Persistence of lymphoblasts in bone marrow on day 15 and days 22 to 25 of remission induction predicts a dismal treatment outcome in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Blood ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Sandlund ◽  
Patricia L. Harrison ◽  
Gaston Rivera ◽  
Frederick G. Behm ◽  
David Head ◽  
...  

Abstract We determined the prognostic importance of morphologically identifiable persistent disease at day 15 and days 22 to 25 of remission induction in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Among 546 patients entered on 2 consecutive protocols, 397 patients had evaluable bone marrow (BM) examinations on day 15 (± 1 day) and 218 on days 22 to 25 (± 1 day). Fifty-seven patients (14%) had persistent lymphoblasts (≥ 1%) in the BM on day 15 and 27 patients (5.5%) had persistent lymphoblasts on days 22 to 25. The 5-year event-free survival (EFS) was significantly worse for patients with lymphoblasts on day 15 (40% ± 6%) or on days 22 to 25 (4% ± 3%) as compared to those without lymphoblasts on these dates (78% ± 2% and 76% ± 2%, respectively, P < .001 for both comparisons). A worse prognosis was observed even for patients with a low percentage of lymphoblasts (ie, 1%-4%) at either day 15 (5-year EFS = 56% ± 8%) or days 22 to 25 (5-year EFS = 0%) compared to those without morphologically identifiable persistent lymphoblasts at these times (P < .001 for both comparisons). The prognostic impact of persistent lymphoblasts on both dates remained significant after adjusting for other known risk factors, including treatment protocol, age, white blood cell count, DNA index, cell lineage, and central nervous system status, and National Cancer Institute/Rome criteria simultaneously. Hence, persistence of lymphoblasts (even 1%-4%) on day 15 of remission induction was associated with a poor prognosis and on days 22 to 25 signified a particularly dismal outcome; these very high-risk patients require novel or more intensive therapy to improve outcome.

Blood ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 1079-1086 ◽  
Author(s):  
AT Look ◽  
PK Roberson ◽  
DL Williams ◽  
G Rivera ◽  
WP Bowman ◽  
...  

Using flow cytometric techniques, we determined the pretreatment distribution of DNA content in propidium iodide-stained leukemic blasts from 205 children with “standard-risk” acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Risk assignment was based on an initial WBC count less than 100 X 10(9)/L, no thymic mass, no meningeal leukemia, and lymphoblasts lacking sheep erythrocyte receptors or surface immunoglobulin. A single aneuploid leukemic line was detected in 74 cases (36.1%): 70 hyperdiploid and four hypodiploid. For hyperdiploid cases, the DNA index (DI, or ratio of the DNA content of leukemic v normal G0/G1 cells) ranged from 1.06 to 2.0 (median, 1.20). A secondary leukemic line with hyperdiploid cellular DNA content was identified in 21 cases with diploid primary lines. Children whose primary leukemic line showed a DI greater than or equal to 1.16 (n = 57) had significantly better responses to treatment than did those with either a diploid DI (n = 130; P = .002) or values in the range of 1.01 to 1.15 (n = 14; P = .001). The relative risk of failure for hyperdiploid cases with DI greater than or equal to 1.16, corresponding to greater than or equal to 53 chromosomes, was one-third that of the other two groups. Treatment responses of patients with both diploid and hyperdiploid lines were identical to those associated with single diploid lines, but significantly worse than those associated with single hyperdiploid lines with DI greater than or equal to 1.16 (P = .016). The most favorable prognostic variables selected by a Cox proportional hazards model were: DI greater than or equal to 1.16 (P = .001), white race (P = .022), WBC less than or equal to 25 X 10(9)/L (P = .032), age between 2 and 9 years (P = .075), and hemoglobin less than 7.0 g/dL (P = .094). DNA index greater than or equal to 1.16 retained its significant prognostic impact even after adjustment for other variables (P = .001). With the combination of DI greater than or equal to 1.16 and WBC less than or equal to 25 X 10(9)/L, one can identify a group of children with ALL who have a low probability of relapse when treated with current therapy. If they remain disease-free after longer follow-up, it may be advisable to treat them with less intensive, hence less toxic, chemotherapy than patients with higher WBC counts or lower DI values.


Cancer ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 119 (11) ◽  
pp. 2061-2066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey E. Rubnitz ◽  
Patrick Campbell ◽  
Yinmei Zhou ◽  
John T. Sandlund ◽  
Sima Jeha ◽  
...  

Blood ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 435-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
JA Fletcher ◽  
EA Lynch ◽  
VM Kimball ◽  
M Donnelly ◽  
R Tantravahi ◽  
...  

Abstract The prognostic implications of t(9;22)(q34;q11) were assessed at a median follow-up of 3.5 years in 434 children receiving intensive treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Four-year event-free and overall survivals were 81% and 88%, respectively, in 419 children lacking t(9;22), but were 0% and 20%, respectively, in 15 children with t(9;22) (P less than .001). Poor outcome for children with t(9;22)- positive ALL was particularly notable because we have reported improved survival in other historically poor prognosis ALL cytogenetic categories when treated with similarly intensive therapy. We recommend that very intensive treatment approaches, including bone marrow transplantation in first remission, be considered for all children with t(9;22)-positive ALL.


Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (11) ◽  
pp. 1951-1951
Author(s):  
Maurizio Arico’ ◽  
Valentino Conter ◽  
Maria Grazia Valsecchi ◽  
Marie France Pinta Boccalatte ◽  
Elena Barisone ◽  
...  

Abstract In this study, we tried to select a very small subset of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) at minimal risk of treatment failure - identified to not only by early response in vivo, one of the strongest predictors in the I-BFM-SG experience, but also by age, blood count and in particular high DNA content - which we treated with a reduced-intensity BFM schedule. The AIEOP-ALL 9501 study enrolled patients with standard-risk (SR) ALL, defined as: <20,000 WBC/mm3, age 1 to <6 years, non-T immunophenotype, DNA index between 1.16 and 1.6, non t(9;22), no extramedullary leukemia, good response to prednisone (PGR, defined as <1,000/mmc blasts in the peripheral blood after 7 days of prednisone and one injection of IT-MTX), CR at the end of induction therapy. Follow-up was updated at December,31st 2003 and median follow-up was 5.9 years. Treatment consisted of a modified BFM schedule: 3-drug (VCR + PDN + Erwinia ASP), 43-day induction, no phase IB, 4x2 g/m2 MTX, reinduction with protocol II followed by 6MP+MTX continuation therapy up to 2 years; CNS directed therapy consisted of IT-MTXx18. Between May 95 and August 2000, 137 patients were identified as SR (7.8% of the ALL-95 population), of whom 102 received the SR protocol and are here reported.Of them, 1 died in remission of septicemia, and 1 had developed a second malignant neoplasm (T-ALL after initial B-lineage ALL); 11 patients relapsed (bone marrow, n=8; central nervous system, n=1; marrow + testis, n=1; eye, n=1) and their re-treatment included chemotherapy only (n=3, 1 dead) or plus bone marrow transplant (n=8) either autologous (n=2) or allogeneic from matched (n=4, 1 dead) or partially matched (n=2) unrelated donor. The remaining 89 are in first CR; the probabilities (and related standard errors) of survival and event-free survival (EFS) were 97.0% (1.7) and 86.7% (3.5) at 5 years, 95.3% (2.4) and 86.7% (3.5) at 7 years, respectively. There was no difference in the outcome between the 56 females [7 events, 7-yrs EFS, 87.3 (4.5)] and the 46 males [6 events, 85.9 (5.4)]. Although most of the relapsed patients were rescued, the long-term EFS in this small, very selected group of patients remains inferior to expectance. Thus, alternative selection criteria, for instance related to minimal residual disease as in current AIEOP-ALL 2000, should be considered in order to address the issue of treatment reduction.


Blood ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 110 (11) ◽  
pp. 2830-2830
Author(s):  
Alix E. Seif ◽  
Marlo D. Bruno ◽  
Junior Hall ◽  
Valerie I. Brown ◽  
Stephan A. Grupp ◽  
...  

Abstract Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) accounts for 80% of all pediatric leukemias and is the most common form of childhood cancer. While most children with ALL are cured by current therapies, refractory and relapsed ALL comprise a significant proportion of all pediatric cancers. Furthermore, nearly half of all ALL diagnoses occur in adults, who carry a much poorer prognosis, with the majority dying of relapsed disease. Relapsed ALL generally requires intensive therapy with significant associated morbidity and mortality. Development of novel therapies is essential to improving outcomes. DNA oligodeoxynucleotides containing CpG motifs (CpG ODN) stimulate anti-tumor immune activity via Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) activation and are currently in clinical trials for a variety of solid tumors. We have previously reported that CpG ODN stimulation alters antigen presentation by human ALL cells, enhancing allogeneic Th1 responses. In addition, we have shown that CpG ODN administration in vivo reduces the leukemic burden of primary human ALL xenografts in Nod-SCID mice, and that this activity is mediated in part by NK cells. To further the development of CpG ODN as a novel therapeutic agent for ALL, we have investigated the induction of anti-ALL activity by CpG ODN in a syngeneic ALL setting. CpG ODN did not exhibit direct toxicity against cell lines derived from leukemic Eμ-ret transgenic mice in vitro, nor did it alter CD40 or CD86 expression or cytokine production. However, using a flow cytometry-based in vitro killing assay we observed CpG ODN-induced elimination of leukemia cells when cultured with splenocytes or bone marrow cells from Eμ-ret transgene-negative mice (P=0.0388). The difference between CpG ODN-treated and untreated controls became more pronounced with increasing effector:target ratios (P<0.0001). Preliminary data show that depletion of NK cells markedly decreases the magnitude of the observed effect, supporting the hypothesis that this cell type is involved in targeted control of ALL in this model. The ability of CpG ODN to exert anti-leukemia activity in a syngeneic setting suggests that it may have utility as an adjuvant therapy. To test this hypothesis we administered CpG ODN (or PBS) to syngeneic leukemia-bearing mice 2 days after completion of a chemotherapy regimen used to reduce leukemia burden. When mice were sacrificed 3 weeks after treatment, we found significantly reduced leukemia burden in bone marrow (P=0.0019), spleen (P<0.00001) and blood (P=0.00028) of CpG ODN-treated mice. Cell-depletion and cytokine-neutralization assays are currently ongoing to define the mechanism of action of CpG ODN in these settings. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of CpG ODN-induced anti-ALL activity in a post-chemotherapy syngeneic model, suggesting that this agent has the potential to treat minimal residual disease and to reduce the incidence of relapse.


Blood ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 120 (21) ◽  
pp. 4791-4791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvain P Chantepie ◽  
Audrey Emmanuelle Dugué ◽  
Patrice Chevallier ◽  
Aline Schmidt-Tanguy ◽  
Véronique Salaün ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 4791 Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC) study of bone marrow aspiration after chemotherapy is crucial for determining minimal residual disease (MRD). Hematogones (HGs) have to be distinguishing from leukemic cells in B-cell subtypes and could be quantify during follow-up. To date, the incidence of Hgs in ALL and their prognostic significance have not been investigated. The aim of this multicenter study was to quantify Hgs after chemotherapy in ALL adult patients and to define its prognostic value. We retrospectively analyzed the incidence of HGs in 95 ALL patients, 71 with B-ALL (75%), 24 (25%) with T-ALL in first line treatment. The median age was 37 years [8–71], 20% had t(9;22) cytogenetic abnormality, and 70% had abnormal karyotype. 4/5-color MFC analysis MRD and HGs were performed at different time point (TP) after diagnosis: TP1 (post-induction, day 45 [41–61], n=78), TP2 (post-consolidation, day 111 [94–144] 25, n=42), TP3 (post-intensification/before hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), day 179 [125–268], n=58), TP4 (n=11), TP5 (n=17), TP6 (n=9) after a median of 33, 91 and 167 days after HSCT, respectively. A total of 39 patients (41%) relapsed with a median of 26 months [7.7–47.9]. Forty seven patients (50%) received an HSCT in a complete (98%) or partial remission (2%). At TP1, TP2, TP3, TP4, TP5, TP6, the median HGs [range] were as followed: 0.00 [0.00–6.90]%, 0.30 [0.00–11.2]%, 0.98 [0.00–33.00]%, 0.52 [0.00;23.00]%, 5.50 [0.00;25.00]%, 4.60 [0.00;34.00]%, 5.90 [0.32;11.80]%, respectively. Figure 1 showed the percentage of patients with negative MRD (Figure 1A) and detectable HGs (figure 1B) during the follow up of ALL patients. There is a progressive increase of the percentage of patients with detectable HGs during the time of treatment and follow-up. Interestingly, there was no correlation between age and HGs level while in physiological situation the HGs rate decreases with increasing age. There was a negative correlation between positive MRD and detectable HGs at TP1 (p=0.022) but not at TP3 (p=0.88). In univariate analysis positive MRD at P1 and P3, age (/10), the presence of t(9;22) and absence of HGs at TP3 (figure 2) were bad prognostic factors for relapse free-survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). The presence of HGs at other different time of evaluation was not associated with a significant decrease of relapse or death. However, patients who had a negative MRD at TP1 and detectable HGs in the bone marrow at TP3 exhibited a better RFS and OS (p=0.018 and p=0.065 respectively). Patients who had negative MRD at TP3 and had detectable HGs at TP3 had also a better RFS and OS (p=0.007 and p=0.011, respectively) compared to patients with negative MRD at TP3 and without HGs (figure 3). In patients who had a positive MRD at TP1, detectable HGs at TP3 identified a subgroup of patient with favorable OS compared to patient with positive MRD at TP1 and without detectable HGs (p=0.072). These results should be taken with cautious because of the decreasing number of patients evaluated at different time points. However, HGs analysis could represent a new area of investigation in search of new prognostic factors in the context of adult ALL. Figure 1. Percentage of patients with (A) negative MRD and (B) detectable HGs at different time points after starting of treatment. Figure 1. Percentage of patients with (A) negative MRD and (B) detectable HGs at different time points after starting of treatment. Figure 2. Overall survival according to HGs status at TP3. Figure 2. Overall survival according to HGs status at TP3. Figure 3. Overall survival in patients with negative MRD at TP3 according to HGs status. Figure 3. Overall survival in patients with negative MRD at TP3 according to HGs status. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 122 (21) ◽  
pp. 2623-2623
Author(s):  
Oscar Gonzalez-Ramella ◽  
Jimenez-Lopez Xochiquetzatl ◽  
Sergio Gallegos-Castorena ◽  
Pablo Ortiz-Lazareno ◽  
Jose Manuel Lerma-Diaz ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer diagnostic in children, and it represents the second death cause in this population. Despite advances in the treatment of childhood ALL, there are small portion of patients whom still succumb to this disease. A reduced apoptosis in cells plays an important role in carcinogenesis. This phenomenon is an important component in the cytotoxicity induced by anticancer drugs. A currently challenge is the chemotherapy resistance of tumor cells, inhibiting the apoptosis induced by chemotherapy. Pentoxifylline, (PTX) has been studied for its role on increase of apoptosis on cancer cells by different pathways. Our group has reported its efficacy in vitro and ex vivo in increasing apoptosis induced by chemotherapy drugs such as adriamycin and cisplatin in fresh leukemic human cells, lymphoma murine models and cervical cancer cells. We conducted a phase 1 controlled randomized trial to evaluate the efficacy of adding PTX to the steroid window during the remission induction phase in new diagnosed children with ALL. Methods We included all children from both sexes from 9 months to 17 years old during October 2011 to December 2012. Patients were divided into 3 groups, the first one as a non-malignant control group (NL group) included children with a non-hematology disease in which bone marrow aspiration (BMA) was mandatory in order to reach the diagnosis. The second one, the ALL control group whom received prednisone (PRD group) for the steroid window at 40mg/m2/day PO from day -7 to day 0; and then the third one (PTX group), the study group which included children receiving the steroid phase with PRD as early described, plus PTX at 10mg/kg/day IV divided in 3 doses, at the same days as recommended in our treatment protocol (Total Therapy XV). For all 3 groups a BMA was performed at diagnosis, for PRD group as well as PTX group, a second BMA was also collected at day 0. Apoptosis was evaluated by means of Annexin V Apoptosis Detection Kit FITC/PI (eBioscience¨, San Diego, CA, USA) in 1×106 bone marrow mononuclear cells. We measured minimal residual disease (MRD) by flow cytometry at day 14 to demonstrate complete remission in leukemic patients. Statically analysis was performed by U Man Whitney. Results We enrolled 32 patients: 10 in NL group; 11 in PRD group; and 11 in PTX group. The median age of all groups was 6 years (range 9 months-17 years). In PRD group, patient 1 abandoned treatment after administration of day 0, nevertheless the second BMA sample was collected. Patient number 7 died at day 4 due to complications from tumor lysis syndrome. Consequently, in these patients we were not able to measure MRD and BM aspiration at day 14. Except one patient in PRD group, all achieved complete remission at day 14. We did not find any significant difference between NL group and PRD and PTX groups before intervention (U=32 p=0.7; U=28.5 p=0.48 respectively). There was no significant difference between treatment groups before intervention (U= 37 p=0.79). However, after treatment we found an important difference between PRD and PTX groups, we observed an increase in apoptosis in PTX group in comparison with PRD group (U=17.5 p=0.04). There were no adverse effects during treatment. Conclusions The present study is the first one that shows the efficacy of PTX in increasing apoptosis induced by PRD in new ALL diagnosed children, whom have not received any treatment yet. This might be helpful, not only in patients with relapse, but to increase the overall cure rate in ALL. Further studies are needed to prove this hypothesis. With this objective, our study group is already planning a second trial were PTX will be given during all remission induction phase. Experimental reports strongly suggest that PTX induces inhibition of the transcription factor NF-ĸB, by inhibiting survival gens and facilitating apoptosis. To prove it, we are currently processing these patients' samples to know their genetic expression. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 124 (21) ◽  
pp. 2404-2404
Author(s):  
Grigory Tsaur ◽  
Alexander Popov ◽  
Tatyana Riger ◽  
Alexander Solodovnikov ◽  
Tatyana Nasedkina ◽  
...  

Abstract Background. Minimal residual disease (MRD) is powerful tool for prediction of treatment outcome in leukemia patients of various age groups, including infants with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). In the vast majority of cases only bone marrow (BM) samples are used for MRD detection. Objective. To estimate prognostic significance of MRD in peripheral blood (PB) and BM by qualitative detection of different MLL fusion gene transcripts in infant ALL enrolled into MLL-Baby protocol. Methods. Fifty three infants (20 boys and 33 girls) with median age of 5.3 months (range 0.03-11.80) and defined MLL rearrangements were included in the current study. Among them there were 25 patients (47.2%) carrying MLL-AFF1 fusion gene transcripts, 10 (18.9%) MLL-MLLT3-positive cases, 9 (17.0%) MLL-MLLT1-positive cases, 5 (9.4%) MLL-MLLT10-positive cases and 4 (7.5%) MLL-EPS15-positive ones. MRD evaluation was performed by detection of MLL fusion gene transcripts in BM and PB samples using real-time PCR and nested RT-PCR with sensitivity non-less than 1E-04. MRD-negativity was defined as absence of fusion gene transcripts in both assays. Median of follow-up period in the observed group was 5.2 years. Time points (TP) for MRD assessment were as follows: day 15 of remission induction (TP1), at the end of remission induction (TP2), after each course of ATRA administration (TP3-TP7). Informed consent was obtained in all cases. Results. We estimated 142 paired BM/PB samples. 77 samples were double positive, 43 were double negative Thus concordance between MRD results in BM and PB samples achieved 84.5%. Concordance varied between different TPs of MLL-Baby protocol from 79.0% to 100%. The highest concordance rate was at TP4 and TP7 (92.3% and 100%, respectively). Interestingly, all discrepant results (22 samples 15.5%) were BM-positive/PB-negative. Median level of ABL gene, used for normalization, was similar in BM and PB samples (4.85E+04 vs 4.95E+04, respectively, p=0.760). Evaluation of prognostic significance of MRD in BM in TP1-TP7 revealed that TP4 was the earliest TP when discriminative data between MRD-positive and MRD-negative patients were obtained. MRD-positivity at TP4 in BM led to unfavorable outcome. Event-free survival was significantly lower in MRD-positive group (n=22) in comparison to MRD-negative one (n=31) (0.06±0.06 vs 0.70±0.09 p=0.0001), while cumulative incidence of relapse in MRD-positive patients was remarkably higher (0.92±0.01 vs 0.29±0.08, p<0.0001). MRD-positivity at this TP in BM was the only significant factor in the diagnostic model where initial risk factors (age at diagnosis, initial WBC count, immunophenotype, CNS disease, presence of MLL-AF4) were combined to response criteria (number of blast cells at day 8 of dexamethasone prophase and MRD in BM at TP4) (Table). The only TP when MRD data obtained from PB samples had prognostic value was TP6. In this TP cumulative incidence of relapse in MRD-positive patients was significantly higher in comparison to MRD-negative ones (0.88±0.11 vs 0.25±0.13, respectively, p=0.003). However these data did not bring any extra advantages as compared to TP4 in BM. Conclusions. Despite high qualitative concordance rate between MRD detection in BM and PB samples we could not show prognostic value of MRD monitoring in PB by fusion gene transcripts. Univariate and multivariate analysis revealed that MRD-positivity at TP4 in BM was the only significant and independent prognostic factor of unfavorable outcome in the observed group of patients. Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 104 (9) ◽  
pp. 2690-2696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ching-Hon Pui ◽  
John T. Sandlund ◽  
Deqing Pei ◽  
Dario Campana ◽  
Gaston K. Rivera ◽  
...  

Abstract St Jude Total Therapy Study XIIIB for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) incorporated more stringent risk classification, early intensification of intrathecal chemotherapy, reinduction treatment, and the addition of dexamethasone to postremission therapy to increase the proportion of event-free survivors without jeopardizing their quality of life. Cranial irradiation was reserved for the 12% of patients who had T-cell ALL and a presenting leukocyte count of 100 × 109/L or more, or CNS-3 (5 or more leukocytes/μL with identifiable blast cells in an atraumatic sample or the presence of cranial nerve palsy) status. Among the 247 consecutive patients enrolled in the study, 117 were classified as having lower-risk leukemia and received mainly antimetabolite-based continuation therapy; the 130 cases with higher-risk leukemia received more intensive continuation chemotherapy with multiple drug pairs administered in weekly rotation. The 5-year event-free survival estimate was 80.8% ± 2.6% (SE); the 8-year rate was 78.6% ± 5.8%. The 5-year cumulative risk of an isolated central nervous system (CNS) relapse was 1.7% ± 0.8%, and that of isolated plus combined CNS relapse was 3.0% ± 1.1%. The 5-year cumulative risks of etoposide-related myeloid malignancies were 1.8% ± 1.3% in the lower-risk patients who received a cumulative dose of 1.2 g/m2 and 5.0% ± 2.0% in the higher-risk patients who received a cumulative dose of up to 14.4 g/m2 (P = .18). Independent adverse prognostic features included the presence of MLL-AF4 or BCR-ABL fusion gene and minimal residual leukemia of 0.01% or more at the end of the 6-week remission induction phase. Our results suggest the efficacy of early intensification of intrathecal chemotherapy and provide the basis for studies omitting cranial irradiation altogether. (Blood. 2004;104:2690-2696)


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