Early treatment for patients with high-risk smoldering myeloma delays progression to active disease and increases overall survival. (Funded by Celgene; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00480363.).

BackgroundAlthough Hodgkin's lymphoma is a highly curable disease with modern chemotherapy protocols, some patients are primary refractory or relapse after first-line chemotherapy or even after high-dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation. We investigated the potential role of allogeneic stem cell transplantation in this setting. Design and MethodsIn this phase II study 92 patients with relapsed Hodgkin's lymphoma and an HLA-identical sibling, a matched unrelated donor or a one antigen mismatched, unrelated donor were treated with salvage chemotherapy followed by reduced intensity allogeneic transplantation. Fourteen patients showed refractory disease and died from progressive lymphoma with a median overall survival after trial entry of 10 months (range, 6-17). Seventy-eight patients proceeded to allograft (unrelated donors, n=23). Fifty were allografted in complete or partial remission and 28 in stable disease. Fludarabine (150 mg/m 2 iv) and melphalan (140 mg/m 2 iv) were used as the conditioning regimen. Anti-thymocyte globulin was additionally used as graft-versus-host-disease prophylaxis for recipients of grafts from unrelated donors. ResultsThe non-relapse mortality rate was 8% at 100 days and 15% at 1 year. Relapse was the major cause of failure. The progression-free survival rate was 47% at 1 year and 18% at 4 years from trial entry. For the allografted population, the progression-free survival rate was 48% at 1 year and 24% at 4 years. Chronic graft-versus-host disease was associated with a lower incidence of relapse. Patients allografted in complete remission had a significantly better outcome. The overall survival rate was 71% at 1 year and 43% at 4 years. ConclusionsAllogeneic stem cell transplantation can result in long-term progression-free survival in heavily pre-treated patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma. The reduced intensity conditioning approach significantly reduced non-relapse mortality; the high relapse rate represents the major remaining challenge in this setting. Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Haematologica 2012;97(2):310-317. doi:10.3324/haematol.2011 . Allogeneic stem cell transplantation after reduced intensity conditioning in patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's lymphoma. Results of the HDR-ALLO study -a prospective clinical trial by the Grupo Español de Linfomas/ Trasplante de Médula Osea (GEL/TAMO) and the Lymphoma Working Party of the European Group for

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Axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) and tisagenlecleucel (tisa-cel) are CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells approved for relapsed/refractory (R/R) large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL). We performed a retrospective study to evaluate safety and efficacy of axi-cel and tisa-cel outside the setting of a clinical trial. Data from consecutive patients with R/R LBCL who underwent apheresis for axi-cel or tisa-cel were retrospectively collected from 12 Spanish centers. A total of 307 patients underwent apheresis for axi-cel (n=152) and tisa-cel (n=155) from Nov-2018 to Aug-2021, of which 261 (85%) received a CAR-T infusion (88% and 82%, respectively). Median time from apheresis to infusion was 41 days for axi-cel and 52 days for tisa-cel (p=0.006). None of the baseline characteristics were significantly different between both cohorts. Both cytokine release syndrome and neurologic events (NE) were more frequent in the axi-cel group (88% vs 73%, p=0.003, and 42% vs 16%, p

Graft-versus-host disease is the main cause of morbidity and mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. First-line treatment is based on the use of high doses of corticosteroids. Unfortunately, second-line treatment for both acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease, remains a challenge. Ruxolitinib has been shown as an effective and safe treatment option for these patients. Seventy-nine patients received ruxolitinib and were evaluated in this retrospective and multicenter study. Twenty-three patients received ruxolitinib for refractory acute graft-versus-host disease after a median of 3 (range 1-5) previous lines of therapy. Overall response rate was 69.5% (16/23) which was obtained after a median of 2 weeks of treatment, and 21.7% (5/23) reached complete remission. Fifty-six patients were evaluated for refractory chronic graft-versus-host disease. The median number of previous lines of therapy was 3 (range 1-10). Overall response rate was 57.1% (32/56) with 3.5% (2/56) obtaining complete remission after a median of 4 weeks. Tapering of corticosteroids was possible in both acute (17/23, 73%) and chronic graft-versus-host disease (32/56, 57.1%) groups. Overall survival was 47% (CI: 23-67%) at 6 months for patients with aGVHD (62 vs 28% in responders vs non-responders) and 81% (CI: 63-89%) at 1 year for patients with cGVHD (83 vs 76% in responders vs non-responders). Ruxolitinib in the real life setting is an effective and safe treatment option for GVHD, with an ORR of 69.5% and 57.1% for refractory acute and chronic graftversus-host disease, respectively, in heavily pretreated patients.