Publications by authors named "Ryotaro Nakamura"

Patients with AML and measurable residual disease (MRD) undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) may benefit from myeloablative conditioning (MAC) when feasible to reduce relapse risk. Fludarabine-Melphalan (FluMel) is a common reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) regimen; however, data in MRD+ patients is sparse. We performed a retrospective review of AML patients who underwent their first HCT (2016-2021) without morphologic disease at City of Hope who had pre-transplant marrow evaluated for MRD using multicolor flow cytometry (MFC) and received radiation-based MAC or FluMel conditioning.

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Background: The standard first-line treatment for acute graft-versus-host disease (aGvHD) is systemic, high-dose glucocorticoids which have historically had limited responses. Combined cytokine blockade therapy (CCBT) with the monoclonal antibodies infliximab (a TNF-α inhibitor) and basiliximab (an IL-2 receptor blocker) has had limited discussion in the literature.

Methods: Sixty patients with steroid-refractory aGVHD were analyzed.

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  • * Researchers analyzed data from 450 patients, finding that 310 were classified as ultra-low risk (ULR) based on their rapid clinical response and low MAP scores, leading to significantly better outcomes.
  • * Patients in the ULR group had higher response rates at day 28 and lower non-relapse mortality at six months, suggesting that careful monitoring can guide safer, more effective GVHD treatment strategies.
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Beta-catenin is essential for diverse biological processes, such as body axis determination and cell differentiation, during metazoan embryonic development. Beta-catenin is thought to exert such functions through complexes formed with various proteins. Although β-catenin complex proteins have been identified in several bilaterians, little is known about the structural and functional properties of β-catenin complexes in early metazoan evolution.

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  • Scientists are trying to figure out how to diagnose different types of blood disorders called MDS and MPN, which can be tricky because they have some similar features.
  • They looked at the DNA of patients with different types of these disorders to see how they are different and found specific gene mutations that can help identify each type.
  • The research shows that age and certain mutations can affect how well patients do, and this information can help doctors make better decisions about treatment.
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  • Philadelphia-like acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph-like ALL) is a high-risk type of B-cell ALL that is difficult to treat effectively with standard therapies, resulting in poor prognoses for patients.
  • A multicenter study analyzed the outcomes of adult patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) in their first complete remission (CR1) for Ph-like ALL, comparing results to those of Philadelphia chromosome positive ALL (Ph-pos) and other B-cell Philadelphia negative ALL (Ph-neg).
  • The findings indicated that patients with Ph-like ALL had outcomes similar to Ph-neg ALL after HCT, while Ph-pos ALL patients had significantly better survival rates, suggesting that effective second-line therapies in conjunction with HCT
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  • * A panel of experts made recommendations emphasizing the use of bone marrow as a graft source and preferred rabbit antithymocyte globulin over horse ATG for conditioning. They also support using fludarabine for high-risk patients and expanding HCT eligibility to fit older adults.
  • * The panel advocates prioritizing matched unrelated or haploidentical donor transplants over immunosuppressive therapy when a matched related donor isn't available and suggests specific GVHD prophylaxis options for donor
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Background: Almost all acquired severe aplastic anaemia is immune mediated and characterised by hypocellular bone marrow and ≥2 affected haematopoietic lineages. The optimal preparartive regimen for unrelated donor transplantation remains to be established. We aimed to study long-term outcomes after unrelated donor transplantation for severe aplastic anaemia with de-escalation of cyclophosphamide (Cy) dose in steps of 50 mg/kg (150, 100, 50, 0 mg/kg) in combination with total body irradiation (TBI) 2 Gy, anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) and fludarabine.

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Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a significant complication following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT). Although recent advancements in GVHD prophylaxis have resulted in successful HCT across HLA barriers and expanded access to HCT for racial minorities, less is known about how race affects the severity and outcomes of acute GVHD. This study examines differences in the clinical course of acute GVHD and the prognostic value of GVHD biomarkers for Black and White recipients.

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Introduction: Allogeneic Hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) remains the only curative therapy for myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). The impact of spliceosome mutations on allo-HCT outcome is unclear and further understanding is needed to assess the implications of this class of mutations on risk of relapse, overall survival (OS) and non-relapse mortality (NRM) in order to make decision regarding timing of allo-HCT. We examined the allo-HCT outcomes of MDS/CMML patients based on their spliceosome mutation profile to understand the impact of these mutations on transplant outcomes.

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Dose optimization of sirolimus may further improve outcomes in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) patients receiving post-transplantation cyclophosphamide (PTCy) to prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Sirolimus exposure-response association studies in HCT patients (i.e.

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The optimal myeloablative conditioning regimen for ALL patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) with an alternative donor is unknown. We analyzed HCT outcomes ALL patients (n = 269) who underwent HCT at our center from 2010 to 2020 in complete remission (CR) after FTBI-etoposide and CNI-based GvHD prophylaxis for matched donor HCT (ETOP-package; n = 196) or FTBI-Fludarabine and post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy)-based prophylaxis for HLA- mismatched (related or unrelated) donors (FLU-package; n = 64). Patients in FLU-package showed a significant delay in engraftment (p < 0.

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Background: Continuing antifungal prophylaxis (AFPx) to prevent invasive mold infections (IMIs) in recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT) after primary hospital discharge from alloHCT admission varies among transplant centers despite recommendations to continue prophylaxis through day +75. Characteristics driving AFPx prescribing at hospital discharge and outcomes are unknown.

Methods: In this retrospective analysis, we reviewed patients continuing AFPx vs no AFPx at hospital discharge.

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Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) remains the sole curative treatment for most patients with hematologic malignancies. A well-matched donor (related or unrelated) remains the preferred donor for patients undergoing allogeneic HCT; however, a large number of patients rely on alternative donor choices of mismatched related (haploidentical) or unrelated donors to access HCT. In this retrospective study, we investigated outcomes of patients who underwent mismatched donor (related or unrelated) HCT with a radiation-based myeloablative conditioning MAC regimen in combination with fludarabine, and post-transplantation cyclophosphamide (PTCy) as higher-intensity graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis.

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Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) is commonly included in post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) based graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis after haploidentical (haplo) hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT). In the non-PTCy setting, higher MMF dose/kg has been shown to reduce rates of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). When used in conjunction with PTCy, MMF is dosed at 15 mg/kg three times daily up to a maximum dose of 3 g/day.

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The evolutionary transition from diffusion-mediated cell-cell communication to faster, targeted synaptic signaling in animal nervous systems is still unclear. Genome sequencing analyses have revealed a widespread distribution of synapse-related genes among early-diverging metazoans, but how synaptic machinery evolved remains largely unknown. Here, we examine the function of neurexins (Nrxns), a family of presynaptic cell adhesion molecules with critical roles in bilaterian chemical synapses, using the cnidarian model, Nematostella vectensis.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the risk of severe oral mucositis (SOM) in patients undergoing graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis during hematopoietic cell transplantation, focusing on methotrexate (MTX) versus other agents.
  • Using a thorough analysis of published studies, researchers found that patients on MTX or MTX-inclusive regimens had a significantly higher risk of SOM compared to those receiving non-MTX treatments.
  • The findings suggest that alternatives like mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), folinic acid (FA), and lower doses of MTX may reduce the severity of mucositis, highlighting a need for more randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on MTX to optimize patient
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Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) grading systems that use only clinical symptoms at treatment initiation such as the Minnesota risk identify standard and high-risk categories but lack a low-risk category suitable to minimize immunosuppressive strategies. We developed a new grading system that includes a low-risk stratum based on clinical symptoms alone and determined whether the incorporation of biomarkers would improve the model's prognostic accuracy. We randomly divided 1863 patients in the Mount Sinai Acute GVHD International Consortium (MAGIC) who were treated for GVHD into training and validation cohorts.

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  • - The study analyzed how different types of donors affect outcomes of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) in patients with myelofibrosis, finding that the use of haploidentical donors rose significantly from 3% in 2013 to 19% in 2019.
  • - Among 1,032 patients with chronic-phase myelofibrosis, matched sibling donor HCTs showed better overall survival in the first three months compared to haploidentical and matched unrelated donor HCTs, with notably lower rates of graft failure.
  • - While matched sibling donors had superior early outcomes, there were no significant differences in long-term survival or disease-free survival among the different donor types, suggesting hap
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CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T) therapy has led to unprecedented rates of complete remission (CR) in children and adults with relapsed/refractory (r/r) B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), yet the majority of adults relapse after initial response. One proposed method to extend the durability of remission in adults following response to CAR-T therapy is consolidation with allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT). Considering the limited published data for the utility of post CAR-T therapy consolidative alloHCT in r/r B-ALL, especially data related to patients receiving a second alloHCT, we sought to describe outcomes of patients with r/r B-ALL at our institution who received their first or second alloHCT following response to CAR-T therapy.

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Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCLs) have a poor prognosis with current treatments. High-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous hematopoietic cell transplant (AHCT) is used as a consolidation strategy after achieving clinical remission with first-line therapy, as well as in chemotherapy-sensitive relapse if allogeneic transplant is not an option. CD25 is a targetable protein often highly expressed in PTCLs.

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Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) offers a potential cure in Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL); nonetheless, relapses are common and the major cause of mortality. One strategy to prevent relapse is tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) maintenance post-HCT, but published clinical experience is primarily with the first-generation TKI imatinib while data with newer generation TKIs are limited. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 185 Ph+ ALL patients who underwent HCT followed by TKI maintenance from 2003 to 2021 at City of Hope.

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Background: The optimal timing of vaccination with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines after cellular therapy is incompletely understood. The objectives of this study are to determine whether humoral and cellular responses after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination differ if initiated <4 months versus 4-12 months after cellular therapy.

Methods: We conducted a multicenter, prospective, observational study at 30 cancer centers in the United States.

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