Publications by authors named "Blanca Xicoy-Cirici"
Article Synopsis
- - New treatments are urgently needed for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) to improve successful treatment discontinuations, with anti-PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitors showing promise due to increased levels in CML patients.
- - A phase Ib/II trial evaluated the safety of the anti-PD-L1 antibody atezolizumab combined with bosutinib in newly diagnosed CML patients, but was terminated early due to safety concerns after only 9 patients were enrolled.
- - The trial reported 44 adverse events, primarily gastrointestinal issues, with significant hepatotoxicity noted, including serious liver function test increases, leading to the conclusion that this drug combination should not be pursued in future studies.
Article Synopsis
- Interferon-based therapies like ropeginterferon alfa-2b are showing promise as potential treatments for essential thrombocythemia (ET), which current therapies don't modify or improve disease progression.
- Ropeginterferon alfa-2b has been effective in treating polycythemia vera (PV) and could similarly benefit ET patients who can't tolerate or are resistant to existing treatments.
- The ongoing ROP-ET trial aims to evaluate its effectiveness over three years, focusing on patient responses, quality of life, and safety, providing crucial data for treatment options in this underserved group.
Article Synopsis
- * The study validated the Artificial Intelligence Prognostic Scoring System for Myelodysplastic Syndromes (AIPSS-MDS), showing it was better than traditional scoring systems in predicting overall and leukemia-free survival in two different patient groups from Spain and Taiwan.
- * The strong performance of AIPSS-MDS suggests it could be a key tool for tailoring treatment in CMML, and future research should look into adding genetic data to enhance risk assessment and patient care.
Background: Myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms (MDS/MPN) comprise several rare hematologic malignancies with shared concomitant dysplastic and proliferative clinicopathologic features of bone marrow failure and propensity of acute leukemic transformation, and have significant impact on patient quality of life. The only approved disease-modifying therapies for any of the MDS/MPN are DNA methyltransferase inhibitors (DNMTi) for patients with dysplastic CMML, and still, outcomes are generally poor, making this an important area of unmet clinical need. Due to both the rarity and the heterogeneous nature of MDS/MPN, they have been challenging to study in dedicated prospective studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn a multicenter European retrospective study including 162 patients with COVID-19 occurring in essential thrombocythemia (ET, n = 48), polycythemia vera (PV, n = 42), myelofibrosis (MF, n = 56), and prefibrotic myelofibrosis (pre-PMF, n = 16), 15 major thromboses (3 arterial and 12 venous) were registered in 14 patients, of whom all, but one, were receiving LMW-heparin prophylaxis. After adjustment for the competing risk of death, the cumulative incidence of arterial and venous thromboembolic events (VTE) reached 8.5% after 60 days follow-up.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- The study investigates the effectiveness of hypomethylating agents in treating patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia (CMML) by comparing their outcomes to those receiving other treatments, like hydroxyurea and intensive chemotherapy.
- Data was collected retrospectively from 949 patients across 38 centers in the USA and Europe between late 2017 and early 2019, focusing on overall survival and treatment progression.
- Findings showed that patients first treated with hypomethylating agents had a median overall survival of 20.7 months, which was better compared to 15.6 months for those treated with hydroxyurea, indicating potential benefits of hypomethylating agents in this patient group.
Article Synopsis
- A study of 175 patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) during COVID-19 showed a high mortality rate of 48% in those with myelofibrosis (MF), which is significantly higher than the general population.
- Key factors linked to higher mortality included older age, male gender, lower lymphocyte counts, need for respiratory support, and existing comorbidities, but no significant links were found with essential thrombocythemia or polycythemia vera.
- While Ruxolitinib treatment was more frequent among those who died, stopping the treatment before COVID-19 was associated with increased mortality, indicating the need for further research on how treatment interruptions affect survival in M
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is a global public health crisis. Multiple observations indicate poorer post-infection outcomes for patients with cancer than for the general population. Herein, we highlight the challenges in caring for patients with acute leukaemias and myeloid neoplasms amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDSs) when anemia is the only abnormality can be complicated. The aim of our study was to investigate the primary causes of anemia and/or macrocytosis of uncertain etiology.
Methods: We conducted a multicenter, prospective study over 4 months in three hematology laboratories.