Childhood myelodysplastic syndromes: Is cytoreductive therapy useful before allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation?

For most patients with childhood myelodysplastic syndrome (cMDS), allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) remains the only curative option. In the case of increased blasts (cMDS-IB), the benefit of pretransplant cytoreductive therapy remains controversial. In this multicenter retrospective study, the outcomes of all French children who underwent allo-HSCT for cMDS reported in the SFGM-TC registry between 2000 and 2020 were analyzed ( = 84).

[Pediatric aphereses (workshop SFGM-TC)].

Practice of pediatric aphereses - in particular when caring for low-weight children - differs from the practice of adult aphereses, since pediatric aphereses represent low numbers of procedures, which has practical implications in terms of practical training and retraining for involved healthcare personnel, as needed for habilitation and validation of ongoing competencies. A specific training is mandatory in order to ensure both the child and the staff safety during and after collection, as well as ensure high quality of the collected cell product and that its meets predefined specifications that depend on its intended use. Low and very low-weight children deserve a particular attention for a number of procedural and clinical aspects: the nature and quality of venous accesses to ensure proper operation of the cell separator, management of hemodynamic fluctuations in relation with the relative importance of the extracorporeal blood volume as compared to the total blood volume of the child, risks and clinical manifestations of citrate toxicity, minimization of stress during the procedure that may include but is not limited to pharmacological sedation.

Anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity on regional myocardial work and left ventricular mechanical dispersion in adolescents and young adults in post-lymphoma remission.

Background: Myocardial work (MW) is a new echocardiographic tool with a high sensitivity to detect early and subtle alterations of myocardial function. We aimed to evaluate the late effects of anthracyclines by assessing the global and segmental MW and intraventricular mechanical dispersion from speckle tracking echocardiography in childhood lymphoma survivors (CLS).

Methods: Thirty-one young adults including CLS and age-matched healthy controls were enrolled.

Educational outcomes in siblings of childhood leukemia survivors: Factors associated with school difficulties and comparison with general population.

Background: To investigate the educational outcomes of siblings of childhood leukemia survivors, explore determinants of school difficulties, and compare the rates of repeating grades between siblings and the general population.

Methods: A cross-sectional study of childhood leukemia survivors' siblings recruited through the Leucémies de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent cohort, a French long-term follow-up program, was conducted, and education-related data were obtained via self-report questionnaires. Adjusted logistic regression models were used to identify variables associated with school difficulties and time since diagnosis.

Functional mimicry of sea urchin biomineralization proteins with CaCO-binding peptides selected by phage display.

The intricate process of biomineralization, in sea urchins, involves the precise interplay of highly regulated mineralization proteins and the spatiotemporal coordination achieved through compartmentalization. However, the investigation of biomineralization effector molecules, proteins, is challenging, due to their very low abundance. Therefore, we investigate the functional mimicry in the bioinspired precipitation of calcium carbonate (CaCO) with artificial peptides selected from a peptide library by phage display based on peptide-binding to calcite and aragonite, respectively.