Outcomes of Advanced Hodgkin Lymphoma after Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation: A Eurocord and EBMT Lymphoma and Cellular Therapy & Immunobiology Working Party Study

Cord blood transplantation for adult mature lymphoid neoplasms in Europe and Japan

ABSTRACT

To clarify the different characteristics and prognostic factors of cord blood transplantation (CBT) in adult patients with lymphoid neoplasms in Europe and Japan, we conducted a collaborative study. Patients aged 18-75 years receiving their first CBT (Europe: single CBT, n = 192; double CBT, n = 304; Japan: single CBT, n = 1150) in 2000-2017 were analyzed. Fewer patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (Europe vs Japan, 26% vs 5%), and older patients (≥50 years) (39% vs 59%) with a higher refined disease risk index (rDRI) (high-very high: 49% vs 14%) were included in the Japanese registry. High-very high rDRI was associated with inferior overall survival (OS) (vs low rDRI, Europe: hazard ratio [HR], 1.87; P = .001; Japan: HR, 2.34; P < .001) with higher progression/relapse risks. Total body irradiation (TBI)-containing conditioning contributed to superior OS both in Europe (vs TBI-reduced-intensity conditioning [RIC], non-TBI-RIC: HR, 1.93; P < .001; non-TBI-Myeloablative conditioning [MAC]: HR, 1.90; P = .003) and Japan (non-TBI-RIC: HR, 1.71; P < .001; non-TBI-MAC: HR 1.50, P = .007). The impact of HLA mismatches (≥2) on OS differed (Europe: HR, 1.52; P = .007; Japan: HR, 1.18; P = .107). CBT for lymphoid neoplasms, especially in those with high rDRI showed poor outcomes despite all the different characteristics in both registries. TBI should be considered in conditioning regimens to improve these outcomes. The different impacts of HLA mismatches call attention to the fundamental differences among these populations.

Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma: From Past to Future-A Comprehensive Review of Pathophysiology and Therapeutic Advances

Hodgkin lymphoma, a hematological malignancy of lymphoid origin that typically arises from germinal-center B cells, has an excellent overall prognosis. However, the treatment of patients who relapse or develop resistant disease still poses a substantial clinical and research challenge, even though current risk-adapted and response-based treatment techniques produce overall survival rates of over 95%. The appearance of late malignancies after the successful cure of primary or relapsed disease continues to be a major concern, mostly because of high survival rates. Particularly in pediatric HL patients, the chance of developing secondary leukemia is manifold compared to that in the general pediatric population, and the prognosis for patients with secondary leukemia is much worse than that for patients with other hematological malignancies. Therefore, it is crucial to develop clinically useful biomarkers to stratify patients according to their risk of late malignancies and determine which require intense treatment regimens to maintain the ideal balance between maximizing survival rates and avoiding late consequences. In this article, we review HL's epidemiology, risk factors, staging, molecular and genetic biomarkers, and treatments for children and adults, as well as treatment-related adverse events and the late development of secondary malignancies in patients with the disease.

Filling the Gap: The Immune Therapeutic Armamentarium for Relapsed/Refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma

Despite years of clinical progress which made Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) one of the most curable malignancies with conventional chemotherapy, refractoriness and recurrence may still affect up to 20–30% of patients. The revolution brought by the advent of immunotherapy in all kinds of neoplastic disorders is more than evident in this disease because anti-CD30 antibodies and checkpoint inhibitors have been able to rescue patients previously remaining without therapeutic options. Autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation still represents a significant step in the treatment algorithm for chemosensitive HL; however, the possibility to induce complete responses after allogeneic transplant procedures in patients receiving reduced-intensity conditioning regimens informs on its sensitivity to immunological control. Furthermore, the investigational application of adoptive T cell transfer therapies paves the way for future indications in this setting. Here, we seek to provide a fresh and up-to-date overview of the new immunotherapeutic agents dominating the scene of relapsed/refractory HL. In this optic, we will also review all the potential molecular mechanisms of tumor resistance, theoretically responsible for treatment failures, and we will discuss the place of allogeneic stem cell transplantation in the era of novel therapies.

Reappraising the Role of Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Relapsed and Refractory Hodgkin’s Lymphoma: Recent Advances and Outcomes

Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a rare yet highly curable disease in the majority of patients treated with modern chemotherapy regimens. For patients who fail to respond to or relapse after initial systemic therapies, treatment with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can provide a cure for many with chemotherapy-responsive lymphoma. Patients who relapse after autologous transplant or those with chemorefractory disease have poor prognosis and represent a high unmet need. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation provides a proven curative therapy for these patients and should be considered, especially in young and medically fit patients. The use of newer agents in this disease such as brentuximab vedotin and immune checkpoint inhibitors can help bring more patients to transplantation and should be considered as well.

Comparison of reduced-intensity/toxicity conditioning regimens for umbilical cord blood transplantation for lymphoid malignancies

To investigate which reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC)/reduced-toxicity conditioning (RTC) is superior for umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT) for lymphoid malignancies, we retrospectively compared three widely used RIC/RTC regimens: fludarabine/melphalan/total body irradiation (FM-TBI, n = 524), fludarabine/cyclophosphamide/total body irradiation (FC-TBI, n = 96), and fludarabine/busulfan/total body irradiation or melphalan (FB-based, n = 159). Among patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) (n = 314), there were no differences in overall survival (OS) by conditioning regimen. Among patients with malignant lymphoma (ML) (n = 465), FM-TBI and FC-TBI regimens had similar OS, whereas FB-based regimen had lower OS (hazard ratio [HR], 1.73; P < 0.01) than did FM-TBI regimen due to higher non-relapse mortality (HR, 1.72; P = 0.02). In addition, mycophenolate mofetil-containing GVHD prophylaxis was associated with better OS than methotrexate-containing GVHD prophylaxis among patients who received FM-TBI (HR, 0.65; P = 0.03) and FC-TBI (HR, 0.25; P < 0.01) regimens due to a decreased relapse risk. In summary, our results suggest that all three RIC/RTC regimens have comparable clinical outcomes in ALL, while the FM-TBI or FC-TBI regimens combined with mycophenolate mofetil-containing GVHD prophylaxis is preferable in RIC/RTC-UCBT for ML. Large prospective studies are warranted to confirm these results.

Nonmyeloablative Alternative Donor Transplantation for Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma: From the LWP-EBMT, Eurocord, and CIBMTR

PURPOSE

To compare the outcomes of patients with Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin lymphoma undergoing nonmyeloablative haploidentical or unrelated cord blood (UCB) hematopoietic cell transplantation.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We retrospectively studied 740 patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (n = 283, 38%) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (n = 457, 62%) age 18-75 years who received transplantations from 2009 to 2016. Data were reported to the Lymphoma Working Party of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Eurocord, or Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. Of the 526 patients who received haploidentical transplantation, 68% received bone marrow and 32% received peripheral blood. All patients received a uniform transplantation conditioning regimen (2 Gy of total-body irradiation, cyclophosphamide, and fludarabine) and graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis (calcineurin inhibitor and mycophenolate). In addition, patients who received a haploidentical transplantation received posttransplantation cyclophosphamide.

RESULTS

Compared with haploidentical bone marrow and peripheral-blood transplantations and adjusted for age, lymphoma subtype, and disease status, survival was lower after UCB transplantation (hazard ratio [HR], 1.55; P = .001; and HR, 1.59; P = .005, respectively). Similarly, progression-free survival was lower after UCB transplantations compared with haploidentical bone marrow and peripheral-blood transplantations (HR, 1.44; P = .002; and HR, 1.86; P < .0001), respectively. The 4-year overall and progression-free survival rates after UCB transplantation were 49% and 36%, respectively, compared with 58% and 46% after haploidentical bone marrow transplantation and 59% and 52% after peripheral-blood transplantation, respectively. Lower survival was attributed to higher transplantation-related mortality after UCB transplantation compared with haploidentical bone marrow and peripheral-blood transplantation (HR, 1.91; P = .0001; and HR, 2.27; P = .0002, respectively).

CONCLUSION

When considering HLA-mismatched transplantation for Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the data support haploidentical related donor transplantation over UCB transplantation.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Renal Fibrosis: The Flame of Cytotherapy

Renal fibrosis, as the fundamental pathological process of chronic kidney disease (CKD), is a pathologic extension of the normal wound healing process characterized by endothelium injury, myofibroblast activation, macrophage migration, inflammatory signaling stimulation, matrix deposition, and remodelling. Yet, the current method of treating renal fibrosis is fairly limited, including angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition, angiotensin receptor blockade, optimal blood pressure control, and sodium bicarbonate for metabolic acidosis. MSCs are pluripotent adult stem cells that can differentiate into various types of tissue lineages, such as the cartilage (chondrocytes), bone (osteoblasts), fat (adipocytes), and muscle (myocytes). Because of their many advantages like ubiquitous sources, convenient procurement and collection, low immunogenicity, and low adverse effects, with their special identification markers, mesenchymal stem MSC-based therapy is getting more and more attention. Based on the mechanism of renal fibrosis, MSCs mostly participate throughout the renal fibrotic process. According to the latest and overall literature reviews, we aim to elucidate the antifibrotic mechanisms and effects of diverse sources of MSCs on renal fibrosis, assess their efficacy and safety in preliminarily clinical application, answer the controversial questions, and provide novel ideas into the MSC cellular therapy of renal fibrosis.