BackgroundHaploidentical donor (HID) hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is an alternative treatment method for severe aplastic anemia (SAA) patients lacking suitable identical donors and those who are refractory to immunosuppressive therapy (IST). The current study evaluated the feasibility of upfront haploidentical HSCT in SAA patients.MethodsWe conducted a multicenter study based on a registry database. One hundred fifty-eight SAA patients who underwent upfront transplantation between June 2012 and September 2015 were enrolled.ResultsEighty-nine patients had haploidentical donors (HIDs), and 69 had matched related donors (MRDs) for HSCT. The median times for myeloid engraftment in the HID and MRD cohorts were 12 (range, 9–20) and 11 (range, 8–19) days, with a cumulative incidence of 97.8 and 97.1% (P = 0.528), respectively. HID recipients had an increased cumulative incidence of grades II–IV acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) (30.3 vs. 1.5%, P < 0.001), grades III–IV aGVHD (10.1 vs. 1.5%, P = 0.026), and chronic GVHD (cGVHD) (30.6 vs. 4.4%, P < 0.001) at 1 year but similar extensive cGVHD (3.4 vs. 0%, P = 0.426). The three-year estimated overall survival (OS) rates were 86.1 and 91.3% (P = 0.358), while the three-year estimated failure-free survival (FFS) rates were 85.0 and 89.8% (P = 0.413) in the HID and MRD cohorts, respectively. In multivariate analysis, survival outcome for the entire population was significantly adversely associated with increased transfusions and poor performance status pre-SCT. We did not observe differences in primary engraftment and survival outcomes by donor type.ConclusionsHaploidentical SCT as upfront therapy was an effective and safe option for SAA patients, with favorable outcomes in experienced centers.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13045-017-0398-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundAtrial fibrillation is associated with higher mortality. Identification of causes of death and contemporary risk factors for all‐cause mortality may guide interventions.Methods and ResultsIn the Rivaroxaban Once Daily Oral Direct Factor Xa Inhibition Compared with Vitamin K Antagonism for Prevention of Stroke and Embolism Trial in Atrial Fibrillation (ROCKET AF) study, patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation were randomized to rivaroxaban or dose‐adjusted warfarin. Cox proportional hazards regression with backward elimination identified factors at randomization that were independently associated with all‐cause mortality in the 14 171 participants in the intention‐to‐treat population. The median age was 73 years, and the mean CHADS 2 score was 3.5. Over 1.9 years of median follow‐up, 1214 (8.6%) patients died. Kaplan–Meier mortality rates were 4.2% at 1 year and 8.9% at 2 years. The majority of classified deaths (1081) were cardiovascular (72%), whereas only 6% were nonhemorrhagic stroke or systemic embolism. No significant difference in all‐cause mortality was observed between the rivaroxaban and warfarin arms (P=0.15). Heart failure (hazard ratio 1.51, 95% CI 1.33–1.70, P<0.0001) and age ≥75 years (hazard ratio 1.69, 95% CI 1.51–1.90, P<0.0001) were associated with higher all‐cause mortality. Multiple additional characteristics were independently associated with higher mortality, with decreasing creatinine clearance, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, male sex, peripheral vascular disease, and diabetes being among the most strongly associated (model C‐index 0.677).ConclusionsIn a large population of patients anticoagulated for nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, ≈7 in 10 deaths were cardiovascular, whereas <1 in 10 deaths were caused by nonhemorrhagic stroke or systemic embolism. Optimal prevention and treatment of heart failure, renal impairment, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes may improve survival.Clinical Trial Registration URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/. Unique identifier: NCT00403767.

Background: Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable plasma cell malignancies despite the advent of numerously new drugs. Survival was poor particularly for high risk patients such as R-ISS stage III. The preliminary data from our center showed that the median PFS after auto-HSCT was 24 months for patients with R-ISS III stage, while 17 months for patients that achieved PR or less after induction. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-transduced T cells is a promising strategy for cancer immunotherapy. Our previous study showed good response for RRMM patients after CD19 and BCMA-specific CART therapy without severe CRS and other deadly side effects. To improve the survival of high risk patients, this study was designed to observe the safety and efficacy of combined infusion of CD19 and BCMA-specific CART cells after autologous transplantation (SZ-MM-CART02 study, NCT 03455972). Methods:18-65y NDMM in R-ISS stage III, or who only achieved PR or less after 4 cycles of PAD triplet induction were enrolled with serum creatinine (Cr) <2.0 mg/dL, and adequate hepatic, cardiac and pulmonary function. BCMA and CD19 expression on MM cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. Lymphocytes were collected from PBSCs and cultured with an anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody to activate T-cell proliferation. The cells were transduced with recombinant lentiviral verctors which respectively contained the anti-BCMA or anti-CD19 single chain variable fragment (scFv), the cytoplasmic portion of the OX40 and CD28 costimulatory moiety, and the CD3z T-cell activation domain. This is the new third generation CAR technique applied in clinic. BUCY were used as conditioning, followed by infusion of autologous stem cells. Median time to engraftment were 10 days for nutrophils. CART-19 (1×107/kg on d0) and CART-BCMA cells as split-dose (40% on d1 and 60% on d2) were infused derectly on d14 to d20 after autologous transplantation. Levels of CAR-transduced cells are measured by qPCR. The cytokine release syndrome (CRS) was graded according to the UPen cytokine release syndrome grading system. Neurotoxic side effects and other toxicities were assessed according to the CTCAE v 4.03. Plasma levels of IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma, and IL-17A proteins were determined with a cytokine kit. Imids alone were given as maintenance therapy. Responses were assessed by IMWG criteria. 10-color flow cytometry was used to monitor MRD regularly after CART treatment. The median of follow-up was 3 (2∼11) months. Results: To date, 9 patients have completed the CART cells infusion (cohort 1). All cases expressed BCMA >50% without CD19 expression on MM cells. CRS occurred in 9 patients (100%) grade1 or 2 associated with fever(n=9), fatigue (n=9), elevated IL-6 and CRP (n=9), elevated ALT (n=1, grade 1). Two patients needed to use low-dose vascular active drugs (pts 04 and 07). Other toxicities to date included coagulopathy (n=6, grade 1 for 4 pts and grade 2 for 2 pts), elevated troponin T (n=4, grade 1), and atrial flutter (n=1). There was no serious CRS or neurologic complications occurred in this group of patients. The ORR was 100% with all patients were monitored for a period of more than 2 months, which may be eventually further improved. There were 2 CR, 1 VGPR, 4 PR, 2 SD after induction; 3 CR, 2 VGPR, 4 PR after APBSCT; 3 CR, 6 VGPR after CART therapy. MRD negativity in BM increased from 37.5% after transplantation to 66.7% after CART therapy latest. Four patients (pts 02, 03, 06 and 07) obtained partial PR after transplantation, and got VGPR after CART cells infusion. We found dramatic in vivo CART expansion that median of peak value of CART copies was 1059.54 folds (ranged from 536.90 to 10997.93 folds) which was 100 folds to that with RRMM patients in our previous study. Conclusions: Tandom autologous transplantation and combined infusion of CART-19 and CART-BCMA cells could be another choice of consolidation treatment for high risk MM patients. Toxicities to date including CRS and organ function impairment seemed to be mild and reversable. It is worthy of further study to compare DFS, OS between single autologous transplantation and tandom transplantation with CART therapy. Immune environment in high risk patients with multiple myelomaI remodelled by auto-HSCT may contribute to more rapid expansion of CART cells than that in RRMM patients, suggesting that the extent of CART expansion depends more than tumor burden. Table Table. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

The low rate of durable response against relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) in recent studies indicates that chimeric antigen receptor T‐cell (CART) treatment is yet to be optimized. This study aims to investigate the safety and efficacy of sequential infusion of CD19‐CART and B‐cell maturation antigen (BCMA)‐CARTs for RRMM with a similar 3 + 3 dose escalation combined with a toxicity sentinel design. We enrolled 10 patients, among whom 7 received autologous infusion and 3 received allogeneic infusion. The median follow‐up time was 20 months. The most common grade 3/4 treatment‐emergent toxicities were hematological toxicities. Cytokine‐release syndrome (CRS) adverse reactions were grade 1/2 in 9 out of 10 subjects. No dose‐limited toxicity (DLT) was observed for BCMA‐CAR‐positive T cells ≤5 × 10 7 /kg), while two patients with dose‐levels of 5–6.5 × 10 7 /kg experienced DLTs. The overall response rate was 90% (five partial responses and four stringent complete responses). Three out of four patients with stringent complete responses to autologous CART had progression‐free survival for over 2 years. The three patients with allogeneic CART experienced disease progression within 2 months. These results evidence the sequential infusion's preliminarily tolerability and efficacy in RRMM, and present a simple and safe design applicable for the establishment of multiple CART therapy.