Changes in T-cell subpopulations and cytokine network during early period of ibrutinib therapy in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients: the significant decrease in T regulatory cells number.

B cell receptor (BCR) stimulation signal plays an important role in the pathogenesis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and kinase inhibitors directed toward the BCR pathway are now the promising anti-leukemic drugs. Ibrutinib, a Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor, demonstrates promising clinical activity in CLL. It is reported that ibrutinib, additionally to directly targeting leukemic cells, also inhibits the interactions of these cells with T cells, macrophages and accessory cells.

Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Adults With Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Background: Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) remains the most efficacious therapy in patients with acute leukemia. For older patients and those lacking a related HLA-compatible donor, autologous transplantation (auto-HSCT) is a valid alternative therapeutic option.

Methods: From 1997 until 2014 in the Department of Hematooncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Medical University of Lublin, Poland, 29 auto-HSCT were performed in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML; 15 men and 14 women; median age, 52.

Biosimilar granulocyte colony-stimulating factor is effective in reducing the duration of neutropenia after autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.

Background: Autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (APBSCT) is the standard of therapy for patients with multiple myeloma and refractory Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is widely used to accelerate hematopoietic recovery after transplantation and to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with prolonged neutropenia. Biosimilar G-CSF is approved for the same indications as the originator G-CSF.

A clinical comparison of the efficacy and safety of biosimilar G-CSF and originator G-CSF in haematopoietic stem cell mobilization.

Background: Recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is widely used to mobilize haematopoietic stem cells. We compared the efficacy and safety of a biosimilar G-CSF (Zarzio(®), Sandoz Biopharmaceuticals) with the originator G-CSF (Neupogen(®), Amgen) in patients with haematological malignancies.

Methods: A total of 108 patients were included in this study, 59 of whom were female (49 male), with an overall median age of 51 years (range 19-69).

Bendamustine as monotherapy and in combination regimens for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia and non-hodgkin lymphoma: a retrospective analysis.

Background/aim: In this study, we carried out a retrospective analysis of the efficacy and toxicity of bendamustine in patients with B-cell lymphoproliferative diseases.

Methods: Bendamustine was administered both as monotherapy and in combined protocols to 92 patients, including 76 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and 16 patients with indolent lymphomas. Bendamustine plus rituximab was used to treat 65.

Treatment of multiple myeloma patients with autologous stem cell transplantation - a fresh analysis.

Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) treated with conventional chemotherapy have an average survival of approximately three years. High dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), first introduced in the mid-1980s, is now considered the standard therapy for almost all patients with multiple myeloma, because it prolongs overall survival and disease free survival. Between November 1997 and October 2006, 122 patients with MM (58 females, 64 males, median age 51.

Thalidomide, dexamethasone and lovastatin with autologous stem cell transplantation as a salvage immunomodulatory therapy in patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.

The treatment of patients with multiple myeloma usually includes many drugs including thalidomide, lenalidomide and bortezomib. Lovastatin and other inhibitors of HMG-CoA reductase demonstrated to exhibit antineoplasmatic and proapoptotic properties in numerous in vitro studies involving myeloma cell lines. We treated 91 patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma with thalidomide, dexamethasone and lovastatin (TDL group, 49 patients) or thalidomide and dexamethasone (TD group, 42 patients).

An evaluation of factors predicting long-term response to thalidomide in 234 patients with relapsed or resistant multiple myeloma.

The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of pretreatment clinical and laboratory parameters in refractory or relapsed multiple myeloma (MM) patients who have a long-term response to thalidomide (THAL), lasting at least 18 months. The study was carried out on 234 patients who received THAL for relapsed/refractory myeloma. Out of the 234 patients, 129 patients (55.

Influence of thalidomide on Bcl2 expression and proangiogenic cytokine levels in short-term culture of peripheral blood and bone marrow mononuclear cells of multiple myeloma patients.

Supernatants from short-term culture of peripheral blood and bone marrow mononuclear cells obtained from 22 multiple myeloma patients were used to measure the concentration of TNF-alpha, HGF, IL-6 and its soluble receptor (sIL-6R), VEGF and bFGF. Cells were cultured with or without thalidomide (THAL). We observed statistically significant decrease in TNF-alpha, HGF, IL-6, sIL-6R in supernatants from THAL cultures compared to cells cultured without THAL.

Thalidomide treatment of resistant or relapsed multiple myeloma patients.

Background And Objectives: Thalidomide is currently used as a very promising drug in patients with recurrent multiple myeloma or those refractory to chemotherapy. Literature data show prolonged survival in patients with advanced multiple myeloma treated with thalidomide but the optimal time and dose of thalidomide treatment remain to be established.

Design And Methods: We have treated 53 refractory or relapsed myeloma patients with thalidomide (Grunenthal, Aachen).

[The role of beta1 integrins in renal failure accompanied by multiple myeloma].

Clinical features of multiple myeloma are linked with immunological phenotype of myeloma cells. The interactions between malignant plasma cells and proteins of ECM (extracellular matrix) or different cells results from the influence of adhesion molecules. In our study the expression of CD49b, CD49d, CD49e, CD49f on the myeloma cells has been estimated.

Interferon gamma as immunomodulator in a patient with multiple myeloma.

We describe here a patient with multiple myeloma, who, while in remission after chemotherapy, received 100 micrograms of rIFN-gamma (Imukin, Boehringer, Ingelheim) subcutaneously 3 times a week for 4 weeks as supportive therapy before autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT). The patient was monitored for serum IFN, TNF, IL-2 activities and for the ability of peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) to produce IFN-alpha/beta, IFN-gamma, IL-2 and TNF-alpha after in vitro induction. Changes in the percent of plasma cells in the bone marrow, in the total and differential white blood cell counts, in T cell subsets and NK cells were also monitored.