Publications by authors named "Bally C"

Article Synopsis
  • Lenalidomide (LEN) can help 60-70% of patients with del(5q) myelodysplastic neoplasm achieve independence from red blood cell transfusions (RBC-TI), but there's a concern about its toxicity and cost.
  • The HARMONY Alliance study followed 118 low-intermediate risk MDS patients who discontinued LEN, finding that 50 lost RBC-TI after a median of 49 months.
  • Factors like having a low transfusion burden before treatment, completing at least 12 LEN cycles, being younger, and having higher hemoglobin levels at withdrawal were linked to longer RBC-TI duration after discontinuing LEN.
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Introduction: In the context of severe unexplained haemorrhage (SH), it is usual to seek haematological evaluation and investigate for an inherited rare bleeding disorder (IRBD). In such circumstances, appropriate screen can discriminate between IRBD and suspected child abuse. Yet, little information is available about the frequency of SH in the population of patients with IRBD.

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Objectives: Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia (CMML) are associated with systemic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases (SIADs) in 10-30% of cases. The aims of this study were (i) to evaluate the prevalence of venous thromboembolism VTE in patients presenting with both MDS/CMML and SIADs, (ii) to describe risk factors associated with thrombosis, and (iii) to analyse the impact of VTE on overall survival and transformation to acute myeloid leukaemia in comparison to patients with MDS/CMML-associated SIADs without VTE.

Methods: This retrospective multicentre case-control study was conducted among patients with MDS/CMML and dysimmune disorders and featured in the French retrospective database of the French Network of Dysimmune Disorders Associated with Hemopathies (MINHEMON), diagnosed with MDS/CMML and dysimmune disorders.

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Article Synopsis
  • The activated clotting time (ACT) is a test to see how long it takes for blood to clot and is important when using a blood thinner called heparin during heart surgeries or procedures.
  • A new medicine called emicizumab helps prevent bleeding in people with hemophilia A and works faster than another medicine, but it doesn’t stop the effects of heparin on ACT.
  • The study showed that even with emicizumab, heparin still makes the ACT longer, meaning doctors can still rely on ACT tests to check how well heparin is working for patients using emicizumab during medical procedures.
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Article Synopsis
  • In haemophilia, repeated bleeding into joints causes a specific type of joint damage known as haemophilic arthropathy (HA), which is influenced by resident cells like fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) coming into contact with blood.
  • Researchers found that HA-FLS exhibit a different cytokine secretion profile compared to non-HA FLS, showing higher levels of cytokines related to innate immunity.
  • The study discovered significant differences in the expression of 30 miRNAs between HA and non-HA FLS that are linked to inflammatory processes, indicating that blood exposure may lead to long-lasting changes in miRNA and contribute to the development of HA.
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Article Synopsis
  • - Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) often lead to frequent relapses and poor survival rates with current treatments like chemotherapy and 5-azacitidine (AZA).
  • - PRIMA-1 (APR-246) is a compound that restores the function of mutant p53 and can induce cell death (apoptosis) in tumor cells; it has shown effectiveness both alone and in combination with AZA in targeting MDS/AML cells with mutations.
  • - The combination treatment of APR and AZA appears to work by downregulating the FLT3 pathway, allowing for more effective cell proliferation inhibition, suggesting that integrating APR-246 into standard treatments may improve
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Article Synopsis
  • High-risk myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia patients often experience poor survival rates after treatment with azacitidine, prompting the investigation of the novel drug guadecitabine.
  • In a phase II study involving 56 patients with a median age of 75, guadecitabine showed an 14.3% response rate, with some patients achieving prolonged survival, particularly those with fewer genetic mutations.
  • Overall survival for the group was 7.1 months, with responders living significantly longer, and factors like initial azacitidine failure type and blood demethylation rates influencing survival outcomes.
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Retinoic acid (RA) and arsenic target the t(15;17)(q24;q21) PML/RARA driver of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), their combination now curing over 95% patients. We report exome sequencing of 64 matched samples collected from patients at initial diagnosis, during remission, and following relapse after historical combined RA-chemotherapy treatments. A first subgroup presents a high incidence of additional oncogenic mutations disrupting key epigenetic or transcriptional regulators (primarily WT1) or activating MAPK signaling at diagnosis.

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While lenalidomide (LEN) is the standard of care for the lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients with deletion 5q, 35% will not respond to or do not tolerate the drug. Moreover, most of the patients will lose their response after a few years. Defining the outcome of patients with LEN failure and determining the impact of subsequent therapies is therefore important to develop alternative strategies.

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Prior to undergoing cardiac surgery many patients may have impaired platelet function due to platelet inhibition. Point of care testing (POCT) that produces quick results of platelet counts and function allow earlier clinician interpretation, diagnosis and treatment. Before being adopted for routine clinical use, a POCT device's performance must be evaluated by standard laboratory techniques to ensure high quality results.

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TP53 mutations are major prognostic factors in many hematological malignancies including acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has improved the detection of such mutations by identifying small mutated clones but functional method like FASAY (functional assay of separated allele in yeast) may prove interesting. We compared the detection of TP53 mutations by FASAY and NGS in 91 patients with AML or MDS.

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Heparin resistance (unresponsiveness to heparin) is characterized by the inability to reach acceptable activated clotting time values following a calculated dose of heparin. Up to 20% of the patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass using unfractionated heparin (UFH) for anticoagulation experience heparin resistance. Although UFH has been the "gold standard" for anticoagulation, it is not without its limitations.

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