No advantage of Imatinib in combination with hydroxyurea over Imatinib monotherapy: a study of the East German Study Group (OSHO) and the German CML study group.

Introduction: The combination of Imatinib (IM) and hydroxyurea (HU) was explored for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).

Method: After testing and a phase I study ( = 20), 59 patients were randomized in the IM/HU and 29 in the IM arm. According to protocol, 49 propensity-score matched IM patients were included from the CML-IV study.

Successful treatment of patients with newly diagnosed/untreated light chain multiple myeloma with a combination of bendamustine, prednisone and bortezomib (BPV).

Introduction: Patients with light chain myeloma frequently have a light chain tubular cast nephropathy, which can lead to severe renal impairment. In the present retrospective study, bortezomib was combined with other active substances like bendamustine and prednisone (BPV), in order to assess the efficacy and toxicity of the combination therapy in patients with light chain multiple myeloma.

Methods: Between September 2008 and May 2015, 25 patients with newly diagnosed light chain multiple myeloma were treated with bendamustine 60 mg/m on days 1 and 2, bortezomib 1.

Favorable outcome in children and adolescents with a high proportion of advanced phase disease using single/multiple autologous or matched/mismatched allogeneic stem cell transplantations.

We determined the indication, outcome, and risk factors of single and multiple hematopoietic stem cell transplantation(s) (HSCT) in children and adolescents mostly with advanced disease. Forty-one out of 483 patients (8.5 %; median age 9 years) diagnosed at the University of Leipzig with hematological and oncological diseases required HSCT from 1999 to 2011.

Long-term follow-up of the AML97 study for patients aged 60 years and above with acute myeloid leukaemia: a study of the East German Haematology and Oncology Study Group (OSHO).

Introduction: Treatment of patients (pts) with acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML) above 60 years remains a challenge. We report long-term follow-up of the AML97 study, where pts were registered at diagnosis and received treatment dependent on their comorbidities: dose-intense cytarabine (AraC) and anthracycline in the curative arm, and low-dose chemotherapy in the palliative arm or best supportive care.

Materials And Methods: A total of 618 pts were enrolled in this protocol (curative 471, palliative 115 and supportive 32).

Comparable outcome after single-antigen-mismatched versus matched unrelated donor haematopoietic cell transplantation.

Purpose: Allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a proven treatment for patients with haematological malignancies. In this retrospective analysis, the impact of donor matching on outcome of unrelated HSCT was analysed in patients transplanted at the University of Leipzig.

Methods: From 2000 to 2009, 206 patients were transplanted from unrelated donors, of which 51 were mismatched (39 in 1 and 12 in ≥ 2 HLA-antigens), using peripheral blood or bone marrow grafts after total body irradiation and cyclophosphamide or busulfan and cyclophosphamide preparative regimens in combination with ATG.

Bendamustine and prednisone in combination with bortezomib (BPV) in the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed/untreated multiple myeloma.

Introduction: Bortezomib is a proteasome inhibitor that has shown important clinical efficacy either as a single agent or in combination in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). In the present protocol, bortezomib was combined with bendamustine and prednisone, in order to assess the efficacy and safety of this combination therapy in patients with newly diagnosed/untreated MM.

Methods: Between June 2006 and October 2013, 49 patients with newly diagnosed/untreated MM were treated with bendamustine 60 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 2, bortezomib 1.

Bendamustine and prednisone in combination with bortezomib (BPV) in the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma and light chain-induced renal failure.

Introduction: Serious renal failure represents a severe complication of multiple myeloma (MM), with an estimated 25-50 % of patients being affected. Both bortezomib and bendamustine have been identified as quickly acting, effective and well-tolerated drugs and might therefore constitute an adequate combination regimen for patients presenting with light chain-induced renal failure.

Methods: Between March 2005 and March 2013, 36 patients with relapsed/refractory MM and light chain-induced renal failure (creatinine clearance <60 ml/min) were treated with bendamustine 60 mg/m(2) on days 1 and 2, bortezomib 1.

Low tumor burden is associated with early B-cell reconstitution and is a predictor of favorable outcome after non-myeloablative stem cell transplant for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Abstract Reconstitution, engraftment kinetics and tumor cell clearance were analyzed after reduced intensity conditioning hematopoietic cell transplant (RIC-HCT) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Patients were transplanted from unrelated (n = 40) or related (n = 10) donors after fludarabine and 2 Gy total body irradiation followed by cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetil. The vast majority of patients (96%) engrafted with absolute neutrophil count (ANC) > 0.

Pretreatment long interspersed element (LINE)-1 methylation levels, not early hypomethylation under treatment, predict hematological response to azacitidine in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Background: Epigenetic modulations, including changes in DNA cytosine methylation, are implicated in the pathogenesis and progression of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Azacitidine is a hypomethylating agent that is incorporated into RNA as well as DNA. Thus, there is a rationale to its use in patients with AML.

JAK2 p.V617F allele burden in myeloproliferative neoplasms one month after allogeneic stem cell transplantation significantly predicts outcome and risk of relapse.

The risk profile and prognosis of patients with myelofibrosis is well described by the Dynamic International Prognostic Scoring System risk categorization. Allogeneic stem cell transplantation is considered for intermediate-2/high risk disease. However, indicators of prognosis after transplantation are still lacking.

Kinetics of iron removal by phlebotomy in patients with iron overload after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Unlabelled: Excess body iron could persist for years after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) with possible deleterious sequels. An iron depletive therapy with phlebotomy seems rational. Kinetics of iron removal by phlebotomy without erythropoietin support in non-thalassemic adult patients with iron overload after HCT and the impact of pre- and post-HCT hemochromatosis (HFE) genotype on iron mobilization were investigated.

Combined bendamustine, prednisone and bortezomib (BPV) in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Introduction: Bortezomib (Velcade) is a proteasome inhibitor that has shown important clinical efficacy either as a single agent or in combination with other cytostatic agents in multiple myeloma (MM). In the present protocol, bortezomib was combined with other active substances like bendamustine and prednisone (BPV), in order to assess the efficacy and toxicity of the combination therapy in patients with relapsed or refractory MM.

Methods: Between January 2005 and December 2011, 78 patients with relapsed or refractory MM were treated with bendamustine 60 (-120) mg/m(2) on days 1 and 2, bortezomib 1.

Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML): different treatment strategies versus a common standard arm--combined prospective analysis by the German AML Intergroup.

Purpose: Identifying true therapeutic progress in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) requires a comparison of treatment strategies and results on the basis of uniform patient selection. To foster comparability across five clinical studies, we introduced a common standard arm combined with a general upfront randomization and performed prospective analyses with adjustment for differences in prognostic baseline characteristics.

Patients And Methods: Whereas the studies' own regimens differed in chemotherapies, risk adaption, and guidelines for allogeneic stem-cell transplantation, the standard arm contained uniform cytarabine- and anthracycline-based standard-dose remission induction and high-dose consolidation courses.

Delayed processing of bone marrow samples reveals a prognostic pattern of NME mRNA expression in cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia.

Improvements in the therapy of cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia (CN-AML) will depend largely on the characterization of functional subtypes identified by prognostic markers. Exposing leukemic cells to stress ex vivo may reveal relevant phenotypic markers not apparent in freshly explanted cells. Here, we assess the prognostic relevance of expression of the nucleoside diphosphate kinase genes NME1 and NME2 in a cohort of 78 patients with CN-AML aged < 60 years using archived mononuclear cell samples originally prepared from bone marrow either directly (n = 25) or following 2-3 days of transport (n = 53).

Azacitidine in patients with acute myeloid leukemia medically unfit for or resistant to chemotherapy: a multicenter phase I/II study.

The safety and efficacy of azacitidine (5-day schedule) were assessed in a multicenter study in 40 patients (median age 72 years) with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) medically unfit for (n = 20) or resistant to chemotherapy (n = 20) from April to October 2008. Median marrow blasts were 42%. After a median follow-up of 13 months, response (complete remission [CR]/partial remission [PR]/hematologic improvement [HI]) was 50% and 10% in newly diagnosed and relapsed/refractory patients, respectively (p = 0.

Highly Elevated Serum Hepcidin in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia prior to and after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: Does This Protect from Excessive Parenchymal Iron Loading?

Hepcidin is upregulated by inflammation and iron. Inherited (HFE genotype) and treatment-related factors (blood units (BU), Iron overload) affecting hepcidin (measured by C-ELISA) were studied in 42 consecutive patients with AML prior to and after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Results.

The impact of the age of HLA-identical siblings on mobilization and collection of PBSCs for allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

With the increasing age of patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), the age of matched related sibling donors (MRDs) is expected to increase. Donor safety and the impact of donors' age on mobilization, collection of peripheral hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs), subsequent engraftment and the incidence of GVHD were retrospectively analyzed. A total of 167 patients received HCT from an MRD.

Prognostic factors in adult patients up to 60 years old with acute myeloid leukemia and translocations of chromosome band 11q23: individual patient data-based meta-analysis of the German Acute Myeloid Leukemia Intergroup.

Purpose: To identify risk factors for induction success and overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) and to evaluate the impact of allogeneic stem-cell transplantation (alloSCT) in adult patients up to 60 years old with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and reciprocal translocations involving chromosome band 11q23 [t(11q23)].

Patients And Methods: An individual patient data-based meta-analysis was performed on 180 adult patients with AML and t(11q23). These patients were identified by cytogenetics and/or molecular techniques and treated within eight prospective multicenter trials of the German AML Intergroup.

Early related or unrelated haematopoietic cell transplantation results in higher overall survival and leukaemia-free survival compared with conventional chemotherapy in high-risk acute myeloid leukaemia patients in first complete remission.

Between 1996 and 2004, a total of 708 patients were enrolled in the acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) '96 and '02 studies of the East German Study Group (OSHO). Of these, 138 patients (19.5%) had unfavourable cytogenetics defined as complex karyotype, del (5q)/-5, del (7q)/-7, abn (3q26) and abn (11q23).

Impact of different post-remission strategies on quality of life in patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Background: The impact on quality of life of allogeneic stem cell transplantation or conventional chemotherapy in patients with acute myeloid leukemia remains unclear, mainly because of a lack of studies with long-term follow-up. The German AML-Intergroup, therefore, initiated a survey on quality of life of patients with a relapse-free survival of at least 5 years after first-line treatment.

Design And Methods: The EORTC Quality of Life Core Questionnaire (QLQ-C30), supplemented by information on self-assessed concomitant diseases, late treatment effects, and demographics was used.

Prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia patients up to 60 years of age exhibiting trisomy 8 within a non-complex karyotype: individual patient data-based meta-analysis of the German Acute Myeloid Leukemia Intergroup.

Background And Objectives: Trisomy 8 (+8) is among the commonest genetic aberrations seen in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, the prognostic significance of this aberration and the best consolidation strategy for patients with it are still not resolved. Additional prognostic indicators are needed to further classify these patients and determine their appropriate management.

The effect of prior exposure to imatinib on transplant-related mortality.

Background And Objectives: Imatinib is an effective treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). However, relapse is common in patients with advanced or high risk disease. Such patients may be eligible for allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT), raising the question whether imatinib therapy may compromise the outcome of subsequent SCT.