ALBERT

Description: Background: Several studies have suggested that genetic variability related with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the BER system, DNA synthesis and folate-metabolizing pathway genes could modulate DNA repair capacity. Moreover, these genes are supposed to be related to cancer risk. However, the prognostic impact of the association of individual and/or combined genetic variants in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) remains undetermined. Methods: We genotyped 113 MDS patients, 54 with IPSS low/int-1 receiving only best supportive care (BSC group) and 59 with IPSS int-2/high treated with azacitidine (AZA-group), for the following polymorphisms: XRCC1 194 and 399, APE1 148, XRCC3 241, TS5'-UTR (2R/3R and G/C) and 3'-UTR (6bp+/6bp-), MTHFR 677 and 1298. Genomic DNA was analyzed by High Resolution Melting assay and restriction digests of PCR products. Overall survival (OS) was calculated using the Kaplan-Meier estimate probabilities, and differences between survival curves were analyzed by the log-rank test. Multivariate analyses were performed using the Cox method. Results: For all the target genes, the distribution of genotypes was consistent with the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Among the baseline characteristics analyzed (age, sex, diagnosis according to WHO, hemoglobin) there was no statistically significant difference in the genotype distribution of studied polymorphisms. In the BSC group, the variants XRCC1 399 GG [Hazard ratio (HR)=7.07; p=0.02], -6/-6 of TS3'-UTR (HR=4.65; p=0.05), 2R/3G, 3C/3G, 3G/3G of TS5'-UTR (HR=11.44; p=0.02) and TT of MTHFR 677 (HR=67.12; p

Description: Background: The most important drawback of clinical trials of high-dose therapy (HDT) followed by autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) in lymphomas is the high heterogeneity of histological entities. Therefore, the statistical power is reduced, and data are not conclusive. We previously demonstrated the safety of a new conditioning regimen with bendamustine, etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan (BeEAM) prior to ASCT in resistant/relapsed lymphoma patients. This combination of drugs was able to induce a high CR rate in a population that did not have an opportunity of being cured with other therapies. However, that study enrolled both Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients. Aims: We designed a phase II study to evaluate the efficacy of the BeEAM conditioning in resistant/relapsed diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (DLBCL) patients. Patients and methods: The study was registered at European Union Drug Regulating Authorities Clinical Trials (EudraCT) N. 2011-001246-14. Until now, 61 patients (median age 54 years, range 19-69) with resistant/relapsed DLBCL were enrolled. The primary end-point of the study is to evaluate the 1-year complete remission rate. Results: Briefly, 46/61 patients had advanced stage disease (III-IV); 20 were primary refractory and 41 had relapsed after a median number of 2 lines of therapy (range: 1-3). Twenty-one patients had 1 or more relevant comorbidities (range: 1- 5). 30 patients were in II or subsequent CR after salvage therapy, whereas 27 were in PR and 4 had stable or progressive disease. A median number of 5.72x106 CD34+/kg cells (range 2.21-10.60) collected from peripheral blood was reinfused to patients. All patients engrafted, with a median time to ANC〉0.5x109/l of 10 days. Median times to achieve a platelet count 〉20x109/l and 〉50x109/l were 12 and 17 days respectively. Twenty-two out of 61 patients presented a fever of unknown origin (36%), whereas 24 patients (39%) presented a clinically documented infection. All patients received G-CSF after transplant for a median time of 8 days (range: 8-13). One patient died due to an incomplete hematological recovery after transplant, producing an overall transplant related mortality of 2.7%. Fifty-seven patients are evaluable for response: 48/57 (84%) obtained a CR, 3/57 (5%) a PR, whereas 6/57 (11%) did not respond to therapy. After a median follow-up of 10.5 months after transplant (range 3-37), 6/57 (11%) patients were refractory, 12/57 (21%) relapsed and 39/57 (68%) are still alive, in continuous CR. Conclusion: Our clinical trial was designed to closely resemble real-world treatment for these patients. During the study, we transplanted a similar proportion of the patients that would have received ASCT in a real-world scenario. While we cannot make sound comparisons without head-to-head trials, results from previous studies using HDT regimens in DLCBL have not been as encouraging as ours. Accordingly, our data preliminary provide the evidence that the Benda-BEAM regimen is safe and has promising high efficacy in resistant-relapsed aggressive DLBCL patients. Acknowledgments: The study was supported in part by AIL Pesaro Onlus. Mundipharma Italy is grateful acknowledged for providing Bendamustine free of charge. Disclosures Patriarca: Janssen-Cilag, Celgene, Merck Sharp & Dohme: Honoraria. Zinzani:Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; J&J: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pfizer: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.

Description: Background: Older (age ≥60 years) patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have poor outcomes and intensive induction chemotherapy is frequently unsuitable. Thus, new safe and effective therapies are urgently needed. Tosedostat, a new, orally bioavailable inhibitor of members of the M1 and M17 classes of aminopeptidases, was proven to be effective in both de novo and relapsed AML. We hypothesize that the addition of tosedostat to cytarabine may improve the response rate and remission duration over what is expected with chemotherapy or tosedostat alone. Methods: This was a phase II, prospective, multicenter study, designed according to Fleming's method. Fixing the lowest acceptable rate as 10% and the successful rate as 25%, with a significance level alpha=0.05 and a power 1-beta =0.80, the sample size was estimated in 33 patients. Thirty-three patients (median age 75 years) received Tosedostat 120 milligrams orally once daily until disease progression, coupled with intermittent low-dose cytarabine given subcutaneously at 20 milligrams twice/day for 10 days. Courses of cytarabine were repeated every 4 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity, up to 8 cycles. Global gene expression profiling (GEP, Affymetrix Human Gene 2.0 Array) was performed on purified AML blasts of 29 patients from peripheral blood or bone marrow at diagnosis before treatment initiation. Unsupervised clustering was generated using a hierarchical algorithm based on the average-linkage method. Principal component analysis (PCA) and supervised gene expression analysis was performed by using GeneSpring GX 12.0 (Agilent, USA). Results: The characteristic of enrolled patients are listed in table 1 Induction-period mortality was 12%, with 4 deaths occurring in aplasia. According to intent-to-treat, the CR rate was 48.5% (16/33 patients); 2 additional patients obtained a partial response, for an overall response rate of 54.6%. In addition, 4/33 patients remained in stable disease for a median time of 9 months (range: 4-14). Seven patients did not respond and died with progressive disease after having received a median of 2 cycles of cytarabine and 45 days of tosedostat. In responding patients, the median time to best response was 74 days (range 22-145). Responding patients (CR+PR) had a longer median overall survival than non-responders (P=0.018). Six out of 18 (33%) responding patients are still in CR after a median follow-up of 425.5 days (range 208-758); 5 additional patients are alive with stable disease. Twenty-two patients died [while in aplasia (4), in CR (1), due to resistant disease (9) or due to progressive disease (8) after a median CR duration of 192 days (87-535)]. 29 patients had GEP analysis, and a molecular signature associated with the clinical response (CR vs. no CR) was identified. By supervised analysis, 212 genes differentially expressed based on the clinical response (complete remission (CR) vs no CR) were identified (Mann-Whitney, p2). The 212 genes differentially expressed were significantly associated with six relevant biological functions and pathways: β-catenin (βcat); TNFα signaling pathway via NFκB; ERB2; STK33/SKM (serine/threonine kinase 33 expression using the SKM cell line); inflammatory response; and epithelial-mesenchymal transition pathways. Conclusions: The tosedostat and low-dose cytarabine combo produced a CR rate superior to what expected (45.4% versus 25%), and thus met the primary endpoint of study. Further, potential biomarkers were identified by GEP. Specifically, the achievement of CR could be efficiently predicted by the gene expression patterns with an overall accuracy exceeding 90%. A validation analysis is currently being conducted on additional 14 patients in order to confirm the ability of GEP to identify potential responders to TST. The study was registered at European Union Drug Regulating Authorities Clinical Trials (EudraCT) n.2012-000334-19. Acknowledgments: CTI is gratefully acknowledged for providing Tosedostat for the patients. The study was supported in part by AIL Pesaro Onlus. Table 1. Characteristic N = 33 Median age, years (range) 75 (62-85) Median WBC count, × 109/L (range) 3.05 (0.26-24.53) Blasts, % (range) 60 (20-96) Cytogenetic risk group*, n Not evaluable 3 (9%) Intermediate Karyotype 17 (52%) Unfavourable Karyotype 13 (39%) AML, n De novo 16 (48%) Secondary, n 17 (52%) Disclosures Fanin: Novartis Farma: Speakers Bureau.

Description: Abstract 31 Background: BEAM (Carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan) regimen is the most used conditioning regimen before autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) in lymphoma patients. However, patients receiving BEAM show a significant number of side effects, and relapse rate after transplant is still a matter of concern. Therefore, new regimens with a higher efficacy and a better toxicity profile in comparison to BEAM are highly needed. Aims: We designed a phase I-II study to evaluate the safety and the efficacy of increasing doses of Bendamustine for the conditioning regimen to ASCT for resistant/relapsed lymphoma patients. Methods: Forty-four patients (median age 47 years, range 18–70) with resistant/relapsed non-Hodgkin (29) or Hodgkin (15) lymphoma were consecutively enrolled in the study. The new conditioning regimen consisted of increasing doses of Bendamustine coupled with fixed doses of Etoposide (200mg/m2/day on days -5 to -2), Cytarabine (400mg/m2 on days -5 to -2) and Melphalan (140 mg/m2 on day -1) (BeEAM regimen). Three cohorts of 3 patients each were treated starting with Bendamustine 160 mg/m2/daily given on days -7 and -6. The dose of Bendamustine was then escalated according to the Fibonacci's increment rule until the onset of severe adverse events and/or the attainment of the expected MTD, but not higher than 200 mg/m2. Patients were carefully monitored for adverse events. The study was registered at EMEA with the EUDRACT no 2008–002736-15. Results: The administration of Bendamustine was safe in all the 3 cohorts of patients. The major side effect was a grade III-IV oral mucositis developed by 9 patients during neutropenia. We then fixed the dose of Bendamustine 200 mg/m2 as safe and effective for the Phase II study. A median number of 5.68×106CD34+/kg cells (range 2.4–15.5) collected from peripheral blood was reinfused to patients. All patients engrafted, with a median time to ANC〉0.5×109/l of 10 days. Median times to achieve a platelet count 〉20×109/l and 〉50×109/l were 13 and 16 days respectively. Twenty-two out of 44 patients presented a fever of unknown origin (50%). The median number of days with fever was 2 (range: 0–7), with a median number of 9 days of intravenous antibiotics (range: 3–22). All patients received G-CSF after transplant for a median time of 9 days (range: 8–25). Two patients developed a viral infection (1 HSV-6, 1 CMV) early after transplant. Thirty-nine out of 44 patients are evaluable up to now for the response to treatment. All evaluable patients are alive. 32/39 are in complete remission whereas 4/39 are in partial response, after a median follow-up of 11 months from transplant. Three out of 39 patients relapsed after a median time of 3 months from transplant. It is of note that 4/39 patients achieved the first complete remission after receiving the high-dose therapy with autologous stem cell rescue. Conclusions: The new BeEAM regimen is safe and seems to have a high efficacy in heavily pretreated lymphoma patients. Basing on this experience, future studies incorporating Bendamustine in conditioning regimens pre-ASCT in lymphoma patients should use Bendamustine 200 mg/m2/day over 2 days. Acknowledgments: supported in part by AIL Pesaro Onlus. Disclosures: Malerba: celgene, Janssen-Cilag: Honoraria.

Description: Background Despite the prediction of a fairly benign clinical course, a subset of patients with low-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) have a more aggressive disease and shorter overall survival. The DNA repair and folate pathway genes play an important role in prognosis and progression in both solid and hematological cancers, and their expression has been known to be associated with polymorphism of genes. However, the impact of polymorphisms of these genes on MDS patients outcome has not yet been demonstrated. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between the polymorphisms of genes encoding main proteins of BER system (XRCC1, XRCC3 and APE1) and folate-metabolizing enzymes (TS, MTHFR) and survival in IPSS low-intermediate1 MDS patients. Methods the study was designed according to the Schoenfeld design for biomarkers, assuming the presence of an unfavorable pharmacogenetic profile (one or more adverse genotypes) in at least one-third of the study population. Accordingly, 10 events in 54 patients would allow the detection of an Hazard Ratio (HR) 〉6 associated with the group having unfavorable genotypes (80% power and 5% type I error for a two-tailed test). We thus prospectively genotyped 54 MDS patients (median age 75 years) with IPSS low (n=23) or intermediate-1 (n=31) treated with best supportive care only. Genomic DNA was isolated from 1ml of peripheral blood by means of commercially available kits. Polymorphisms were determined by PCR-HRM (High Resolution Melting) assay and restriction digests of PCR products. All samples were analyzed for the following polymorphisms: XRCC1 194 (rs1799782 C/T, Arg/Trp) and 399 (rs25487 G/A, Arg/Gln), XRCC3 241 (rs861539 C/T, Thr/Met), TS5'-UTR (2R/3R and rs183205964 G/C) and 3'-UTR Ins/Del (rs11280056 6bp+/6bp-), MTHFR 677 (rs1801133 C/T, Ala/Val) and 1298 (rs801131 A/C, Gln/Ala), APE1 148 (rs1130409 T/G, Asp/Glu). The characteristics and laboratory features of MDS patients with each polymorphisms were compared using Х2-test and Mann-Whitney test. The associations between polymorphisms status and survival were assessed using Kaplan-Meier method and Log-rank test. For the multivariate survival analysis, Cox proportional hazard models, was used to identify the genotypes fitted as indicator variables. Before performing clinical correlations, genotype frequencies were checked for agreement with those expected under the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Results The frequencies of genotypes of studied gene polymorphisms in patients with low/Int-1 risk are listed in Table 1. At univariate analysis, a significantly shorter survival was associated with XRCC1 399 GG, TS3’-UTR -6/-6, TS5’-UTR 2R/3G, 3C/3G, 3G/3G and MTHFR 677 TT variant alleles. In multivariate analysis, using a stepwise logistic regression model, patients with TS3’-UTR -6/-6, XRCC1-399 GG, TS5’-UTR 2R/3G, 3C/3G, 3G/3G and MTHFR- 677 TT unfavorable genotypes presented with an Hazard Ratios of 4.65, 7.07, 11.44 and 67.12, respectively, if compared to the reference group of variant alleles (P=.058, P=.024, P=.026 and P=.000). Accordingly, we performed an exploratory analysis to investigate the effect on survival arising from the combination of the unfavorable genotypes to each other. As a fact, 3-years OS was 33% for those patients with ≥2 variant alleles, as compared to 62.5%, and 100%, respectively, for those with 2 or 0/1 variant alleles, suggesting that patients with a higher number of variant alleles had a shorter survival. Conclusions The mutational status of BER, TS and MTHFR genes predicts the overall survival of patients with low-Int-1 IPSS MDS treated with best supportive care only. If confirmed on larger series, these polymorphisms could help to identify a subset of low-risk MDS patients with shorter survival, who might benefit from an early therapy with hypometilating agents. Acknowledgments The study was supported in part by AIL Pesaro Onlus. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Description: Abstract 3627 We designed a phase II study to assess the antitumor efficacy of the combination regimen with low-dose lenalidomide and low-dose cytarabine in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) aged 〉70 years. Twenty-one patients (median age 76 years, range: 70–80) were consecutively enrolled in the study. Median white blood cell count at diagnosis was 11.920 x109/l (range: 0.59–46.8×109/l), whereas median haemoglobin was 8.9 g/dl and median platelet count was 30×109/l. Four out of 21 patients had a normal karyotype, whereas 17/21 presented with an intermediate or unfavourable karyotype. Twelve patients had a de novo AML, whereas 9 patients had a secondary AML (5 after MDS, 1 after a CMPD, 1 after myelofibrosis, 2 after chemo-radiotherapy for a breast cancer). All patients received low-dose lenalidomide (10 mg/day orally, days 1–21) and low-dose cytarabine (20mg twice day subcutaneously, days 1–15). Therapy was repeated every 6 weeks, up to 6 cycles. Six out of 21 patients died in aplasia while receiving the first induction cycle of therapy, and are not evaluable for response. One patients is still completing the first cycle. Fourteen patients completed at least one cycle of therapy and are evaluable for response. Among these patients, 8/14 (57%) cleared peripheral blood blasts at the end of the second week of the first cycle, with recovery of normal WBC, hemoglobin and platelets values after a median of 31 days (range: 27–42) from the start of chemotherapy. Six out of 8 responding patients are still in morphologic, cytogenetic and FISH CR after 14, 12, 10, 7, 3 and 3 months from the start of therapy, respectively. Two patient died while in CR after receiving, respectively, the second and the third cycle of therapy due to a multi organ failure after an infectious complication. The other 6 patients who completed at least one cycle of therapy did not respond at all and rapidly died due to progressive disease. At present, out of 8/14 (57%) patients evaluable for response that obtained CR, 6/14 (42%) are alive in continuous CR and two died in CR. Notably, all responding patients presented with low blast count and unfavorable cytogenetics at diagnosis. In conclusion, low-dose lenalidomide has clinical activity, when coupled with low-dose cytarabine, in an extremely poor-prognosis subset of AML. Considering the scarce compliance of elderly, frail AML patients to high-dose therapy, the low dose schedule could be particularly profitable, specially for patients with low blast count and unfavorable cytogenetics. The study was registered at EMA with the EUDRACT no 2008–006790–33. Acknowledgments: Celgene is acknowledged for providing Lenalidomide for the patients. The study was supported in part by AIL Pesaro Onlus. Conflict-of-interest disclosure: The Authors declare no competing financial interests. Disclosures: Di Raimondo: celgene: Honoraria.

Description: Introduction. Drug transporters, such as ABCB1, hOCT1, and ABCG2, control both intracellular and systemic plasma concentrations of BCR-ABL1 inhibitors. Our group previously reported that the hOCT1 c.480C〉G polymorphism significantly correlated with higher rates of adverse events and shorter event-free survival (EFS) of patients receiving imatinib. Even if nilotinib has less affinity than imatinib for the transmembrane transporters, no definitive data about the possible role of their polymorphisms are available from the "real life". Methods. Through an approach similar to the one previously used for imatinib, we investigated any possible influence of ABCB1 and hOCT1 polymorphisms on the nilotinib efficacy and toxicity in a series of 78 CML patients receiving nilotinib as first-line therapy in 8 Italian Centers from June 2012 to June 2016. Lack of CCyR at 12 months, stop of treatment for any cause, loss of MR3 or CCyR, appearance of mutations were computed as events in the EFS assessment. The following polymorphisms were tested by real-time PCR: hOCT1: rs683369[c.480C〉G]; ABCB1: rs1128503 [c.1236C〉T], rs2032582[c.2677G〉T/A], and rs1045642[c.3435C〉T]. Results. Forty-six patients were male and 32 female; the median age was 47 years (range, 18-79); Sokal score was low in 44%, intermediate in 37%, and high in 19% of cases; EUTOS was high in 30%. Efficacy: 97% of patients were in CHR and 82% in early molecular response (EMR) at 3 months; 85% achieved the CCyR at 6 months, and 88% the MR3 with a median time of 6.1 months; 78% achieved a deep molecular response (DMR), with 14% of MR5, with a median time of 26 months.With a median follow-up of 36 months, no patient lost CCyR and 9% lost MR3. All patients are still alive; 23% of patients stopped nilotinib (one third of them because of failure), and half of them reduced toT SNP, 56% of patients were heterozigous and 22% omozigous polymorphic; for the c1236 C〉T SNP, 54% of patients were heterozigous and 12% omozigous polymorphic; finally, for the hOCT1 c.480 C〉G, 41% of patients were heterozigous and 10% omozigous polymorphic.We found that ABCB1 and hOCT1 polymorphisms did not condition the achievement of CHR, CCyR, or MR3. Nevertheless, polymorphism of ABCB1 (c.3435C〉T) was associated with a higher probability of achieving DMR (90% vs 65%; p=0.04).A longer 3-year EFS was conditioned by the achievement of EMR (90% vs 75%; p=0.012) and of MR3 (90% vs 65%: p=0.04). We found that polymorphic or wild-type status of transporters did not impact on EFS.Toxicities were observed in 41% of cases, with 40% of grade 3 or 4; ABCB1 and hOCT1 polymorphisms did not condition toxicities or nilotinib discontinuation. Conclusions. Our previous studies showed that polymorphic hOCT1 negatively conditioned CCyR and EFS during imatinib treatment, and that the combination of ABCB1 and hOCT1 polymorphisms were related to higher levels of toxicity.On the contrary, the present study demonstrated that the same polymorphisms did not condition toxicity when patients received nilotinib as first-line treatment. About efficacy, even if in a multicentric "real life" setting, it resulted superimposable to that reported in literature. We found that hOCT1 polymorphism did not have any impact on the quality of response; on the contrary, the ABCB1 c.3435C〉T polymorphism (that induces a lower efflux from the leukemic cell and lower intestinal and renal excretion) was associated to a high rate of deep molecular response.On the basis of these results, we demonstrated that hOCT1 and ABCB1 polymorphisms, differently from the imatinib setting, are not relevant in patients receiving nilotinib, and that patients polymorphic for ABCB1 can even receive an advantage on DMR. Disclosures Saglio: Ariad: Consultancy; Pfizer: Consultancy; Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy.

Description: Background: Continuing growth in the incidence of leukemia suggests a possible environmental etiology correlated to the increase of environmental pollution. Recently, environmental particulate pollution (EPP) has been declared by IARC a Class I carcinogenic agent; it looks reasonable to presume that not only chemicals like benzene and its derivatives, but also other components like EPP could be worth of study. No specific researches have up to now focused the role of EPP on acute myeloid leukemia; we thus have identified a suitable instrumentation and protocol to show the presence and composition of particulate matter in blood samples of patients affected by acute myeloid leukemia patients and in healthy controls. Methods: 38 peripheral blood samples (19 acute myeloid leukemia, 19 healthy controls) were analyzed by means of an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM) coupled with an Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) a sensor capable of identifying the composition of micro- and nano-particles of exogenous nature in pathological tissues (applied for the first time in the current study on blood samples). The results were statistically treated with unpaired two-tailed Student's t-test, MANOVA and Principal Component Analysis. Results: A consistent quantity of micron-, submicron- and nano-sized foreign bodies (from 20 micron down to 100nm) was documented in 18/19 AML cases, whereas they were absent or rare in the controls. The particles appeared as singlet and aggregates (ranging from 5 to 20micron), either in close contact with blood elements or interacting with plasma. Some reacted with blood proteins thus forming composite clusters. A total of 141 aggregates (median 8, range 0-18) in AML, compared to a total of 12 aggregates in controls (median 1, range 0-3) were counted. The aggregate analysis showed variable sizes and number of particles, with a total of 5394 particles in leukemia cases compared to a total of 207 in controls. The total numbers of aggregates and particles were statistically different between cases and controls (MANOVA, P

Description: Outcome for older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is extremely poor. Intensive induction chemotherapy is often unsuitable. In this phase II study we tested, for the first time, the efficacy of a novel combination therapy with low-dose lenalidomide plus low-dose cytarabine. Further, based on the hypothesis that genetic features might influence treatment response, we aimed at identifying a possible biomarker by studying the global gene expression profiles (GEP). We designed a prospective phase II study to assess the efficacy of the concomitant administration of low-dose lenalidomide and low-dose cytarabine in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) aged more than 70 years. Forty-five patients (median age 76 years, range: 70-85) ineligible for standard therapy, were consecutively treated with low-dose lenalidomide (10 mg/day orally, days 1-21) plus low-dose cytarabine (10mg/m2 twice daily, subcutaneously, days 1-15) every six weeks, up to 6 cycles. Median white blood cell count at diagnosis was 3.2x109/l (range: 0,4-46,8x109/l), whereas median hemoglobin was 8,9 g/dl and median platelet count was 31x109/l. Twenty-three out of 45 patients had an intermediate karyotype (18/23 normal), 18/45 an unfavorable karyotype and 4/45 were not evaluable. Nineteen patients had a de novo AML, whereas 26 patients had a secondary AML (18 after MDS, 3 after a CMPD, 2 after myelofibrosis, 3 after chemo-radiotherapy for a breast cancer). To identify possible biomarkers associated to sensitivity/resistance, global gene and miRNA expression profiling (Affymetrix Transciptome 2.0) was performed on purified AML cells. Induction-period mortality was 17%, with 8 deaths occurring during cycle 1. Thirty-seven patients completed at least one cycle of therapy and are evaluable for response. Overall CR rate was 43% among evaluable patients. Nine out of 16 responding patients are still in CR after a median follow-up of 12 months (range: 2-39). Statistical analysis showed that responding patients had a longer median overall survival than non-responders (428 vs. 74 days, P = .000). Conversely, by studying the global miRNA and gene expression profile we identified a molecular signature, including 114 genes and 18 miRNA associated with the clinical response (CR vs. no CR). Of note, the involved genes belonged to relevant functional categories such as angiogenesis, cell cycle regulation and immune response. Of note, based on the expression of 5 genes, we developed an algorithm to predict treatment response that was successfully validated by showing an 87% overall accuracy. In conclusion, low-dose lenalidomide plus low-dose cytarabine has high clinical activity, predictable by GEP, in elderly AML patients with poor prognosis. The study was registered at EMA (EUDRA-CT 2008-006790-33). Acknowledgments Celgene is acknowledged for providing Lenalidomide for the patients. The study was supported in part by AIL Pesaro Onlus. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Description: Background We previously demonstrated (Visani et al, Blood 2011) the safety of a new conditioning regimen with bendamustine, etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan (BeEAM) prior to autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) in resistant/relapsed lymphoma patients (EUDRACTnumber2008-002736-15). Furthermore, this regimen showed significant anti-lymphoma activity (80% CR). At the time of publication (2011), disease type (NHL versus HL) and disease status at transplant (chemosensitive versus chemoresistant) were the only statistically significant variables influencing PFS (p=0.01; p=0.007). However, median follow-up for surviving patients was short (18 months), therefore, it was not possible to draw final conclusions on the efficacy. Aims We evaluated the efficacy of the BeEAM regimen in terms of disease-free (DFS) and overall survival (OS) after a median follow-up of 41 months. Methods Forty-three patients (median age 47 years, range 18-70) with resistant/relapsed NHL (28) or Hodgkin lymphoma (HL, 15) were consecutively enrolled in the study. Twenty-one patients had primary refractory disease, whereas 22 had relapsed disease, 5 of whom where in second or subsequent relapse, at the time of enrolment. The study was designed according to Fleming’s method. The primary objective of the study was to determine the 36-months event free survival rate. We fixed the lowest acceptable rate as 40% and the successful rate as 60%, with a significance level a=0.05 and a power 1-b =0.80. At the time of publication, the median follow-up was 18 months, and therefore it was not possible to establish if we had met the primary end-point of the study. Results we updated the follow-up at 41 months after transplant. Thirty-one out of 43 patients are still in CR (72%), as documented by both PET and CT scan. Two patients with HL were refractory and rapidly died, whereas 10/43 patients (23%) relapsed after a median time of 7.5 months (range:3-23) from transplant. Five patients died (3 NHL, 2 HL), whereas 5 patients are still alive after relapse. Median PFS and OS were still not reached. Conversely, 3-year PFS was 75%, allowing our study to met its primary end-point. Interestingly, disease type (HL versus NHL) at transplant is no longer influencing PFS (p=0.7), and still does not influence OS (p=0.1). On the other hand, disease status at transplant (chemosensitive vs chemoresistant) is still a strong predictor of both PFS and OS (p=0.03 and p=0.009, respectively). At present, one patient developed myelodisplasia after transplant. No other late effects were observed up to now. Conclusions The new BeEAM regimen met the primary end-point of the study and confirms its safety, after 41 months of follow-up. Interestingly, NHL and HL were not statistically different in terms of both PFS and OS at 41 months of observation. These data confirm the high efficacy of this regimen in heavily pretreated non-Hodgkin, as well as Hodgkin lymphoma. Acknowledgments supported in part by AIL Pesaro Onlus. Disclosures: Ocio: Onyx: Consultancy, Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy; Array Biopharma: Consultancy, Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Research Funding.