Rituximab is an effective treatment in patients with pemphigus vulgaris and demonstrates a steroid-sparing effect.

Background: Corticosteroids (CS) with or without adjuvant immunosuppressant agents are standard treatment for pemphigus vulgaris (PV). The efficacy of adjuvant therapies in minimizing steroid-related adverse events (AEs) is unproven.

Objectives: To utilize data collected in a French investigator-initiated, phase III, open-label, randomized controlled trial to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of rituximab and seek approval for its use in PV.

R-CHOP with or without bevacizumab in patients with previously untreated diffuse large B-cell lymphoma: final MAIN study outcomes.

Vascular endothelial growth factor is involved in lymphoma growth, suggesting a potential role for anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapies in hematologic malignancies. In this phase III study, patients with CD20-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma were randomized to rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone plus either placebo (R-CHOP) or bevacizumab (RA-CHOP). Treatment was administered every 21 (8 cycles) or 14 days (6 cycles plus 2 rituximab cycles) as per institutional practice.

Chromosome 14 copy number-dependent IGH gene rearrangement patterns in high hyperdiploid childhood B-cell precursor ALL: implications for leukemia biology and minimal residual disease analysis.

Childhood B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP ALL) is generally a clonal disease in which the number of IGH rearrangements per cell does not exceed the number of the IGH alleles on chromosome 14. Consequently, monoclonal high hyperdiploid (HeH) cases with a trisomy 14 can harbor three rearrangements, a pattern that otherwise may be misinterpreted to be oligoclonal. Oligoclonal IGH rearrangements, on the other hand, may be instable at relapse and should therefore not be used for minimal residual disease analysis.

Minimal residual disease values discriminate between low and high relapse risk in children with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia and an intrachromosomal amplification of chromosome 21: the Austrian and German acute lymphoblastic leukemia Berlin-Frankfurt-Munster (ALL-BFM) trials.

Purpose: We aimed to identify relapse predictors in children with a B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and an intrachromosomal amplification of chromosome 21 (iAMP21), a novel genetic entity associated with poor outcome.

Patients And Methods: We screened 1,625 patients who were enrolled onto the Austrian and German ALL-Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster (ALL-BFM) trials 86, 90, 95, and 2000 with ETV6/RUNX1-specific fluorescent in situ hybridization probes, and we identified 29 patient cases (2%) who had an iAMP21. Minimal residual disease (MRD) was quantified with clone-specific immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor gene rearrangements.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia with t(4;11) in children 1 year and older: The 'big sister' of the infant disease?

The t(4;11)-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a rare disease in children above the age of 1 year. We studied the clinical and biological characteristics in 32 consecutively diagnosed childhood cases (median age 10.0 years, range 1.