ALBERT

Description: Introduction: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a heterogeneous disease with variable clinical course. Several studies have been conducted to predict outcome in patients with CLL and also have been going on. A proliferation inducing ligand (APRIL) has been shown to involve in survival and resistance to apoptosis in CLL, and APRIL molecule has been investigated as a prognostic marker in CLL patients. However, there are limited and controversial data regarding APRIL and its impact on prognosis in CLL. We aimed to compare serum APRIL levels in CLL patients with those of age and gender matched healthy subjects, and to investigate the relationship between APRIL and the other common prognostic factors, and to determine whether serum APRIL levels predict time to first treatment in CLL. Methods: After ethical approval and informed consent were obtained, between May and December 2012, venous blood samples were driven from 96 CLL patients’ and 25 healthy controls’, and serum APRIL levels were measured by ELISA. Demographic data and the prognostic markers were obtained from the patients’ files, and patients have been followed for a minimum of 12 months. We tested the correlation between APRIL with the, clinical and biological parameters, and used the log rank test to compare their Kaplan Meier curves. Results: Patients were divided into three groups: Treatment naive (group A, n=49), chemotherapy receiving (group B, n=25) and who had previously received chemotherapy (group C, n=22). Median APRIL level was higher in group A (2.78 vs 1.29; p=0.034) and group C (3.54 vs 1.29; p=0.001) when compared to healthy controls, but was not different in group B (1.56 vs 1.29; p=0.3) (Figure 1). Serum APRIL level in group A was negatively correlated with hemoglobin levels (r=-0.298; p=0.037) and platelet counts (r=-0.321; p=0.025) whereas no correlation with age, Rai and Binet stages, lymphocyte counts, β2-microglobulin and CD38 levels were detected. Group A patients were also divided into 2 subgroups (APRIL levels low, n=20 and APRIL levels high, n=29) using median natural logarithm of serum APRIL level as cut off. April low and high subgroups were similar with respect to demographic data and prognostic factors. Median time to first treatment was not reached in the APRIL low group, but was 104 months in the APRIL high group (p=0.13, log-rank test). Conclusions: Among the treatment naive patients, serum APRIL levels only negatively correlate with hemoglobin levels and platelet counts. These correlations seem to be associated with tumor burden rather than the prognosis, because APRIL levels were not different in chemotherapy receiving patients compared to healthy controls. Since a median survival time could not be reached in the APRIL low group, short follow up time might be an explanation why the APRIL levels did not predict the time to first treatment. In conclusion, our findings let us to think APRIL levels are not a useful marker to predict prognosis in patients with CLL. Figure 1. Median APRIL levels of CLL patients and healthy controls (ng/mL) Figure 1. Median APRIL levels of CLL patients and healthy controls (ng/mL) Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Description: Introduction: Imatinib mesylate (IM) is the first tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) licensed for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Severe bone marrow fibrosis (BMF) has been reported in excess of 40% of the patients with CML at diagnosis. Before TKIs became available, BMF which emerged at diagnosis and/or in the late periods of the disease was defined to be a poor prognostic factor, and it contributed significantly to morbidity and mortality from 10% to 30% in patients with CML. The relationship between BMF and both disease progression and prognosis has been the subject of re-evaluation after the introduction of IM therapy. In patients with CML, it has not been clearly demonstrated yet, whether IM improves the poor prognostic effect of fibrosis, and prevents the new BMF development or not. Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of IM therapy on BMF formation, and the prognostic significance of BMF in patients with CML. Material and Methods: One hundred and thirty-five CML patients were enrolled in the study. Patients' demographics, Sokal risk scores, molecular and cytogenetic responses and follow-up periods were noted from the patients' files retrospectively. All pre- and post-IM bone marrow biopsy samples, which were stained with hematoxylin and eosin, were re-evaluated for the current analysis. Grading of BMF was according to the European consensus decisions, graded as 0-III. The term "last bone marrow biopsy" (LBMB) is referred to a biopsy, which was performed at 18th months or later on during IM treatment. Results: The median age was 44 years (range, 18-92 years), and 78 patients (58%) were male. One hundred and twenty-eight patients (95%) were in chronic phase [CP], 4 patients (3%) were in accelerated phase [AP], and 3 patients (2%) were in blast crisis [BC] at the time of IM initiation. Out of 128 CML-CP patients, one hundred and twenty patients (93%) were in early CP, whereas 8 (7%) were in late CP. The percentage of low, intermediate, and high Sokal risk scores were 35%, 43%, and 22%, respectively. Before IM was initiated, thirty-one patients had received previous treatment modalities (hydroxyurea (HU) in twenty-one, and 10 patients had received interferon plus HU. he median duration of IM treatment was 45 months (range, 2-106 months). The rates of complete hematological response (CHR) at 3rd month, complete cytogenetic response (CCyR) at 12th month, and major molecular response (MMR) at 18th month were 92.4%, 71.6%, and 67.6%, respectively. BMF before the initiation of IM therapy was grade 0 in 52 patients (39%), grade I in 39 patients (29%), grade II in 28 patients (21%), and grade III in 16 patients (12%). There was a positive correlation between the Sokal risk scores and the grades of BMF at diagnosis (r:0.313, p

Description: Abstract 5223 Background Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) is the most common type of hematopoietic cancers and it constitutes 4% of all cancers. It is the seventh most common type of all cancers in Turkey. The NHL is 1.5 times more common among males and the median age of most subtypes is equal to or more than 50. About 85% of NHL has B cell origin and 5-year overall survival is around 60%. Tumor volume, histology, patient's age and performance, serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and beta-2 microglobulin levels, stage of disease and presence of extranodal disease are related to prognosis of NHL. International Prognostic Index (IPI) includes five of these factors to predict prognosis: patient's age and performance, stage of the disease, serum LDH level, extranodal disease. Methods The aim of this study is to evaluate the responses to actual treatments applied and survival periods of our Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL) patients. Non-Burkitt's, aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma records obtained from our hematology department, which belong to the period between January 2000 and May 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. 278 patients diagnosed morphologically/immune-histochemically as CD20 positive DLBCL were included in this study. 153 of 278 paraffin blocks of diagnostic tissue were accessible and two subgroups of DLBCL were determined as Germinal Center B cell (GC) and Activated B cell (AB). From the remaining 125 cases, paraffin blocks of diagnostic tissue could not be accessed 115 cases, so any subgroup could not be determined (ND) and Mediastinal Large Cell Lymphoma (MLCL) were assessed in 10 cases. The subgroups were compared in order to evaluate the survival and also the responses to treatment. In the non-parametric comparison process, we used Mann-Whitney-U test. Results Patient characteristics according to the subgroups are detailed in Table 1. Complete remission was achieved with the first line treatment in 75% of patients and from those, 20% were relapsed at the median of 9 months. Overall Survival (OS) was significantly longer in GC than in AB patients (median OS: 27 vs 24 months, p=0.006). The Time to Relapse (TTR) is two times longer in GC group than in AB group, however this data is not statistically significant (median TTR: 12 vs 5.5 months, p=0.221). Survival curve of ND patients is not significantly different from GC curve (p= 0.436). Nevertheless, AB subgroup survival curve is significantly worse than ND group (p= 0.024, Figure 1). Regarding all patients, IPI predicts the survival of DLBCL independent from subgroups and treatment modalities (p

Description: Background: Drug-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) can be observed as an adverse event (AE) during the administration of dasatinib (DAS), which is a second generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), used in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL). The occurence of DAS-induced PAH at a late onset in most of the cases suggests a chronic pathological mechanism rather than an acute inflammatory or cardiac etiology. The treatment strategies of DAS-induced PAH include the cessation of the drug and PAH-specific therapies. Aim: The aim of the study was to evaluate the frequency, clinical features, management strategies and outcomes of patients with DAS-induced PAH among a cohort consisted of CML and Ph+ ALL patients who had received DAS as a salvage treatment after imatinib (IM) failure or intolerance. Patients and Methods: Forty patients with Ph+ leukemias who received second-line DAS were enrolled. Patients' demographics, Sokal risk scores, molecular and cytogenetic responses, comorbidities [including preexisting cardiac disease, renal insufficiency, hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)], DAS dose, dosing intervals and treatment durations, durations of IM therapy prior to DAS, and if any, treatments prior to IM (interferon (IFN), cytarabine (Ara-C), and hydroxyurea (HU)) and follow-up periods were noted retrospectively. TKI response criteria were based on the recommendations of European LeukemiaNet, and the definitions of the CML phases and responses were as described elsewhere. Results: Twenty-four patients were male, and the median age was 45 years (range, 18-81 years). There were 39 patients with CML and one with Ph+ ALL. Among the thirty-nine CML patients, 3 were in accelerated phase (CML-AP), two with blast crisis (CML-BC), and the rest were in chronic phase (CML-CP). The percentanges of low, intermediate, and high Sokal risk scores were 46%, 33%, and 21%, respectively. Thirteen patients received only IM prior to DAS, whereas the others had used HU, IFN and Ara-C prior to IM. After a median duration of 41.5 months (range, 1-93 months) of IM, the reason for switching to DAS were IM failure and intolerance in 37 and 3 patients, respectively. DAS was administered with a median of 50 months (range, 2-78 months). During DAS treatment hematological AEs were observed in 6 patients, whereas in twenty-one pulmonary complications including exacerbation of COPD and pneumonia (n=1), pleuro/pericaridal effusions (n=19), PAH (n=5) and gastrointestinal bleeding (n=1) were detected. DAS therapy was ceased in 13 patients, of which ten were switched to nilotinib (NIL) due to AEs (n=7) and failure (n=3). Also, two patients received cytotoxic treatment due to BC and one had allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Five patients (12.5%) had DAS-induced PAH (Table 1). Four of them were in CML-CP at diagnosis, and one was in CML-AP. All cases received DAS due to IM failure. At the time of DAS initiation, 4 cases were in CML-CP and one in CML-BC. PAH was diagnosed by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) in 3 patients, and by right heart catheterization (RHC) in 2, and it was observed after a median of 8 months (range, 2-25 months) of DAS. Three patients had accompanying pleuro/pericardial effusions. All patients with DAS-induced PAH were alive at the time of the analysis, and the management of PAH included dose reduction in two, and DAS was switched to NIL in 2 cases and allo-HSCT was performed in one. Conclusion: DAS-induced PAH seems to be reversible with the cessation and/or modification of DAS ± PAH-specific treatments. As pulmonary vascular toxicity related to DAS is thought to be molecule-related rather than class-related, it seems reasonable to switch to another TKI. The patients in our cohort had good responses to dose modification and drug cessation and none received PAH-specific therapy. Although DAS-induced PAH is mainly defined as a late complication, we detected that PAH can be observed even after 2 months of drug exposure. PAH can be observed during DAS treatment and physicians should be aware of this AE. Routine cardiopulmonary evaluation prior to and/or during DAS may be beneficial. Mechanisms under this pathological condition, preceding and prognostic factors, and treatment strategies are needed to be evaluated with prospective trials. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.