Long-term follow-up of a phase 2 study of chemotherapy plus dasatinib for the initial treatment of patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Background: The long-term efficacy of a combination of chemotherapy and dasatinib in patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is not well established.

Methods: Patients received dasatinib with 8 cycles of alternating hyperfractionated cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, and dexamethasone and high-dose cytarabine and methotrexate. Patients in complete remission (CR) continued maintenance dasatinib, vincristine, and prednisone for 2 years, which was followed by dasatinib indefinitely.

The ever-evolving landscape of candidaemia in patients with acute leukaemia: non-susceptibility to caspofungin and multidrug resistance are associated with increased mortality.

Objectives: The epidemiology and clinical course of candidaemia in patients with acute leukaemia, a population frequently exposed to antifungals, have not been extensively studied. In the present contemporary series of acute leukaemia patients, we describe patient characteristics, Candida species and MIC distributions and investigate the association between antifungal resistance and all-cause mortality.

Methods: We performed a retrospective review of medical records and microbiological data of adult patients with acute leukaemia or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome with at least one positive blood culture for Candida species at the MD Anderson Cancer Center between January 2008 and October 2012.