In-depth molecular analysis of lymphomas with lymphoplasmacytic differentiation may provide more precise diagnosis and rational treatment allocation.

We performed a molecular analysis of formalin-fixed paraffin embedded and decalcified bone marrow trephine biopsies of 41 patients with a B-cell disorder with lymphoplasmacytic differentiation to enable a more precise diagnosis and to describe potentially prognostic and therapeutic relevant mutations. Analysis was performed with a commercially available next-generation sequencing (NGS) lymphoma panel (Lymphoma Solution, SophiaGenetics). Results were correlated with clinical and pathological parameters.

Adherence to Patient-Reported Symptom Monitoring and Subsequent Clinical Interventions for Patients With Multiple Myeloma in Outpatient Care: Longitudinal Observational Study.

Background: The use of software to monitor patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) can improve outcomes for patients with cancer receiving anticancer therapy; however, evidence from applications used in routine clinical practice is lacking.

Objective: We aimed to investigate adherence to and patient perceptions of a weekly, web-based PROM symptom monitoring program in routine clinical practice for patients with Multiple Myeloma. Moreover, we aimed to capture how clinical alerts prompted by the system influenced clinical care.

Application of mid-infrared microscopic imaging for the diagnosis and classification of human lymphomas.

Mid-infrared (MIR) microscopic imaging of indolent and aggressive lymphomas was performed including formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded samples of six follicular lymphomas and 12 diffuse large B-cell-lymphomas as well as reactive lymph nodes to investigate benefits and challenges for lymphoma diagnosis. MIR images were compared to defined pathological characteristics such as indolent versus aggressive versus reactive, germinal centre versus activated cell-of-origin (COO) subtypes, or a low versus a high proliferative index and level of PD-L1 expression. We demonstrated that MIR microscopic imaging can differentiate between reactive lymph nodes, indolent and aggressive lymphoma samples.

Visible and near-infrared hyperspectral imaging techniques allow the reliable quantification of prognostic markers in lymphomas: A pilot study using the Ki67 proliferation index as an example.

In this study, we examined the suitability of visible and infrared (Vis-NIR) hyperspectral imaging (HSI) for the quantification of prognostic markers in non-Hodgkin lymphoma on the example of the Ki67 proliferation index. Ki67 quantification was done on six follicular lymphomas (FLs) and 12 diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCLs) by applying classic immunohistochemistry. The Ki67 index was comparatively assessed visually, using HSI-based quantification and a digital imaging analysis (DIA) platform.

Erratum: Willenbacher, E., et al. Curcumin: New Insights into an Ancient Ingredient against Cancer. 2019, , 1808.

We would like to change the authors' names and affiliations on Page 1 of paper [...

Patients with double/triple copy number gains on C-MYC, BCL2, and/or BCL6 treated with standard chemotherapy have a similarly poor prognosis than those with high-grade B cell lymphoma with C-MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 rearrangements: a single-center experience on a consecutive cohort of large B cell lymphomas.

High-grade B cell lymphomas with rearrangements on C-MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 (HGBL with MYC and BCL2 and/or Bcl6 rearrangement) are associated with worse clinical outcomes and thus were introduced as a separate new category in the recently updated WHO classification. From 2012 to 2016, we analyzed a consecutive cohort of large B cell lymphomas (LBCLs) for C-MYC, BCL2, and BCL6 rearrangements and correlated our results with clinical-pathological parameters. Ten of 78 (13%) cases had a C-MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 rearrangement, so-called double or triple hit (DH), while double/triple copy number gains (CNGs) were found in eight (10%) patients.

Pixantrone demonstrates significant in vitro activity against multiple myeloma and plasma cell leukemia.

Treatment results for multiple myeloma and plasma cell leukemia have considerably improved, but cure remains elusive and establishing new therapeutic approaches constitutes a major unmet clinical need. We analyzed the anti-myeloma properties of the aza-anthracenedione pixantrone which has been successfully used in a phase III study for the treatment of patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as monotherapy as well as in combination regimes in vitro and in an adapted in vivo model (ex ovo chicken chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay). Pixantrone significantly inhibited proliferation and metabolic activity of all investigated myeloma cell lines.

Curcumin: New Insights into an Ancient Ingredient against Cancer.

Cancer patients frequently use complementary medicine. Curcumin (CUR) and its derivates (from the extract of L.) represent some of the most frequently used ones, having a long history in traditional Asian medicine.

Impact of renal impairment on outcomes after autologous stem cell transplantation in multiple myeloma: a multi-center, retrospective cohort study.

Background: Renal impairment (RI) is a negative prognostic factor in Multiple Myeloma (MM) and affected patients are often excluded from autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). However, it remains unclear whether historically inferior outcome data still hold true.

Methods: From a total of 475 eligible MM patients who had undergone ASCT between 1998 and 2016, 374 were included in this multi-centric retrospective cohort study.

Towards Molecular Profiling in Multiple Myeloma: A Literature Review and Early Indications of Its Efficacy for Informing Treatment Strategies.

Multiple myeloma (MM), the second most common hematologic malignancy, is characterized by the clonal expansion of plasma cells. Despite dramatic improvements in patients' survival over the past decade due to advances in therapy exploiting novel molecular targets (immunomodulatory drugs, proteasome inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies), the treatment of relapsed and refractory disease remains challenging. Recent studies confirmed complex, dynamic, and heterogeneous genomic alterations without unifying gene mutations in MM patients.

Short overview on the current standard of treatment in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

The treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma has changed dramatically over the past 20 years, from near uniform application of chemotherapy to a patient performance status- and risk-based approach. Furthermore, initiation of treatment criteria have evolved from a pure end-organ damage-based definition to include risk factors of transformation to frank myeloma. Besides, the mainly cytogenetically defined Multiple Myeloma (MM) risk status, transplant eligibility of patients still serves primarily to allocate patients within a rational treatment algorithm.

Treatment of patients with refractory metastatic cancer according to molecular profiling on tumor tissue in the clinical routine: an interim-analysis of the ONCO-T-PROFILE project.

Introduction: Patients with refractory metastatic cancer have been shown to benefit from molecular profiling of tumor tissue. The ONCO-T-PROFILE project was launched in March 2014 at the Innsbruck Medical University. Within 2 years our project aims to recruit 110 patients with stage IV cancer refractory to standard therapy.

T cells in multiple myeloma display features of exhaustion and senescence at the tumor site.

Background: Multiple myeloma is an incurable plasma cell malignancy that is mostly restricted to the bone marrow. Cancer-induced dysfunction of cytotoxic T cells at the tumor site may be responsible for immune evasion and therapeutical failure of immunotherapies. Therefore, enhanced knowledge about the actual status of T cells in myeloma bone marrow is urgently needed.

Real-World Use of 3rd Line Therapy for Multiple Myeloma in Austria: An Austrian Myeloma Registry (AMR) Analysis of the Therapeutic Landscape and Clinical Outcomes prior to the Use of Next Generation Myeloma Therapeutics.

Objective: Clinical trials demonstrate improving survival in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) after treatment. However, it is unclear whether increased survival translates to a similar benefit in a real world setting.

Methods: We analyzed the overall survival of 347 multiple myeloma patients in Austria by means of a national registry (AMR), focused on results from 3rd and later lines of therapy.

Low Beclin-1 expression predicts improved overall survival in patients treated with immunomodulatory drugs for multiple myeloma and identifies autophagy inhibition as a promising potentially druggable new therapeutic target: an analysis from The Austrian Myeloma Registry (AMR).

Beclin-1 is a key regulator of autophagy and has been suggested to be involved in the development of drug resistance in multiple myeloma (MM). We analyzed the expression of Beclin-1 in a retrospective cohort of 70 MMs. Beclin-1 expression did not influence overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with therapy-naïve MM.

Ropeginterferon alfa-2b, a novel IFNα-2b, induces high response rates with low toxicity in patients with polycythemia vera.

In this prospective, open-label, multicenter phase 1/2 dose escalation study, we used a next-generation, mono-pegylated interferon (IFN) α-2b isoform, ropeginterferon alfa-2b. The unique feature of ropeginterferon alfa-2b is a longer elimination half-life, which allows administration every 2 weeks. We present data from 51 polycythemia vera patients.

Molecular responses and chromosomal aberrations in patients with polycythemia vera treated with peg-proline-interferon alpha-2b.

Fifty-one polycythemia vera (PV) patients were enrolled in the phase I/II clinical study PEGINVERA to receive a new formulation of pegylated interferon alpha (peg-proline-IFNα-2b, AOP2014/P1101). Peg-proline-IFNα-2b treatment led to high response rates on both hematologic and molecular levels. Hematologic and molecular responses were achieved for 46 and 18 patients (90 and 35% of the whole cohort), respectively.