Publications by authors named "Simantov R"

Article Synopsis
  • A phase III clinical trial showed that omidubicel-onlv, a new cell therapy, leads to faster recovery for patients needing bone marrow transplants compared to standard treatments, benefiting all racial/ethnic groups.
  • A decision-tree model projected effects of omidubicel-onlv use on health disparities in bone marrow transplants for over 10,000 eligible patients without matched donors, analyzing various usage scenarios.
  • The findings indicated that higher omidubicel-onlv usage could significantly increase transplant rates and survival outcomes, especially for racial minorities, with notable improvements in access and reduced mortality rates.
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  • NK cells play a crucial role in cancer immune defense by providing a fast response to tumors, allowing for direct attacks on cancer cells without needing prior antigen recognition.
  • * Gamida Cell's NAM platform aims to boost the effectiveness of NK cells, particularly in treating multiple myeloma (MM) by targeting CD38, a protein common on MM cells.
  • * Researchers have used CRISPR technology to create genetically modified NK cells that lack CD38 and have enhanced abilities to target MM cells, achieving a significant reduction in self-destruction among NK cells during treatment.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzed health care costs and complications for patients aged 12-64 with hematologic malignancies undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (allo-HCT) using a database from 2016 to 2020.
  • Out of 1,082 patients, many faced complications such as acute graft-versus-host disease (52%) and cytomegalovirus infection (21%), with a median hospital stay of 28 days and a 31% readmission rate within 100 days post-transplant.
  • The median cost of care during the transplant period was approximately $331,827 per patient, emphasizing that reducing hospitalization length and readmissions could lower overall costs.
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Allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell adoptive transfer has shown the potential to induce remissions in relapsed or refractory leukemias and lymphomas, but strategies to enhance NK cell survival and function are needed to improve clinical efficacy. Here, we demonstrated that NK cells cultured ex vivo with interleukin-15 (IL-15) and nicotinamide (NAM) exhibited stable induction of l-selectin (CD62L), a lymphocyte adhesion molecule important for lymph node homing. High frequencies of CD62L were associated with elevated transcription factor forkhead box O1 (FOXO1), and NAM promoted the stability of FOXO1 by preventing proteasomal degradation.

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Omidubicel is an umbilical cord blood (UCB)-derived ex vivo-expanded cellular therapy product that has demonstrated faster engraftment and fewer infections compared with unmanipulated UCB in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. Although the early benefits of omidubicel have been established, long-term outcomes remain unknown. We report on a planned pooled analysis of 5 multicenter clinical trials including 105 patients with hematologic malignancies or sickle cell hemoglobinopathy who underwent omidubicel transplantation at 26 academic transplantation centers worldwide.

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Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) patients are prone to thrombotic complications that may increase morbidity and mortality. These complications are thought to be driven by endothelial activation and tissue damage promoted by the systemic hyperinflammation associated with COVID-19. However, the exact mechanisms contributing to these complications are still unknown.

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Striatin, a subunit of the serine/threonine phosphatase PP2A, is a core member of the conserved striatin-interacting phosphatase and kinase (STRIPAK) complexes. The protein is expressed in the cell junctions between epithelial cells, which play a role in maintaining cell-cell adhesion. Since the cell junctions are crucial for the function of the mammalian inner ear, we examined the localization and function of striatin in the mouse cochlea.

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Background: A growing body of evidence suggests that age and gender play a role in cancer outcomes. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of age and gender on survival of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis of patients with metastatic RCC treated on phase II and III clinical trials.

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Purpose: To investigate whether black race is an independent predictor of overall survival (OS) in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

Methods: We performed a retrospective 2-cohort (International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium [IMDC] and trial-database) study of patients with mRCC treated with first-line tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Unmatched (UM) and matched (M) analyses accounting for imbalances in region, year of treatment, age, and sex between races were performed.

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Background: The relationship between weight change during treatment and survival remains poorly characterized in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

Patients And Methods: In this retrospective analysis we included 3311 patients with mRCC treated in phase II/III first-line or second-line targeted therapy clinical trials and assessed the effect of weight change on overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and objective response rate (ORR) at 6 and 12 weeks from treatment initiation. Weight change was defined as weight loss (≥5% reduction), weight gain (≥2% increase), or stable weight from baseline.

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Background: Upfront cytoreductive nephrectomy (CRN) in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has come into question in recent prospective clinical trials.

Objective: We investigated the effect of systemic therapies on primary tumor response in patients with metastatic RCC.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A pooled analysis of 12 phase II/III clinical trials of metastatic RCC patients treated with systemic therapy between 2003 and 2013 was performed.

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Background: Antibiotic use alters commensal gut microbiota, which is a key regulator of immune homeostasis.

Objective: To investigate the impact of antibiotic use on clinical outcomes in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) patients treated with systemic agents.

Design, Setting, And Participants: We analyzed two cohorts: an institutional cohort (n=146) receiving programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1)-based immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and a trial-database cohort (n=4144) receiving interferon-α (n=510), mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors (n=660), and vascular endothelial growth factor targeted therapies (VEGF-TT; n=2974) on phase II/III clinical trials.

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Background And Aims: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is largely preventable with routine screening and surveillance colonoscopy; however, interval cancers arising from precancerous lesions missed by standard colonoscopy still occur. An increased adenoma detection rate (ADR) has been found to be inversely associated with interval cancers. The G-EYE device includes a reusable balloon integrated at the distal tip of a standard colonoscope, which flattens haustral folds, centralizes the colonoscope's optics, and reduces bowel slippage.

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Purpose: Health determinants vary according to geographic region and may affect the outcomes of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) treated during clinical trials of targeted therapy. Here, we investigate the overall survival (OS) of patients with mRCC treated in the era of targeted therapy by geographic region.

Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis of patients with mRCC who were treated during phase II or III clinical trials.

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Background: Cardiac metastases from renal cell carcinoma (RCC) are uncommon and there are limited data regarding the presentation and outcomes of this population. The objective of this study was to evaluate the characteristics and outcomes of patients with RCC with cardiac metastasis without inferior vena cava (IVC) involvement.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a pooled retrospective analysis of metastatic RCC patients treated in 4 clinical trials.

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Article Synopsis
  • The canonical Wnt signaling pathway is linked to various diseases, particularly colorectal cancer (CRC), and is primarily driven by the protein β-catenin, which activates Wnt target genes.
  • High-Temperature Requirement A1 (HTRA1) is identified as a new component of the Wnt pathway that inhibits Wnt/β-catenin signaling and influences the expression of Wnt target genes.
  • HTRA1 interacts with β-catenin and decreases cell proliferation, suggesting it plays a role as a suppressor of the canonical Wnt signaling pathway.
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Background: Poor-risk patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma remain poorly characterized in prospective clinical trials. Therefore, we sought to provide a comprehensive analysis of this patient population, defined by 3 widely used prognostic models, treated with targeted therapy.

Patients And Methods: We conducted a pooled retrospective analysis of 4736 metastatic renal-cell carcinoma patients treated on phase 2 and 3 clinical trials.

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Introduction: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are potent inhibitors of gastric acid secretion and can affect the optimal absorption of concomitant oral medications, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of PPI use on survival in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) patients treated in the targeted therapy era.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis of mRCC patients treated in phase II and III clinical trials.

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Background: Clinical data from patients with non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma (nccRCC) receiving targeted therapy are limited, and many clinical trials have excluded these patients from study entry. We sought to investigate the outcomes of patients with nccRCC treated in clinical trials in the modern era compared with the outcomes of patients with clear cell RCC (ccRCC).

Patients And Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of patients with metastatic RCC who had received targeted therapy in Pfizer-sponsored phase II and III clinical trials from 2003 to 2013.

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The Metastatic Renal Cell Cancer Registry, a large, nationally representative, prospective registry of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), aims to understand real-world treatment patterns and outcomes of patients with mRCC in routine clinical practice across the United States. This observational study is designed to enroll 500 patients with previously untreated mRCC from approximately 60 academic and community treatment sites; as of December 7, 2016, 500 patients have enrolled at 54 sites. Key endpoints include real-world data on reasons for treatment initiation and discontinuation; treatment regimens; disease progression; patient-reported outcomes; and healthcare resource utilization in this patient population.

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Background: We applied mathematical models to clinical trial data available at Project Data Sphere LLC (Cary, NC, USA), a non-profit universal access data-sharing warehouse. Our aim was to assess the rates of cancer growth and regression using the comparator groups of eight randomised clinical trials that enrolled patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Methods: In this retrospective analysis, we used data from eight randomised clinical trials with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer to estimate the growth (g) and regression (d) rates of disease burden over time.

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Background: The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC) models categorize patients with 1 or 2 risk factors as intermediate prognosis (INTMP). This category encompasses 15 and 19 permutations of the MSKCC and IMDC risk factors, respectively. The purpose of the present retrospective analysis of data from INTMP patients in 6 clinical trials was to determine whether this heterogeneity influences the response to sunitinib.

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Purpose: Obesity is an established risk factor for clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC); however, some reports suggest that RCC developing in obese patients may be more indolent. We investigated the clinical and biologic effect of body mass index (BMI) on treatment outcomes in patients with metastatic RCC.

Methods: The impact of BMI (high BMI: ≥ 25 kg/m v low BMI: < 25 kg/m) on overall survival (OS) and treatment outcome with targeted therapy was investigated in 1,975 patients from the International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC) and in an external validation cohort of 4,657 patients.

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