scholarly journals Prevention and Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Relapse after Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: The State of the Art and Future Perspectives

2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 253
Author(s):  
Salvatore Leotta ◽  
Annalisa Condorelli ◽  
Roberta Sciortino ◽  
Giulio Antonio Milone ◽  
Claudia Bellofiore ◽  
...  

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) represents the only curative option. Progress has been made in the last two decades in the pre-transplant induction therapies, supportive care, selection of donors and conditioning regimens that allowed to extend the HSCT to a larger number of patients, including those aged over 65 years and/or lacking an HLA-identical donor. Furthermore, improvements in the prophylaxis of the graft-versus-host disease and of infection have dramatically reduced transplant-related mortality. The relapse of AML remains the major reason for transplant failure affecting almost 40–50% of the patients. From 10 to 15 years ago to date, treatment options for AML relapsing after HSCT were limited to conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy and donor leukocyte infusions (DLI). Nowadays, novel agents and targeted therapies have enriched the therapeutic landscape. Moreover, very recently, the therapeutic landscape has been enriched by manipulated cellular products (CAR-T, CAR-CIK, CAR-NK). In light of these new perspectives, careful monitoring of minimal-residual disease (MRD) and prompt application of pre-emptive strategies in the post-transplant setting have become imperative. Herein, we review the current state of the art on monitoring, prevention and treatment of relapse of AML after HSCT with particular attention on novel agents and future directions.

Author(s):  
Andrés R. Rettig ◽  
Gabriele Ihorst ◽  
Hartmut Bertz ◽  
Michael Lübbert ◽  
Reinhard Marks ◽  
...  

AbstractAllogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is potentially curative for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The inherent graft-versus-leukemia activity (GvL) may be optimized by donor lymphocyte infusions (DLI). Here we present our single-center experience of DLI use patterns and effectiveness, based on 342 consecutive adult patients receiving a first allo-HSCT for AML between 2009 and 2017. The median age at transplantation was 57 years (range 19–79), and the pre-transplant status was active disease in 58% and complete remission (CR) in 42% of cases. In a combined landmark analysis, patients in CR on day +30 and alive on day +100 were included. In this cohort (n=292), 93 patients received cryopreserved aliquots of peripheral blood-derived grafts for DLI (32%) and median survival was 55.7 months (2-year/5-year probability: 62%/49%). Median survival for patients receiving a first dose of DLI “preemptively,” in the absence of relapse and guided by risk marker monitoring (preDLI; n=42), or only after hematological relapse (relDLI; n=51) was 40.9 months (2-year/5-year: 64%/43%) vs 10.4 months (2-year/5-year: 26%/10%), respectively. Survival was inferior when preDLI was initiated at a time of genetic risk marker detection vs mixed chimerism or clinical risk only. Time to first-dose preDLI vs time to first-dose relDLI was similar, suggesting that early warning and intrinsically lower dynamics of AML recurrence may contribute to effectiveness of preDLI-modified GvL activity. Future refinements of the preemptive DLI concept will benefit from collaborative efforts to diagnose measurable residual disease more reliably across the heterogeneous genomic spectrum of AML.


Author(s):  
Linus Angenendt ◽  
Isabel Hilgefort ◽  
Jan-Henrik Mikesch ◽  
Bernhard Schlüter ◽  
Wolfgang E. Berdel ◽  
...  

AbstractLow intake of magnesium has been associated with the occurrence of lymphomas and decreased magnesium levels suppress the cytotoxic function of T cells and natural killer cells in patients with “X-linked immunodeficiency with magnesium defect, Epstein-Barr virus infection, and neoplasia” (XMEN) syndrome. These cell types are also important mediators of immune-mediated effects after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Here, we show that high posttransplant magnesium levels independently associate with a lower incidence of relapse, a higher risk of acute graft-versus-host disease, and a higher non-relapse mortality in 368 patients with acute myeloid leukemia from our center. Magnesium serum levels might impact on donor-cell-mediated immune responses in acute myeloid leukemia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingya Cui ◽  
Chongsheng Qian ◽  
Nan Xu ◽  
Liqing Kang ◽  
Haiping Dai ◽  
...  

AbstractAllogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is a potentially curative treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, most patients experience relapse after allo-HSCT, with a poor prognosis, and treatment options are limited. The lack of an ideal targetable antigen is a major obstacle for treating patients with relapsed AML. CD38 is known to be expressed on most AML and myeloma cells, and its lack of expression on hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) renders it a potential therapeutic target for relapsed AML. To investigate the clinical therapeutic efficacy and safety of CD38-targeted chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T-38) cells, we enrolled 6 AML patients who experienced relapse post-allo-HSCT (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT04351022). Prior to CAR-T-38 treatment, the blasts in the bone marrow of these patients exhibited a median of 95% (92–99%) CD38 positivity. Four weeks after the initial infusion of CAR-T-38 cells, four of six (66.7%) patients achieved complete remission (CR) or CR with incomplete count recovery (CRi); the median CR or CRi time was 191 (range 117–261) days. The cumulative relapse rate at 6 months was 50%. The median overall survival (OS) and leukemia-free survival (LFS) times were 7.9 and 6.4 months, respectively. One case relapsed 117 days after the first CAR-T-38 cell infusion, with remission achieved after the second CAR-T-38 cell infusion. All six patients experienced clinically manageable side effects. In addition, multiparameter flow cytometry (FCM) revealed that CAR-T-38 cells eliminated CD38 positive blasts without off-target effects on monocytes and lymphocytes. Although this prospective study has a limited number of cases and a relatively short follow-up time, our preliminary data highlight the clinical utility and safety of CAR-T-38 cell therapy in treating relapsed AML post-allo-HSCT.


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