Phase 1 study combining elotuzumab with autologous stem cell transplant and lenalidomide for multiple myeloma

BACKGROUND

Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) after induction therapy improves disease-free survival for patients with multiple myeloma (MM). While the goal of ASCT is to render a minimal disease state, it is also associated with eradication of immunosuppressive cells, and we hypothesize that early introduction of immunotherapy post-ASCT may provide a window of opportunity to boost treatment efficacy.

METHODS

We conducted a phase 1 clinical trial to investigate the application of autologous lymphocyte infusion and anti-SLAMF7 monoclonal antibody, elotuzumab, after ASCT in patients with newly diagnosed MM previously treated with induction therapy. In addition to CD34+ stem cells, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were harvested prior to transplant and infused on day 3 after stem cell infusion to accelerate immune reconstitution and provide autologous natural killer (NK) cells that are essential to the mechanism of elotuzumab. Elotuzumab was administered starting on day 4 and then every 28 days after until 1 year post-ASCT. Cycles 4-12 were administered with standard-of-care lenalidomide maintenance.

RESULTS

All subjects were evaluated for safety, and 13 of 15 subjects completed the treatment protocol. At 1 year post-ASCT, the disease status of enrolled subjects was as follows: five stringent complete responses, one complete response, six very good partial responses, one partial response, and two progressive diseases. The treatment plan was well tolerated, with most grade 3 and 4 AEs being expected hematologic toxicities associated with ASCT. Correlative analysis of the immune microenvironment demonstrated a trend toward reduced regulatory T cells during the first 3 months post-transplant followed by an increase in NK cells and monocytes in patients achieving a complete remission.

CONCLUSIONS

This phase 1 clinical trial demonstrates that early introduction of immunotherapy after ASCT is well tolerated and shows promising disease control in patients with MM, accompanied by favorable changes in the immune microenvironment.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

NCT02655458.

Anti-spike antibody response to the COVID vaccine in lymphoma patients

Patients with hematologic malignancies have poor outcomes from COVID infection and are less likely to mount an antibody response after COVID infection. This is a retrospective study of adult lymphoma patients who received the COVID vaccine between 12/1/2020 and 11/30/2021. The primary endpoint was a positive anti-COVID spike protein antibody level following the primary COVID vaccination series. The primary vaccination series was defined as 2 doses of the COVID mRNA vaccines or 1 dose of the COVID adenovirus vaccine. Subgroups were compared using Fisher's exact test, and unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models were used for univariate and multivariate analyses. A total of 243 patients were included in this study; 72 patients (30%) with indolent lymphomas; 56 patients (23%) with Burkitt's, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), and primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBL) combined; 55 patients (22%) with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL); 44 patients (18%) with Hodgkin and T-cell lymphomas (HL/TCL) combined; 12 patients (5%) with mantle cell lymphoma; and 4 patients (2%) with other lymphoma types. One-hundred fifty-eight patients (65%) developed anti-COVID spike protein antibodies after completing the primary COVID vaccination series. Thirty-eight of 46 (83%) patients who received an additional primary shot and had resultant levels produced anti-COVID spike protein antibodies. When compared to other lymphoma types, patients with CLL/SLL had a numerically lower seroconversion rate of 51% following the primary vaccination series whereas patients with HL/TCL appeared to have a robust antibody response with a seropositivity rate of 77% (p = 0.04). Lymphoma patients are capable of mounting a humoral response to the COVID vaccines. Further studies are required to confirm our findings, including whether T-cell immunity would be of clinical relevance in this patient population.

Reliability of Cell-Free DNA and Targeted NGS in Predicting Chromosomal Abnormalities of Patients With Myeloid Neoplasms

Introduction

Cytogenetic analysis is important for stratifying patients with various neoplasms. We explored the use of targeted next generation sequencing (NGS) in detecting chromosomal structural abnormalities or copy number variations (CNVs) in patients with myeloid neoplasms.

Methods

Plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA) from 2821 myeloid or lymphoid neoplasm patients were collected. cfDNA was sequenced using a 275 gene panel. CNVkit software was used for analyzing and visualizing CNVs. Cytogenetic data from corresponding bone marrow (BM) samples was available on 89 myeloid samples.

Results

Of the 2821 samples, 1539 (54.5%) showed evidence of mutations consistent with the presence of neoplastic clones in circulation. Of these 1539 samples, 906 (59%) showed abnormalities associated with myeloid neoplasms and 633 (41%) with lymphoid neoplasms. Chromosomal structural abnormalities in cfDNA were detected in 146 (16%) myeloid samples and 76 (12%) lymphoid samples. Upon comparison of the myeloid samples with 89 BM patients, NGS testing was able to reliably detect chromosomal gain or loss, except for fusion abnormalities. When cytogenetic abnormalities were classified according to prognostic classes, there was a complete (100%) concordance between cfDNA NGS data and cytogenetic data.

Conclusions

This data shows that liquid biopsy using targeted NGS is reliable in detecting chromosomal structural abnormalities in myeloid neoplasms. In specific circumstances, targeted NGS may be reliable and efficient to provide adequate information without the need for BM biopsy considering broad mutation profiling can be obtained through adequate sequencing within the same test. Overall, this study supports the use of liquid biopsy for early diagnosis and monitoring of patients with myeloid neoplasms.

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation amid the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide analysis of the first COVID-19 wave in the Netherlands

Introduction

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has put tremendous pressure on healthcare systems. Most transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) centres have adopted different triage systems and procedural strategies to serve highest-risk patients first and to minimise the burden on hospital logistics and personnel. We therefore assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patient selection, type of anaesthesia and outcomes after TAVI.

Methods

We used data from the Netherlands Heart Registration to examine all patients who underwent TAVI between March 2020 and July 2020 (COVID cohort), and between March 2019 and July 2019 (pre-COVID cohort). We compared patient characteristics, procedural characteristics and clinical outcomes.

Results

We examined 2131 patients who underwent TAVI (1020 patients in COVID cohort, 1111 patients in pre-COVID cohort). EuroSCORE II was comparable between cohorts (COVID 4.5 ± 4.0 vs pre-COVID 4.6 ± 4.2, p = 0.356). The number of TAVI procedures under general anaesthesia was lower in the COVID cohort (35.2% vs 46.5%, p < 0.001). Incidences of stroke (COVID 2.7% vs pre-COVID 1.7%, p = 0.134), major vascular complications (2.3% vs 3.4%, p = 0.170) and permanent pacemaker implantation (10.0% vs 9.4%, p = 0.634) did not differ between cohorts. Thirty-day and 150-day mortality were comparable (2.8% vs 2.2%, p = 0.359 and 5.2% vs 5.2%, p = 0.993, respectively).

Conclusions

During the COVID-19 pandemic, patient characteristics and outcomes after TAVI were not different than before the pandemic. This highlights the fact that TAVI procedures can be safely performed during the COVID-19 pandemic, without an increased risk of complications or mortality.

Supplementary Information

The online version of this article (10.1007/s12471-022-01704-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Update and, internal and temporal-validation of the FRANCE-2 and ACC-TAVI early-mortality prediction models for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) using data from the Netherlands heart registration (NHR)

Background

The predictive performance of the models FRANCE-2 and ACC-TAVI for early-mortality after Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) can decline over time and can be enhanced by updating them on new populations. We aim to update and internally and temporally validate these models using a recent TAVI-cohort from the Netherlands Heart Registration (NHR).

Methods

We used data of TAVI-patients treated in 2013-2017. For each original-model, the best update-method (model-intercept, model-recalibration, or model-revision) was selected by a closed-testing procedure. We internally validated both updated models with 1000 bootstrap samples. We also updated the models on the 2013-2016 dataset and temporally validated them on the 2017-dataset. Performance measures were the Area-Under ROC-curve (AU-ROC), Brier-score, and calibration graphs.

Results

We included 6177 TAVI-patients, with 4.5% observed early-mortality. The selected update-method for FRANCE-2 was model-intercept-update. Internal validation showed an AU-ROC of 0.63 (95%CI 0.62-0.66) and Brier-score of 0.04 (0.04-0.05). Calibration graphs show that it overestimates early-mortality. In temporal-validation, the AU-ROC was 0.61 (0.53-0.67).The selected update-method for ACC-TAVI was model-revision. In internal-validation, the AU-ROC was 0.63 (0.63-0.66) and Brier-score was 0.04 (0.04-0.05). The updated ACC-TAVI calibrates well up to a probability of 20%, and subsequently underestimates early-mortality. In temporal-validation the AU-ROC was 0.65 (0.58-0.72).

Conclusion

Internal-validation of the updated models FRANCE-2 and ACC-TAVI with data from the NHR demonstrated improved performance, which was better than in external-validation studies and comparable to the original studies. In temporal-validation, ACC-TAVI outperformed FRANCE-2 because it suffered less from changes over time.

Patients undergoing urgent trans-aortic valve implantation suffer from an increased mortality rate

Introduction

Information on the outcome of urgent Transcatheter valve implantations (TAVI) is scarce, but available data suggest that it could be a reasonable option for the treatment of decompensated severe aortic valve stenosis. The prospects of an all-comer urgent population, however, are unknown. Here we report our experience with clinically indicated urgent TAVI implantation in an unselected patient population with severe aortic valve stenosis (AS).

Purpose

To compare the outcome of patients undergoing urgent or elective TAVI and to identify potential predictors of outcome.

Methods

A retrospective, single centre study of AS patients undergoing femoral or apical TAVI between 01. 01.2013 and 30.09.2018 was performed. Demographic information, medical history, clinical and procedural data were collected from the local electronic database. Urgent implantation was defined as accelerated, in-hospital patient preparation and urgent device placement following an acute admission. Survival was investigated with Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and log-rank test. Regression analysis was performed to identify possible predictors of mortality.

Results

During the study period TAVI was performed in 631 patients, of whom 53 (8.4%) underwent urgent TAVI. In the case of urgent procedures, the median admission-to-procedure time was 18 [10–29] days. Age, gender and the prevalence of diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) and a glomerular filtration rate of ≤30ml/min was comparable among the groups. Patients in the urgent group had a lower BMI (26 [23–28] vs. 27 [24–30]; p&lt;0.05), had more frequently an ejection fraction &lt;30% (30% vs 4%p&lt;0.001) and a higher Euroscore II (5.3 [3.4–10.9]% vs 2.9 [1.7–4.5]%; p&lt;0.001). The rate of apical implantation and post-operative stroke, pacemaker implantation and renal failure did not differ between the groups. Urgent patients, however, needed longer post-procedural hospitalization (6 [4–9] vs 4 [3–6] days; p&lt;0.001) and had higher in-hospital (11.3% vs 3,1%; &lt;0.001) and one-year mortality rates (28.3% vs 8.5%; p&lt;0.001). Urgency was an independent predictor of overall one-year mortality (HR 3.0, p=0.001) and worsened the survival of the individuals who were discharged from the hospital (out-of-hospital mortality at one-year; HR 2.8, p=0.011), but had no effect on in-hospital mortality. In-hospital mortality was mainly determined by apical access (OR 3.1; p=0.016) and major post-operative stroke (OR 8.8.; p=0.006), with both worsening overall 1-year survival too (HR 1.8 for apical access and 4.8 for stroke; p&lt;0.05). Mortality after a successful hospital discharge was increased not only by urgency (HR 2.8, p=0.011), but by COPD (HR 2.1; p=0.04) and prolonged post-operative hospitalization (HR 1.05/day; p=0.001) as well.

Conclusion

Stabilizing AS patients can mitigate the effect of urgency on peri-procedural survival. Urgency remains, however, an important determinant of one-year TAVI outcome.

Funding Acknowledgement

Type of funding source: None

Severe muscle weakness secondary to paraneoplastic hypophosphatemia in neuroblastoma

We report a 28-year-old woman who presented with severe proximal muscle weakness secondary to paraneoplastic hypophosphatemia and associated with recurrent neuroblastoma. The biochemical findings included hyperphosphaturia, a reduced serum level of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin-D3, elevated alkaline phosphatase and normocalcemia which are pathognomic for paraneoplastic hypophosphatemia. Following systemic chemotherapy and supplementation of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin-D3 a complete remission of the neuroblastoma was achieved and all features of the paraneoplastic hypophosphatemia gradually disappeared. In the differential diagnosis of muscle weakness, hypophosphatemia should be included. Paraneoplastic hypophosphatemia associated with metastatic neuroblastoma has not been reported previously. Diagnosis, mechanism and therapy of paraneoplastic hypophosphatemia are shortly reviewed.