Lisocabtagene maraleucel versus standard of care with salvage chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation as second-line treatment in patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma (TRANSFORM): results from an interim analysis of an open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial.

Background: Patients with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) primary refractory to or relapsed within 12 months of first-line therapy are at high risk for poor outcomes with current standard of care, platinum-based salvage immunochemotherapy and autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Lisocabtagene maraleucel (liso-cel), an autologous, CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, has previously demonstrated efficacy and manageable safety in third-line or later LBCL. In this Article, we report a prespecified interim analysis of liso-cel versus standard of care as second-line treatment for primary refractory or early relapsed (within 12 months after response to initial therapy) LBCL.

Recommendations for the management of COVID-19 in patients with haematological malignancies or haematopoietic cell transplantation, from the 2021 European Conference on Infections in Leukaemia (ECIL 9).

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel virus that spread worldwide from 2019 causing the Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 infection is characterised by an initial viral phase followed in some patients by a severe inflammatory phase. Importantly, immunocompromised patients may have a prolonged viral phase, shedding infectious viral particles for months, and absent or dysfunctional inflammatory phase.

Once-only colonoscopy or two rounds of faecal immunochemical testing 2 years apart for colorectal cancer screening (SCREESCO): preliminary report of a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Screening for colorectal cancer is done with lower gastrointestinal endoscopy or stool-based tests. There is little evidence from randomised trials to show primary colonoscopy reduces mortality in colorectal cancer. We aimed to investigate the effect of screening with once-only colonoscopy or two rounds of faecal immunochemical test screening on colorectal cancer mortality and incidence.

Risk of heart disease following treatment for breast cancer - results from a population-based cohort study.

Background: There is a rising concern about treatment-associated cardiotoxicities in breast cancer patients. This study aimed to determine the time- and treatment-specific incidence of arrhythmia, heart failure, and ischemic heart disease in women diagnosed with breast cancer.

Methods: A register-based matched cohort study was conducted including 8015 breast cancer patients diagnosed from 2001 to 2008 in the Stockholm-Gotland region and followed up until 2017.

Deficiency of SARS-CoV-2 T-cell responses after vaccination in long-term allo-HSCT survivors translates into abated humoral immunity.

Recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) for hematological diseases are at risk of severe disease and death from COVID-19. To determine the safety and immunogenicity of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccines, samples from 50 infection-naive allo-HSCT recipients (median, 92 months from transplantation, range, 7-340 months) and 39 healthy controls were analyzed for serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) against the receptor binding domain (RBD) within spike 1 (S1) of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; anti-RBD-S1 IgG) and for SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell immunity, reflected by induction of T-cell-derived interferon-γ in whole blood stimulated ex vivo with 15-mer SI-spanning peptides with 11 amino acid overlap S1-spanning peptides. The rate of seroconversion was not significantly lower in allo-transplanted patients than in controls with 24% (12/50) and 6% (3/50) of patients remaining seronegative after the first and second vaccination, respectively.

Patient-reported outcomes one year after positive sentinel lymph node biopsy with or without axillary lymph node dissection in the randomized SENOMAC trial.

Introduction: This report evaluates whether health related quality of life (HRQoL) and patient-reported arm morbidity one year after axillary surgery are affected by the omission of axillary lymph node dissection (ALND).

Methods: The ongoing international non-inferiority SENOMAC trial randomizes clinically node-negative breast cancer patients (T1-T3) with 1-2 sentinel lymph node (SLN) macrometastases to completion ALND or no further axillary surgery. For this analysis, the first 1181 patients enrolled in Sweden and Denmark between March 2015, and June 2019, were eligible.

Cancer incidence in healthy Swedish peripheral blood stem cell donors.

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) has been used for over 20 years to obtain peripheral blood stem cells from healthy donors for allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Concerns have been raised about a potentially increased cancer incidence in donors after donation, especially regarding haematological malignancies. In a prospective Swedish national cohort study, we studied the cancer incidence after donation in 1082 Swedish peripheral blood stem cell donors, donating between 1998 and 2014.

The Molecular Tumor Board Portal supports clinical decisions and automated reporting for precision oncology.

There is a growing need for systems that efficiently support the work of medical teams at the precision-oncology point of care. Here, we present the implementation of the Molecular Tumor Board Portal (MTBP), an academic clinical decision support system developed under the umbrella of Cancer Core Europe that creates a unified legal, scientific and technological platform to share and harness next-generation sequencing data. Automating the interpretation and reporting of sequencing results decrease the need for time-consuming manual procedures that are prone to errors.

Lineage-specific early complete donor chimerism and risk of relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia.

Recipient-donor chimerism is routinely analyzed after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) to monitor engraftment and graft rejection. For malignancies, chimerism can also be used to screen for disease relapse post-HSCT but methodology and interpretation of results are not standardized and likely depend on underlying diagnosis. We have implemented highly sensitive and accurate methodologies for chimerism analysis for the purpose of improving relapse prediction.

Impaired phosphocreatine metabolism in white adipocytes promotes inflammation.

The mechanisms promoting disturbed white adipocyte function in obesity remain largely unclear. Herein, we integrate white adipose tissue (WAT) metabolomic and transcriptomic data from clinical cohorts and find that the WAT phosphocreatine/creatine ratio is increased and creatine kinase-B expression and activity is decreased in the obese state. In human in vitro and murine in vivo models, we demonstrate that decreased phosphocreatine metabolism in white adipocytes alters adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase activity via effects on adenosine triphosphate/adenosine diphosphate levels, independently of WAT beigeing.

Salivary IgG to SARS-CoV-2 indicates seroconversion and correlates to serum neutralization in mRNA-vaccinated immunocompromised individuals.

Background: Immunocompromised individuals are highly susceptible to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Whether vaccine-induced immunity in these individuals involves oral cavity, a primary site of infection, is presently unknown.

Methods: Immunocompromised patients (n = 404) and healthy controls (n = 82) participated in a prospective clinical trial (NCT04780659) encompassing two doses of the mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine.

Results of a multicenter phase I/II trial of TCRαβ and CD19-depleted haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for adult and pediatric patients.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from haploidentical donors is a viable option for patients lacking HLA-matched donors. Here we report the results of a prospective multicenter phase I/II trial of transplantation of TCRαβ and CD19-depleted peripheral blood stem cells from haploidentical family donors after a reduced-intensity conditioning with fludarabine, thiotepa, and melphalan. Thirty pediatric and 30 adult patients with acute leukemia (n = 43), myelodysplastic or myeloproliferative syndrome (n = 6), multiple myeloma (n = 1), solid tumors (n = 6), and non-malignant disorders (n = 4) were enrolled.

Infectious complications and vaccines.

Infections are a major cause of morbidity and can result in mortality in long-term survivors after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation. Chronic graft-versus-host disease and delayed immune reconstitution are recognized risk factors. Different strategies must be utilized depending on the individual patient's situation but include prolonged antimicrobial prophylaxis and vaccination.

Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: Preclinical and Models.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most overlooked cancers despite its dismal median survival time of 6 months. The biggest challenges in improving patient survival are late diagnosis due to lack of diagnostic markers, and limited treatment options due to almost complete therapy resistance. The past decades of research identified the dense stroma and the complex interplay/crosstalk between the cancer- and the different stromal cells as the main culprits for the slow progress in improving patient outcome.

Impact of systemic adjuvant therapy and CYP2D6 activity on mammographic density in a cohort of tamoxifen-treated breast cancer patients.

Purpose: Change in mammographic density has been suggested to be a proxy of tamoxifen response. We investigated the effect of additional adjuvant systemic therapy and CYP2D6 activity on MD change in a cohort of tamoxifen-treated pre- and postmenopausal breast cancer patients.

Methods: Swedish breast cancer patients (n = 699)  operated 2006-2014, genotyped for CYP2D6, having at least three months postoperative tamoxifen treatment, a baseline, and at least one follow-up digital mammogram were included in the study.

COVID-19 in immunocompromised populations: implications for prognosis and repurposing of immunotherapies.

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has highly variable disease severity and a bimodal course characterized by acute respiratory viral infection followed by hyperinflammation in a subset of patients with severe disease. This immune dysregulation is characterized by lymphocytopenia, elevated levels of plasma cytokines and proliferative and exhausted T cells, among other dysfunctional cell types.

COVID-19 and stem cell transplantation; results from an EBMT and GETH multicenter prospective survey.

This study reports on 382 COVID-19 patients having undergone allogeneic (n = 236) or autologous (n = 146) hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) reported to the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) or to the Spanish Group of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (GETH). The median age was 54.1 years (1.

Variability in Breast Cancer Biomarker Assessment and the Effect on Oncological Treatment Decisions: A Nationwide 5-Year Population-Based Study.

We compared estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth-factor receptor 2 (HER2), Ki67, and grade scores among the pathology departments in Sweden. We investigated how ER and HER2 positivity rates affect the distribution of endocrine and HER2-targeted treatments among oncology departments. All breast cancer patients diagnosed between 2013 and 2018 in Sweden were identified in the National Quality Register for Breast Cancer.