salvage chemotherapy with ifosfamide, carboplatin and etoposide (ICE), and underwent autologous stem cell transplantation using a total body irradiation based preparative regimen (1200 cGy). She achieved a complete remission again after her stem cell transplantation. However, nine years later, she relapsed in the hilar lymph nodes and lung. Consequently, she was treated on the pivotal study of brentuximab vedotin for treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma for 8 months. Her best response was a partial remission after two cycles. A CT scan after 8 cycles revealed a new area of consolidation in the lung. It was unclear whether this represented infectious pneumonia or progressive Hodgkin lymphoma. She underwent a CT guided lung biopsy and it revealed a lymphoid infiltrate comprised of a mixture of T cells (CD3 positive) and B cells (CD20 and PAX-5 positive) with focal clusters of large atypical cells. Immunohistochemical staining shows that these large atypical cells were CD30 positive (Figure 1), CD 15 and PAX 5 negative (not shown), and CD 20 negative (Figure 1). The pre-treatment CD30 staining pattern from her previous biopsy was similar to that seen after relapse (Figure 1). The overall findings were consistent with a recurrent Hodgkin lymphoma. Figure 1 Immunohistochemical staining showed that in Patients 1 (3 top panels) and Patient 2 (2 bottom panels), the large atypcial cells were CD30-positive (1 left panel, and 2 middle panels) and CD20-negative (2 right panels). For patient 1, we have both pre-treatment ... The second case was a 19 year old man presented with supraclavicular lymphadenopathy. He underwent an excisional biopsy and was found to have Hodgkin lymphoma. He was staged at IIIA due to diffuse lymphadenopathy and received ABVD as induction chemotherapy. He had persistent disease at the end of therapy and went on to receive salvage ICE chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation with involved field radiation. He had residual disease prior to the autologous stem cell transplant. Subsequently he relapsed and then underwent double umbilical cord blood transplantation. Unfortunately his disease recurred and additional treatments included rituximab, gemcitabine, vinorelbine, liposomal doxorubicin, MOPP, and palliative radiation. He was then enrolled on the SGN-35-07 study: “An intensive QT-QTc study to investigate the effects of brentuximab vedotin on cardiac ventricular repolarization in patients with CD30-positive malignancies” for 6 months. His best response was partial remission after 4 cycles. FDG-PET scan after the 10th cycle showed a new liver lesion. It was unclear whether the liver lesion represented infection or progressive lymphoma. A CT-guided biopsy of the liver mass revealed nodules with fibrosis and lymphoid aggregates composed of scattered large atypical cells admixed with eosinophils and neutrophils. These large atypical cells were positive for CD15 and CD30 (Figure 1), weakly positive for PAX-5 (not shown), and negative for CD20 (Figure 1) and CD45, consistent with recurrent Hodgkin lymphoma. Both of our patients achieved significant tumor reduction following treatment with brentuximab vedotin, even though they were heavily pretreated. Although the responses in these two patients were not prolonged, the updated pivotal phase II trial results reported by Chen et al. showed that a third of the patients achieved complete remission (CR), and the median duration of CR was 20.5 months12 [11]. In Figure 1, the top panels show that the tumor masses in both patients had persistent CD30 expression. One patient received 8 cycles of brentuximab vedotin and another patient received 10 cycles. The persistence of CD30 expression at the time of progressive disease demonstrates that loss of CD30 does not appear to be the mechanism of resistance to brentuximab vedotin in these two patients. Of 3 total patients that we have re-biopsied following relapse post-brentuximab vedotin, all 3 have remained CD30 positive: the two patients described in this letter and a patient with anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Other possible mechanisms of resistance to brentuximab vedotin include decreased drug exposure, increased transporter proteins that efflux drug from the cell, and diminished binding of auristatin to tubulin isotypes [12-14].

We evaluated the feasibility of tandem-cycle high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) with cisplatin, melphalan, and peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPCs). Fifty patients with high-risk primary (n = 17) or stage IV breast cancer (n = 29) or other malignancies (n = 4) received 2 cycles of intravenous melphalan, 20 to 151.8 mg/m2, and cisplatin, 200 mg/m2, followed by granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) or G-CSF. Starting at 40 mg/m2 of melphalan, patients also received PBPCs. Delayed platelet recovery defined the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) for melphalan at 101.2 mg/m2 per cycle. There were no treatment-related deaths. Cycle 2 was delivered at a median of 1.7 months after cycle 1; 72% of patients treated at the MTD received both cycles. Cycle 2 was omitted when patients refused it or had disease progression or toxicities, primarily prolonged thrombocytopenia. Complete response rates in stage IV breast cancer patients increased from 28% pre-HDCT to 55% after cycle 2. At a median follow-up of 4.6 years (range, 1.5-8.1 years), 11 of 29 patients with stage IV breast carcinoma were alive with 5-year projected progression-free and overall survival rates of 19% (95% confidence interval [CI], 7%-41%) and 39% (95% CI, 20%-62%), respectively. Five-year projected progression-free and overall survival rates for patients with stage IV breast cancer in complete response following HDCT versus all others were 35% (95% CI, 15%-70%) versus 0% (P = .01) and 61% (95% CI, 35%-91%) versus 10% (95% CI, 2%-60%) (P = .003; log-rank test), respectively. Estrogen-receptor positivity was predictive of reduced risk of progression (relative risk [RR], 0.25; 95% CI, 0.10-0.65; P = .003) and death (RR, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.10-0.72; P = .009) after adjusting for response status. Five-year projected relapse-free and overall survival rates were 71% (95% CI, 43%-96%) and 82% (95% CI, 56%-100%), respectively, for the 17 patients with high-risk primary breast cancer. Tandem-cycle high-dose melphalan and cisplatin with PBPCs is feasible. Preliminary data suggest significant activity in selected patients with stage IV responding breast carcinoma.Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2001;7(5):284-93.

BACKGROUND: AYAs (15-39y) with ALL have poor survival compared to children (1-14y). Placement on pediatric vs. adult clinical trials has been implicated in these differences, but a more comprehensive approach (sociodemographics, clinical prognostic factors, treatment provider/ intensity) is lacking and needs to be examined in the real world environment. We address this gap by evaluating factors contributing to the inferior outcome in AYA at a granular level. METHODS: The study included242 patients diagnosed with ALL between 1990 and 2010 at age 1-39y and treated at a comprehensive cancer center (irrespective of enrollment on clinical trial). Medical record abstraction yielded the following: Sociodemographics: payor, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES); Clinical Prognosticators: WBC at diagnosis (15d); early cessation of therapy. Using Cox regression analyses, time to relapse was evaluated from achievement of 1st CR, and censored at relapse, death, and hematopoietic cell transplantation in 1st CR or date of last contact. Five patients did not enter remission and were excluded from the analysis. We analyzed patients for two patterns of relapse: [1] Early Relapse: From 1st CR (n=237) through planned completion of therapy, with phases of therapy as time-varying covariates; [2] Late Relapse: Patients who completed treatment (n=121) were evaluated from date of last treatment until event/ follow-up. RESULTS: Clinical and demographic characteristics were similar between AYAs (n=142) and children (n=95) [non-white race/ethnicity: 67% vs. 66%, p=0.9; public insurance: 39% vs. 34%, p=0.4; WBC>100K 27% vs. 20%, p=0.2; median time to remission: 31d vs. 31d, p=0.91). However, AYAs received fewer months of maintenance therapy than children (median=14.9m vs 24.8m, p Early Relapse: Compared with children, AYAs had a 6-fold higher risk of relapse (HR=6.0, 95%CI 3.2-11.3, p CONCLUSIONS: Several factors explain, in part, the poor early outcome among AYAs, including longer time to remission, longer gaps between phases and early cessation of therapy. Among those who complete all phases of therapy, AYAs continue to have inferior outcomes, but the magnitude of difference is reduced, and duration of maintenance therapy remains the critical independent predictor of relapse risk. These findings highlight the need to elucidate the remaining factors that could explain the difference in outcome between AYAs and children, such as host and disease biology, and adherence to prescribed therapy; these are currently under investigation. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Background: Value is defined as health outcomes achieved per dollar spent. While risk-stratified AL HCT survival estimates are made possible by the Stem Cell Therapeutic Outcomes Database (SCTOD), an assessment of healthcare value is not possible as they do not include cost adjustments based upon clinical risk. We report a risk-based cost analysis, modeled on AL pts undergoing HCT at our institution that can potentially serve as a simple, statistically significant risk-based comparison tool. Methods: All AL pts who underwent HCT at City of Hope between 1/1/2010 and 12/31/2014 were included. Detailed data were captured from multiple electronic record sources in our database. Total direct costs were assessed for each pt from 14 days prior to 100 days post HCT. Categorical data were tested for associations by Chi-square; continuous data that were normally distributed were tested by T-test, while non-normal data were tested by Wilcoxon rank sum test. Univariate and multivariable logistic regression models were used to identify predictors associated with HCT costs ≥ median and ≥ 80th percentile. Univariate and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression were used to identify predictors of overall survival (OS). All p-values were 2-sided with alpha level of 0.05. Results: This analysis included 389 pts (AML 352; ALL 37); median age was 52.5 years (yr) [range 1-74; 107 (27.5%) age ≥ 60]; 48% were female. At the time of HCT 204 (52%) were in 1st complete remission [CR], 87 (22%) in 1st relapse (rel)/2nd CR, and 98 (25%) >2nd CR/Induction Failure [IF]; ECOG performance status was ≥1 in 29.5% and Sorrer comorbidity score ≥1 in 56%. 214 (55%) and 175 (45%) received myeloablative (MAC) or reduced intensity (RIC) conditioning regimen, respectively; 231 (59%) had matched unrelated donor [MUD] or mismatched related donor (MRD) HCT. Graft-versus-host prophylactic (GVHD) regimen consisted of tacrolimus/sirolimus for 80% pts. 207 pts were enrolled on a therapeutic intervention trials and 121 had Medicare and/or Medicaid (Medi-Cal) as payer. Median follow-up was 12.9 months. The estimated 1- yr unadjusted OS for the entire group post-HCT was 71% (95% CI 66%-75%), 80% (74%-85%) for pts in 1st CR, 68% (57%-77%) for pts in 1st rel/2nd CR, and 56% (45%-65%) for pts >2nd CR/ IF. OS was similar for sibling matched and MUD/MRD transplants (1-yr OS 73% vs. 70%). In a multivariable analyses, disease status, MUD/MRD donor, MAC regimen, GVHD prophylaxis other than tacrolimus/sirolimus, ECOG ≥1, and Medicare and/or Medicaid as payer significantly predicted for cost ≥ median (Figure1A). Using Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) scores, donor type and disease status at HCT were found to be more informative variables with regard to higher cost of HCT. Disease status, MUD/MRD, MAC regimen, Medicare and/or Medicaid as payer and ECOG ≥1 also significantly predicted cost ≥ 80th percentile (Figure1B). In a multivariable analysis for OS (Figure 1C) , only >2nd CR/IF and HCT cost exceeding median had significantly higher hazard of death. Of note, despite reaching statistical significance in univariate analysis age, cytogenetics, treatment on protocol, and Sorrer score lost significance in adjusted higher costs and OS multivariable models. Conclusions: Our data suggest that: 1. Higher levels of care complexity drive higher costs, 2. Patients with more advanced disease status and inferior performance status have higher costs, 3. Statistically significant drivers of higher care costs are predictable prior to HCT. These risk factors are easily abstractable from medical records and provide prospective, equitably comparisons of risk-based costs between transplant centers. These data compliment the outcomes data available from the SCTOD and may enable providers and payers to make meaningful value comparisons between transplant centers. They may also help establish alternative models for payer contracting that include consideration of clinical risk-stratification. Of note, given the favorable survival outcomes of pts with higher cost-risk features (i.e., advanced disease status at HCT and MUD/MRD), the higher care costs associated with effective care of higher complexity pts are justified. While validation of this model is necessary using large payer or multi-institutional databases, we propose that similar clinical-economic models can be created for pts with other blood cancers requiring high complexity care. Figure 1 Figure 1. Figure 2 Figure 2. Figure 3 Figure 3. Disclosures Forman: Mustang Therpapeutics: Other: Construct licensed by City of Hope.

Graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD) is a major predictor of outcome following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). For patients alive at day 100 after BMT, the presence or absence of chronic GVHD is one of the most important determinants of survival and quality of life. We wished to determine the effects on chronic GVHD of two regimens used for the prophylaxis of acute GVHD: cyclosporine, methotrexate, and prednisone (CSA/MTX/PSE) and cyclosporine and prednisone (CSA/PSE). One hundred forty-nine evaluable patients were entered into the acute GVHD study. As of 31 March 1997, 63 months after the last patient underwent BMT, the median survival time was 4.5 years (range 0.09-9.9). The incidence of chronic GVHD was independent of the prophylactic regimen (55 vs. 54%), and extensive chronic GVHD occurred in 25 and 24% of patients receiving CSA/MTX/PSE and CSA/PSE, respectively. Of note, the median Karnofsky performance status of both groups was 100% (range 70-100%), reflecting the low incidence of extensive chronic GVHD. Survival rates free of chronic GVHD were 52 vs. 42% (p = 0.29) for patients receiving CSA/MTX/PSE vs. CSA/PSE. The incidence of relapse was also similar in both groups of patients. These data suggest that the combinations of CSA/MTX/PSE and CSA/PSE result in comparable chronic GVHD-free survival without an increase in leukemic relapse. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 1999;5(5):285-91.

The optimal conditioning regimen for allogeneic BMT for hematological malignancies is still to be determined. We used a conditioning regimen including high-dose Ara-C (HDAC)/CY/TBI for patients at high risk for leukemic relapse (regimen A, Ara-C 3 g/m2 every 12 h for six doses followed by CY 45 mg/kg for 2 days and TBI 13.2 Gy in eight fractions) and a standard CY/TBI conditioning regimen for patients at low risk (regimen B, CY 60 mg/kg for 2 days and TBI 13.2 Gy in eight fractions). We analyzed 55 patients treated with regimen A (group A) and 36 patients with regimen B (group B). Relapse rates (10.9% in group A, 2.9% in group B, P = 0.23), 5-year overall (53.2% in group A and 60.8% in group B, P = 0.26) and disease-free (47.7% in group A and 60.8% in group B, P = 0.11) survival rates were not significantly different between these groups, although group A consisted of high-risk patients. Regimen-related toxicities were not significantly different between the two groups. This result suggests that adding HDAC to CY/TBI conditioning regimen may reduce leukemic relapse and improve survival without increasing regimen-related toxicities.

In this pilot trial of interleukin (IL)-2-treated autologous bone marrow (BM) and peripheral stem cell (PSC)-supported high-dose chemoradiotherapy, we report 36 patients with poor-prognosis leukemia and lymphoma who received BM and/or granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-mobilized autologous PSCs that had been exposed to IL-2 for 24 hours ex vivo. Patients then received IL-2 by low-dose continuous intravenous (i.v.) infusion until hematologic reconstitution and then by intermediate-dose continuous i.v. infusion for six 2-week maintenance cycles given at 1-month intervals. The median Day to neutrophils over 500/microL was 22 with BM and 10 with PSCs (p = 0.01). The median Day to platelets >20,000/microL was 50 for BM and 25 for PSCs, and to platelets >50,000/microL was 138 for BM and 34 for PSCs (p not significant). After the first three patients received IL-2 at 2 mIU x m(-2) x day(-1) and had slow reconstitution, four patients were treated without IL-2 until the maintenance phase following reconstitution. The remaining 29 patients received the initial "post-infusion" IL-2 at 1 mIU x m(-2) x day(-1). Toxicities associated with the infusion of IL-2-activated cells consisted of chills and fever in about one-half of the patients and transient hypotension in 12%. Low-dose IL-2 by continuous i.v. infusion in the early posttransplant period was associated with exacerbation of fever, diarrhea, and altered mental status in a minority of patients. The major dose-limiting toxicities of maintenance IL-2 were fever, fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms, skin rash, and dyspnea. Among 24 lymphoma patients, nine are in continuous complete remission (CCR) from 18-48 months, and 15 have died (12 due to relapse and three of therapy-related toxicities). Of 12 acute leukemia patients, two with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are in CCR at 38 and 43 months, and one patient who was in cytogenetic but not molecular remission of Philadelphia chromosome-positive ALL died of progressive leukemia at Day 108. Three of nine with myeloid leukemia are in CCR at 21, 46, and 53 months; one is in hematologic and cytogenetic remission of acute promyelocytic leukemia at 55 months with multiple new cytogenetic abnormalities; one is alive at 54 months with pancytopenia after incomplete hematologic recovery followed by multiple new cytogenetic abnormalities (myelodysplasia); and one had an unrelated donor transplant after relapsing 4 months following protocol therapy. One myeloid leukemia patient remains without evidence of relapse, but is transfusion-dependent at 15 months following transplant. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 1999;5(1):36-45.

We have conducted a pilot study to investigate the role of high-dose therapy and autologous bone marrow/stem cell transplantation (ASCT) during first complete or partial remission in 52 patients with poor-risk aggressive lymphoma. There were 42 patients with intermediate-grade or immunoblastic lymphoma who were considered to be high (60%) and high-intermediate risk (40%) groups at diagnosis based on the age-adjusted International Prognostic Index (IPI) and 10 patients with high-grade, SNCCL (small non-cleaved cell, Burkitt's, and non-Burkitt's), who at presentation had poor-risk features defined as elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase level, stage IV, and bulky mass ≥10 cm. The median age was 34 years (range, 16 to 56 years). Thirty-nine were transplanted in first complete remission and 13 in first partial remission after conventional therapy. Conditioning regimens consisted of total body irradiation (TBI) administered as a single fraction 750 cGy in 3 patients and in fractionated doses for a total of 1,200 cGy in 44 patients, in combination with 60 mg/kg etoposide and 100 mg/kg cyclophosphamide. Five patients with prior radiotherapy received 450 mg/m2 carmustine instead of TBI. Stem cell sources were either bone marrow and/or peripheral blood. No in vitro purging was used. All patients engrafted. Two SNCCL patients died of venoocclusive disease at 25 days and acute leukemia at 27 months posttransplantation. There were six relapses at 1.5 to 12.8 months posttransplantation. At a median follow-up of 44 months (range, 1 to 113 months), the estimated 3-year overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) for all patients was 84% (95% confidence interval [CI], 70% to 92%) and 82% (95% CI, 68% to 91%), respectively. In the subset of patients with intermediate-grade and immunoblastic lymphoma, the 3-year DFS was 89% (95% CI, 74% to 96%) for all patients, 87% (95% CI, 67% to 96%) for high-risk patients, and 92% (95 CI, 61% to 99%) for high-intermediate risk patients. The 3-year OS and DFS for SNCCL patients were identical at 60% (95% CI, 30% to 84%). These results suggest that high-dose therapy and ASCT during first remission may improve the survival and prognosis of patients with poor-risk intermediate- and high-grade lymphoma. A prospective randomized study comparing high-dose therapy and ASCT with conventional chemotherapy in IPI high-risk patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma should be undertaken.

PURPOSE To evaluate in a prospective study the efficacy of autologous bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in adult patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) in first remission, using a single course of high-dose Cytarabine (HD Ara-C) consolidation therapy as in vivo purging. PATIENTS AND METHODS Sixty consecutive adult patients with AML in first complete remission (CR) were treated with HD Ara-C consolidation therapy as a method of in vivo purging before marrow collection. High-dose therapy consisted of fractionated total-body irradiation (FTBI) 12 Gy, intravenous etoposide 60 mg/kg, and cyclophosphamide 75 mg/kg, followed by reinfusion of cryopreserved marrow. RESULTS Sixty patients underwent consolidation treatment with HD Ara-C with the intent to treat with autologous BMT. Sixteen patients were unable to proceed to autologous BMT (10 patients relapsed, one died of sepsis, one developed cerebellar toxicity, two had inadequate blood counts, and two refused). Forty-four patients underwent autologous BMT and have a median follow-up time of 37 months (range, 14.7 to 68.7) for patients who are alive with no relapse. The cumulative probability of disease-free survival (DFS) at 24 months in the intent-to-treat group is 49% (95% confidence interval [CI], 37% to 62%) and in those who actually underwent autologous BMT is 61% (95% CI, 46% to 74%). The probability of relapse was 44% (95% CI, 31% to 58%) and 33% (95% CI, 20% to 49%) for the intent-to-treat and autologous BMT patients, respectively. CONCLUSION This approach offers a relatively high DFS rate to adult patients with AML in first CR. The results of this study are similar to those achieved with allogeneic BMT.

Thalidomide has been reported to be an effective agent for treatment of chronic graft-versus-host disease (CGVHD). To determine the efficacy of this agent in patients with refractory CGVHD a total of 80 patients who failed to respond to prednisone (PSE) or PSE and cyclosporine (CSA) were treated with thalidomide. Sixteen patients (20%) had a sustained response, 9 with a complete remission and 7 with a partial response. Twenty-nine patients (36%) had thalidomide discontinued because of side effects, which included sedation, constipation, neuritis, skin rash, and neutropenia. Side effects were reversible with drug discontinuation except for mild residual neuritis in one case. Rashes and neutropenia have not previously been reported as thalidomide side effects when used for CGVHD treatment. We conclude thalidomide is immunosuppressive and active in the treatment of CGVHD. A high incidence of reversible side effects limited dose intensity and reduced the number of patients who could benefit from treatment.

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a major obstacle to successful bone marrow transplantation (BMT) from matched unrelated donor (MUD). Currently available HLA-A, -B, and -DR serologic testing may not be sensitive enough to detect clinically relevant donor/recipient (D/R) nonidentity. Better HLA matching of D/R pairs using molecular typing for class II antigens in combination with intensive GVHD prophylaxis may potentially reduce the incidence of GVHD and lead to an improved outcome of MUD transplantation. Between July 1991 and August 1993, thirty consecutive patients with hematologic malignancies underwent MUD transplantation from donors who were identical for HLA -A, -B, and -DR by serologic typing. Twenty-five D/R pairs were matched for DRB and DQB by molecular typing (restriction fragment-length polymorphism and sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe hybridization analyses), whereas five were allele mismatched at either DRB or DQB. All patients also received GVHD prophylaxis with the combination of cyclosporine (CSA), methotrexate (MTX), and prednisone (PSE). The median age was 35 years (range, 15 to 50). The diagnoses were: chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in chronic phase (CP) (16), CML in more than CP (3), acute leukemia in more than first complete remission (CR) (8), acute leukemia in first CR (1), and advanced high-grade lymphoma (2). The preparative regimen consisted of 1,320 cGy fractionated total body irradiation (FTBI) and 60 mg/kg cyclophosphamide (CY) daily for 2 days in 17 good-risk patients (CML/CP and acute leukemia first CR); and 1,320 cGy FTBI in combination with 60 mg/kg etoposide and 20 to 60 mg/kg CY in 13 patients with advanced leukemia and lymphoma. All patients received CSA, PSE, and MTX on days 1, 3, 6 for GVHD prophylaxis, and 10 patients also received day +11 MTX. All patients engrafted except one who died early of regimen-related toxicity. The incidence of grade III or IV acute GVHD was 24% (95% confidence interval [CI], 10% to 44%) and that of extensive chronic GVHD was 65% (95% CI, 43% to 84%). At a median follow-up of 13.6 months, 57% of the patients are alive in remission with a median Karnofsky performance status of 90%. The cumulative probability of 2-year disease-free survival for all patients was 53% (95%) CI, 33% to 71%); for good-risk patients, 71% (95% CI, 46% to 87%) and for the poor-risk group, 34% (95% CI, 13% to 64%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Eight-five consecutive patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's disease (HD) underwent high-dose chemotherapy or chemo/radiotherapy followed by autologous bone marrow (ABMT) and/or peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplantation. Two preparative regimens were used. Twenty- two patients (26%) without prior radiation received fractionated total body irradiation (FTBI) 1,200 Gy in combination with high-dose etoposide (VP-16) 60 mg/kg and cyclophosphamide (CTX) 100 mg/kg. Sixty- three patients (74%) with prior radiotherapy received carmustine (BCNU) 450 mg/m2 instead of FTBI. The median age was 32 years (range, 16 to 56). The median number of prior chemotherapy regimens was three (range, 1 to 7). Forty-three patients (51%) received transplants in first relapse or second complete remission (CR), whereas 33 (39%) received transplants after second or subsequent relapse. All relapsed patients, except one, received conventional salvage chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy in an attempt to reduce tumor bulk before transplant. At the time of analysis in April 1994, fifty-seven patients (67%) are alive, including 44 (52%) in continuous CR, with a median follow-up for the surviving patients of 28 months (range, 7 to 66). Thirty patients (35%) relapsed at a median of 9 months (range, 1 to 43). Eleven patients (13%) died of transplant-related complications including veno- occlusive disease of the liver (VOD) in five, acute and late interstitial pneumonitis in three, graft failure in one, cerebral hemorrhage in one, and therapy-induced myelodysplasia (MDS)/acute leukemia in one patient. At a median follow-up of 25 months (range, 0.6 to 66), the cumulative probability of 2-year overall and disease-free survival (DFS) of all 85 patients is 75% (95% confidence interval [CI] 64% to 84%) and 58% (95% CI 47% to 69%), respectively. Three independent prognostic variables were identified by univariate analysis: number of prior chemotherapy regimens, prior radiotherapy, and extranodal disease at ABMT. Multivariate stepwise Cox regression identified the number of prior chemotherapy regimens as the only significant prognostic factor predicting for both relapse and DFS. There were no significant differences in the outcome of the treatment between the two preparative regimens. Our results confirm that high- dose therapy and ABMT is an effective therapy for patients with relapsed or refractory HD. Earlier transplantation is recommended before the development of drug resistance and end organ damage that results from repeated attempts of salvage therapy.

Background: High risk AML patients (pts) have poor outcome with low complete remission (CR) rate and long term survival despite intensive chemotherapy. Tyrosine kinases play an important role in AML pathogenesis. Pre-clinical studies performed in our center (Blood. 2013 122:1900) have shown that Src family tyrosine kinases (SFK) including Lyn, Hck and Fgr are abnormally activated in AML compared to normal hematopoietic stem cell and progenitor cells. Other studies have shown that the c-Kit receptor is over-activated in a subset of AML pts and contributes to abnormal leukemia cell growth. We further show that the small molecule SFK and c-Kit inhibitor dasatinib reduces proliferation and survival of AML stem and progenitor cells. Importantly, dasatinib enhances the sensitivity of AML stem and progenitor cells to chemotherapeutic agents by inhibiting Akt signaling, increasing mdm2 phosphorylation and enhancing p53 activity in AML cells. Based on this data we conducted a phase I/II clinical study of the combination of dasatinib with conventional cytarabine-idarubicin ("7+3")-based induction chemotherapy in high-risk AML. Methods: Between September 20013 and July 2015, 18 adult AML pts were enrolled in the study. Eligibility criteria were high-risk AML, age >18 years, and suitability for intensive therapy. High risk AML was defined by one of the following criteria: older age (> 60 yrs), poor-risk cytogenetic and molecular abnormalities (ELN criteria), secondary disease (AML evolving from myelodysplasia or myeloproliferative neoplasm), therapy related (t-AML), or relapsed/refractory. This Phase I study used a 3 + 3 dose escalation design for dasatinib while keeping a fixed dose of cytarabine and idarubicin (cytarabine 200 mg/m2 CIV days 1-7, idarubicin 12 mg/m2 IV days 1-3). Dasatinib was started at a dose of 70 mg (dose level 1; DL-1) days 1-7, and escalated to 100 mg orally days 1-7 (DL 1). Pts who failed to achieve CR received second re-induction with the same regimen. Pts who achieved CR received consolidation high dose cytarabine and/or allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) based on donor availability. Results: Of the 18 pts enrolled on the study, 7 pts (39%) had secondary AML, 5 pts (28%) relapsed AML, 2 pts (11%) t-AML, and 4 (22%) were newly diagnosed older AML pts (one with complex karyotype, one with trisomy 8 and one cytogenetically normal with FTL3-ITD). The median age of all pts was 62 yrs (range 27-73). Of the 18 pts, 13 pts are currently evaluable for response; of which 10 (77%) achieved CR/Cri. Of the 5 non-evaluable pts, one pt withdrew from study after 2 days of therapy, one pt was taken off study after 3 days due to cytarabine neurotoxicity, one pt died of intracranial hemorrhage before the day 14 bone marrow biopsy, one pt had therapy interrupted secondary to pneumonia and sepsis, and one is still receiving therapy. None of the pts required more than one induction to achieve CR. Of the 10 pts who achieved CR/Cri, 8 patients went on to receive allogeneic SCT. As expected, the most commonly reported grade 3 and 4 adverse events (AE) were anemia 50%, thrombocytopenia 44%, neutropenia 38%, and fatigue 27%. The most common grade 1-2 AE were GI toxicities 61% and rash 33%. Correlative studies performed on blood samples obtained from pts on day 3 after initiation of treatment (n=9) demonstrated significant decrease in of SRC activity (as indicated by reduction in phospho-SRC levels on immunoblotting, 0.52±0.11 of control, p=0.01), and increased expression of p53-target genes as evaluated by Q-RT-PCT [including Puma (16.2±6.9 fold, p=0.015), P21 (4.9±1.1 fold, p=0.004), DR5 (3.4±0.9, p=0.004), Bax (3.7±0.9 fold, p=0.001) and HDM2 (2.1±0.5, p=0.02)]. Conclusion: Combination of dasatinib with conventional "7+3" induction chemotherapy is feasible in high-risk AML and leads to higher CR rate compared to historical data without increase in toxicity rate, allowing more pts to receive allogeneic transplantation. Correlative laboratory studies are consistent with pre-clinical studies suggesting that this combination is associated with significant inhibition of SRC activity and enhanced activation of p53-target genes. Disclosures Dos Santos: Amgen: Employment. Stein:Amgen: Speakers Bureau. Chen:Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Millennium: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Merck: Consultancy, Research Funding; genentech: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau. Khaled:Sequenom: Research Funding.

PURPOSE To evaluate (1) the effect of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) on peripheral-blood stem-cell (PBSC) mobilization; (2) the rate of hematopoietic recovery after G-CSF-mobilized PBSC transplantation; and (3) the outcome of high-dose myeloablative therapy and PBSC transplantation in patients with relapsed or refractory lymphoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS Ninety-five patients with lymphoma underwent high-dose therapy followed by PBSC transplant in three sequentially treated cohorts of patients in a nonrandomized study. The first 30 patients received nonmobilized PBSCs (unprimed) without G-CSF after transplant, the next 26 patients received PBSC that were mobilized with G-CSF 5 micrograms/kg/d (primed-5) plus G-CSF after transplant, and the last 39 patients received PBSC mobilized by G-CSF 10 micrograms/kg/d (primed-10) plus G-CSF after transplant. The conditioning regimen consisted of fractionated total-body irradiation (FTBI) 12 Gy in combination with etoposide 60 mg/kg and cyclophosphamide 100 mg/kg. Patients with prior radiotherapy received carmustine (BCNU) 450 mg/m2 instead of FTBI. RESULTS The use of G-CSF-mobilized PBSCs in combination with G-CSF posttransplant resulted in a significantly accelerated time to recovery of both granulocyte and platelet when compared with the unprimed group. The median number of days to an absolute granulocyte count (ANC) of greater than 0.5 x 10(9)/L was 10 days for G-CSF primed versus 20 days for the unprimed (P = .0001). The median days to platelet transfusion independence was 16 and 31 days (P = .0001) for the G-CSF primed and unprimed, respectively. There were also significant reductions in the number of platelet (P = .02) and RBC transfusions (P = .006) for the G-CSF primed. Multivariate analysis of prognostic factors identified CD34+ cell dose as the only additional factor predicting engraftment. Sixty-nine patients are alive at a median follow-up of 15.9 months (range, 7.4 to 63.7). The cumulative probability of 2-year disease-free survival is 59% (95% confidence interval [CI], 36% to 79%) and 39% (95% CI 25% to 55%) for patients with Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, respectively. CONCLUSION The use of G-CSF-mobilized PBSC after high-dose myeloablative therapy resulted in a rapid, complete, and sustained hematopoietic recovery. Disease-free survival over 2 years can be achieved in some patients with relapsed lymphoma after high-dose therapy and PBSC transplantation. However, longer follow-up is required to confirm the curability of this approach.

Ninety-four consecutive patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia in first clinical chronic phase, median age of 34.0 years (range, 6.8 to 52.4 years), with a histocompatible sibling donor, were treated with fractionated total body irradiation (1,320 cGy) and high-dose etoposide (60 mg/kg) followed by allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). The median time from diagnosis to BMT was 7.0 months (range, 2.3 to 72.0 months). Sixty patients were treated before BMT with hydroxyurea alone, four patients with busulfan alone, one patient with interferon alone, and the other 29 patients were treated with various combinations of these drugs. Cumulative probabilities of overall survival, event- free survival, and relapse at 5 years were 73%, 64%, and 14%, respectively. The median follow-up time for surviving patients was 38 months, ranging from 12 to 88 months. By stepwise Cox regression analysis, significant prognostic variables were age at transplant, acute graft-versus-host disease > or = grade II, cytomegalovirus- associated interstitial pneumonitis, and years from diagnosis to BMT.

PURPOSE To identify risk factors that might predict for systemic fungal infections in marrow transplant recipients within the first 100 days and to assess the efficacy of low-dose amphotericin B used as prophylaxis for candidemia and infection with invasive Aspergillus species in patients at risk. PATIENTS AND METHODS A retrospective analysis of transplant outcomes for 331 allogeneic marrow recipients transplanted between 1983 and 1989 was performed to identify patients who might be at increased risk of fungal infection. Factors analyzed included disease, remission status, transplant regimen, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis, duration of neutropenia, and development of GVHD. A trial of low-dose amphotericin (5 to 10 mg/d) begun on day +1 and continuing for 2 to 3 months posttransplant was begun in 1987 to evaluate its utility in reducing systemic mycoses. RESULTS There were 18 episodes of candidemia and 18 systemic mycoses documented by blood or tissue culture or by biopsy. The initiation of high-dose (0.5 to 1 mg/kg/d) corticosteroids early as a component of GVHD prophylaxis in 1986 was identified as the most important risk factor for fungal infections, with a sixfold increase in infections as compared with the previous GVHD regimen (P < .0001); this was despite a significant decrease in the incidence of grade II to IV GVHD (7% v 43%; P = .0001). Low-dose amphotericin B initiated before the start of high-dose corticosteroid GVHD prophylaxis reduced the incidence of fungal infections from 30% to 9% (P = .01) without renal toxicity. Cyclosporine levels were lower in the patients who received amphotericin, leading to an increase in the rate of GVHD to 19% (P = .02). Controlling for GVHD prophylaxis, prolonged neutropenia (P = .00), and grade II to IV GVHD (P = .01) were also identified as risk factors for fungal infection. CONCLUSION Amphotericin B can be used in low doses as prophylaxis for fungal infections early in the posttransplant course. However, cyclosporine doses need to be monitored to maintain target levels.

Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation remains a serious problem. In a clinical trial, we tested the combination of cyclosporine and prednisone with and without methotrexate for the prevention of GVHD.One hundred fifty patients with either acute leukemia in first complete remission, chronic myelogenous leukemia in first chronic phase, or lymphoblastic lymphoma in first complete remission were enrolled in the study. All the patients were given fractionated total-body irradiation (1320 cGy) and etoposide (60 mg per kilogram of body weight) in preparation for transplantation, and received bone marrow from genotypically histocompatible donors. To prevent GVHD, they were randomly assigned to prophylactic treatment with either cyclosporine, methotrexate, and prednisone or cyclosporine and prednisone without methotrexate. All the patients received standardized supportive care after transplantation, including intravenous gamma globulin.Patients receiving cyclosporine, methotrexate, and prednisone had a significantly lower incidence of acute GVHD of grades II to IV (9 percent) than those receiving cyclosporine and prednisone (23 percent, P = 0.02). Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that an increased risk of acute GVHD was associated with an elevated serum creatinine concentration (P = 0.006) and treatment with cyclosporine and prednisone alone (P = 0.02). The lower incidence of acute GVHD was not associated with a higher rate of relapse of leukemia or lymphoma. There was no significant difference in disease-free survival at three years between the two treatment groups (64 percent with the three-drug regimen vs. 59 percent with the two-drug regimen, P = 0.57).The combination of cyclosporine, methotrexate, and prednisone was more effective in preventing acute GVHD of grades II to IV than was the combination of cyclosporine and prednisone without methotrexate.

Twenty consecutive patients with poor-risk aggressive lymphoma who at presentation either had elevated serum lactic dehydrogenase level (LDH) and any one of the other poor-prognostic features: bulky mass greater than or equal to 10 cm, advanced stage III or IV, and greater than or equal to 2 extranodal sites, or normal LDH level and all other three features, underwent high-dose chemo/radiotherapy followed by unmanipulated autologous bone marrow transplantation (BMT) during their first complete remission. Eighteen had B-cell lymphoma and 2 had T-cell lymphoma. Eleven patients had high-grade (7 immunoblastic, 3 small noncleaved, non-Burkitt's, and 1 Burkitt's) and 9 had diffuse large cell lymphoma. All patients had achieved a complete remission following conventional chemotherapy. Four patients had also received involved field radiotherapy to areas of bulky disease. The preparative regimen consisted of high-dose etoposide 60 mg/kg and cyclophosphamide 100 mg/kg in combination with fractionated total body irradiation (FTBI) 1,200 cGy (15 patients), or single-dose TBI 750 cGy (2 patients), or carmustine 450 mg/m2 (3 patients). All patients tolerated the treatment well and achieved complete hematologic recovery. Three patients have relapsed at days 79, 196, and 401 after transplantation. Seventeen patients (84%) are alive and relapse-free with a median follow-up of 34 months (range 2 to 54). We conclude that high-dose chemo/radiotherapy followed by autologous BMT can be given as consolidation therapy during first remission in these patients with minimal transplant-related toxicity.

We describe the successful treatment of a pregnant patient with chronic myelogenous leukemia in chronic phase by using only leukapheresis. Following 20 leukapheresis procedures initiated during the 13th week of gestation and performed over approximately 7 weeks, the patients white blood cell count dropped from 242,000/μl to 19,300/μl. The WBC remained stable over the ensuing 17 weeks until the time of delivery. The patient gave birth by cesarean section to a healthy 2,640 g boy at 37.5 weeks of gestation. This is the second report of the successful use of leukapheresis alone for chronic myelogenous leukemia in chronic phase during the first half of pregnancy. We conclude that where leukapheresis is available, it may provide an alternative treatment to chemotherapy or alpha-interferon, especially in light of their potential teratogenic and leukemogenic side-effects. J. Clin. Apheresis 14:42–44, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

BACKGROUND: The successful mobilization and collection of hematopoietic stem cells are dependent on a number of clinical factors such as previous chemotherapy and disease stage. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine whether the effectiveness of mobilization and collection is an independent prognostic factor for autologous stem cell transplantation outcome. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 358 patients who received transplants from January 2003 to December 2004 (201 male and 157 female patients, ages from 2.7 to 77.3 years with median of 53 years of age) underwent autologous hematopoietic stem cell collection after mobilization with granulocyte–colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) or G-CSF plus chemotherapy priming. This retrospective study included patients with diagnoses of acute myelogenous leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, and solid tumors. All patients underwent stem cell collection until a target or a minimum CD34+ cell dose was reached. Correlations were performed between stem cell mobilization and/or collection efficacy and transplantation outcomes. RESULTS: In general, both larger reinfused CD34+ cell dose and shorter number of days for the stem cell count to reach the minimum of 2 × 106 per kg CD34+ cells do not foster quicker engraftment. Reinfused CD34+ cell dose of less than 12 × 106 and number of days stem cell collection to reach this minimum CD34+ cell dose did not independently affect the overall survival (OS) or disease-free survival (DFS). CONCLUSION: The effectiveness of hematopoietic stem cell mobilization and collection as defined as number of days to reach a CD34+ cell dose of 2 × 106 per kg should not be used independently to forecast posttransplantation prognosis, engraftment, DFS, and OS.

Background: The SWOG 9011 trial of augmented conditioning regimens (12 Gy TBI or BCNU 15mg/kg with both etoposide 60 mg/kg and cyclophosphamide 100 mg/kg) prior to single AHCT for pts with relapsed or refractory HL demonstrated 5-yr PFS and OS of 41% and 54% respectively in 74 treated pts. Among 46 previously irradiated pts with 2-3 high risk features, the 5-yr OS was 38% compared with 60% for pts with 0-1 risk features. Post-AHCT relapse was the major cause of failure (Stiff et al. BBMT 2003; 9:529). The strategy of sequential high-dose (HD) chemotherapy + tandem AHCT for poor prognosis HL patients was investigated in a City of Hope (COH) & Loyola University (LU) pilot trial of tandem AHCT in 46 HL pts with primary progressive or relapsed HL with at least 1 poor-risk feature. Trial results were promising, with 5-yr OS, EFS and FFP of 54%, 49% and 55% respectively and 100-day TRM of 4% (Fung et al. BBMT 2007;13:594). The purpose of the SWOG led trial S0410 was to evaluate the COH/LU regimen in a phase II cooperative group setting, with the primary endpoint of 2-yr PFS. Methods: Pts with refractory/relapsed HL, eligible ages 15 -70, were enrolled after salvage therapy & stem cell collection (minimum 3.5 X 10.6 CD34/kg). Pts with relapse after prior CR received minimum of 2 cycles salvage chemotherapy or minimum of 25 Gy involved field radiation therapy (IFRT) to determine if they had sensitive or resistant HL. Pts with late relapse (> 12 months after 1st CR) responsive to salvage therapy were excluded. Pts with > 5cm bulk disease after salvage had to agree to 18 Gy IFRT pre-AHCT. A designed sample size of 85 pts over 2-yrs with 18 months follow-up was chosen to have 86% power by 0.025 one-sided alpha test to detect a 15% increase in 2-yr PFS as compared to the historical 2-yr PFS of 45% in S9011. After IFRT to bulk disease pre-AHCT, pts were treated with cycle 1 HD-Melphalan (150 mg/m2) + AHCT. If response after cycle 1 AHCT was SD or better, pts had 2nd AHCT with one of the two HD regimens used in SWOG 9011. Interval between day zero of 1st and 2nd AHCT had to be at least 28 days & not greater than 60 days. Results: 98 patients enrolled from 10 institutions including the BMT CTN. Six ineligible pts had inadequate PFTs (1), incomplete baseline testing (3) or failure to confirm pathology by central review (2). Median age was 34 yrs (range 18-60), 45% had refractory disease, 42% had B symptoms, and 24% had extranodal disease at transplant. Of the 92 eligible pts, 89 were treated, 82 completed both cycles of AHCT and 7 pts did not have 2nd AHCT (1 progressed, 1 declined TBI, 4 with > 60 days since 1st AHCT, 1 poor graft after C1.) Of 89 pts assessed for toxicities, 70 had grade 4 AEs, primarily hematologic and 14 of those pts had grade 4 non-hematologic AEs. Treatment-related mortality was 0%. With median follow-up of 5.4 yrs (range 2 -7.6 yrs), the 2-yr PFS was 63% (95% CI: 52%, 72%) and 2-yr OS was 91% (95% CI 83, 95%), as shown in figures 1 and 2 respectively. There were 15 deaths in eligible pts, 2 deaths in ineligible pts, and 3 deaths in inevaluable pts who did not receive protocol therapy. Of the 15 deaths in eligible and evaluable patients, there were 11 deaths due to progressive HL, 1 death due to non-treatment related respiratory failure, 1 death due to disseminated CMV infection and 2 deaths with primary cause not reported. Late malignancies were mylelodysplasia in 2 pts, thyroid cancer in 1 pt, and 2 pts with non-melanoma skin cancer. Conclusions: The 2-yr PFS of 63% in pts treated with tandem AHCT on S0410 met the predicted study endpoint of at least 15% improvement compared with the 2-yr PFS of 45% in the S9011 trial of augmented HCT conditioning prior to single AHCT. The better-than-expected OS of 91% in S0410 is attributed to the current treatment strategies for progressive or relapsed HL after AHCT, including brentuximab vedotin (BV) salvage and allogeneic HCT, which can lead to a significant percentage of long term survivors. Analysis of prognostic features will be conducted to ascertain if a model can be developed to identify a very high-risk group of HL pts who should be considered for early allogeneic HCT. Next steps will need to take into consideration results of the recently completed trial of BV consolidation after single AHCT; however, the S0410 results are very promising considering the patients had poor-risk relapsed and refractory HL. Support: CA32102, CA38926 Figure 1 Figure 1. Figure 2 Figure 2. Disclosures Fisher: Johnson & Johnson : Consultancy; MorphoSys AG: Consultancy.

Current treatment of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) with prednisone (PSE) alone or with added cyclosporine or tacrolimus still has a very high failure and complication rate, and new treatment approaches are needed for both primary and salvage therapy. Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is an immunosuppressive agent currently in use for acute graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis. To determine whether MMF had activity in the treatment of cGVHD, we added MMF to standard cyclosporine, tacrolimus, and/or PSE as salvage/second-line (n = 24) or first-line (n = 10) therapy in 34 patients. Nine (90%) of 10 patients receiving first-line and 18 (75%) of 24 receiving second-line MMF therapy responded. Twelve (35%) patients had a complete remission, 15 (44%) had a partial remission, 5 (15%) had stable disease, and only 2 (6%) had progressive disease. Out of 30 patients receiving PSE, 22 (73%) were able to decrease PSE doses (median decrease of 50%; range, 25%–100%). With a median follow-up of 24 months (range, 6–28 months), 29 (85%) patients are alive. Three patients had to discontinue MMF because of abdominal cramps within 3 months of starting treatment. These data suggest that MMF is an active, well-tolerated agent in the treatment of cGVHD and may have a beneficial effect on the survival of patients with this complication.

This study was performed to determine the clinical activity and safety of weekly low-dose paclitaxel (90 mg/m2) given as a 1-hour infusion in patients with relapsed and refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Thirty patients were treated on a phase II protocol conducted at the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center and within the Wisconsin Oncology Network (WON). A cycle of therapy was defined as paclitaxel at 90 mg/m2 weekly for 6 consecutive weeks followed by a 2-week rest period. Cycles were repeated as long as there was no disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. In general, the patients were heavily pretreated with a median of 4 prior therapies (range 2-11), and 73% were refractory to the most recent systemic therapy. The median age was 70 (range 44-97). All NHL histological subtypes were eligible. Of the 30 eligible patients enrolled, 26 were evaluable for response and 28 for toxicity. The overall response rate was 23% (95% confidence interval (CI) 9.0-43.7%). One patient had a complete response, and 5 patients had partial responses. The median response duration was 3.2 months (range 1.4-11.8 months). The median event-free survival was 1.9 months. The major toxicity was neuropathy. Despite the limited marrow reserve in this patient population, myelosuppression was minimal. Paclitaxel given in this dose and schedule has modest activity in previously treated non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The response rate appears similar to other reports using different doses and schedules. Myelosuppression appears less with this schedule than with other schedules.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of the preparative regimen of thiotepa and etoposide in patients undergoing autologous transplantation for relapsed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The study involved 65 consecutive patients who underwent autologous transplantation using the thiotepa/etoposide regimen for relapsed intermediate-grade NHL at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics (UWHC) between 1987 and 2001. The regimen consisted of thiotepa 300 mg/m(2)/day and etoposide 700 mg/m(2)/day on days -6, -5, and -4. The median age at the time of transplant was 49 years. A total of 50 patients (76%) had diffuse large-cell lymphoma. A total of 50 (77%) patients had chemosensitive disease, and 15 (23%) were chemoresistant. With a median follow-up of 34 months (range, 3-163), 28 patients (43%) remain in CR and 33 (51%) have developed recurrent or progressive disease. The overall survival and event-free survival at 3 years are 40% (95% CI 26-53%) and 32% (95% CI 20-45%), respectively. There was one death attributed to regimen-related toxicity (RRT). Reversible gastrointestinal toxicity was the major RRT, and there was minimal pulmonary and cardiac toxicity. We conclude that the combination of thiotepa and etoposide is an effective preparative regimen with acceptable RRT.