Increased Programmed Death-1 Molecule Expression in Cytomegalovirus Disease and Acute Graft-versus-Host Disease after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

To study the role of the programmed death-1 molecule (PD-1) in cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and disease after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), 206 subjects were followed prospectively for immune response to CMV and assigned to 3 groups based on CMV outcome. The subjects were analyzed retrospectively for PD-1 expression in cryopreserved CD4+ and CD8+T cells collected at days 40, 90, 120, 150, 180, and 360 posttransplantation. HCT recipients with CMV disease (n=14) were compared with recipients with prolonged CMV infection, but no CMV disease (median duration of infection, 3 months; n=14) and with controls with no CMV infection who received similar transplants (n=22). The CMV disease group had a significantly higher mean fluorescein intensity of PD-1 in CD4+ (P < .05) and CD8+ (P < .05) lymphocytes at all time points studied. PD-1 expression also was significantly elevated in those with severe acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD), including the no-viremia group. The data suggest that PD-1 is induced by aGVHD even in the absence of CMV infection. This enhanced PD-1 expression during severe aGVHD and with CMV reactivation could explain the known role of aGVHD as a risk factor for CMV disease

Brain Imaging and Overall Survival after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

Aim: We conducted a retrospective review of all brain imaging studies in the first year after allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) to determine (a) the percentage of patients with CNS neurological complications based solely on undergoing brain imaging, (b) transplant-related risk factors of undergoing brain imaging, and (c) overall survival in the patients with neurological complications compared to those transplant patients who did not have brain imaging. Methods: Subjects were 543 consecutive recipients (August 2004-August 2007) of allogeneic HCT followed for overall survival for up to 6 years after HCT. Comparisons between patient groups with brain imaging and without brain imaging were tested using the Pearson chi-square test. Survival analyses with outcome time-to-brain-scan started at date of transplant and used Kaplan-Meier methods. Results: Of 543 HCT recipients, 128 patients (24%) underwent brain imaging during the first year after transplantation. There was a greater risk of brain imaging in unrelated donor transplants and in lymphoid as opposed to myeloid malignancies (respective hazard ratios 1.45 and 1.43, P=0.04). Overall survival was significantly worse in unrelated donor transplants (hazard ratio 1.42, P=0.003) and in cord blood transplants (hazard ratio 1.68, P=0.02). Landmark survival analysis of patients alive 1 year after HCT showed worse survival over the next 5 years in those who had brain imaging in the first post transplant year (P<0.0001). Conclusion: These results suggest that development of neurological symptoms or a sign sufficient to prompt clinicians to order brain imaging early after HCT identifies a poor prognosis in transplant population

Expression of Activating KIR2DS2 and KIR2DS4 Genes after Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: Relevance to Cytomegalovirus Infection

The important role of activating killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) in protecting against cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation has been described previously in patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). More specifically, the presence of multiple activating KIRs and the presence of at least KIR2DS2 and KIR2DS4 in the donor genotype identified a group of HCT patients at low risk for CMV reactivation. However, CMV infection still occurs in patients with the KIR protective genotype, and the question has been raised as to whether this is related to the lack of KIR expression. In this report, expression of the KIR2DS2 and KIR2DS4 genes, as measured by mRNA-based quantitative polymerase chain reaction in both the donor cells and the HCT recipient cells, was studied relative to CMV reactivation. In the control samples from healthy donors, the median range for KIR2DS2 and KIR2DS4 expression was low, with 35% of donors considered null-expressers. Interestingly, KIR2DS2 and KIR2DS4 expression was elevated after HCT compared with donor expression before HCT, and was significantly elevated in CMV viremic compared with CMV nonviremic HCT recipients. The CMV seropositivity of donors was not associated with activating KIR expression, and donor null expression in those with the KIR2DS2 or KIR2DS4 genotype was not predictive for CMV reactivation in the recipient. After controlling for other transplant factors, including donor type (sibling or unrelated), transplant source (bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells), and acute GVHD grade, regression analysis of elevated KIR gene expression found an association for both KIR2DS2 and KIR2DS4, with a 7-fold increase in risk for CMV reactivation. We speculate that the elevated activating KIR expression in CMV-viremic HCT recipients is either coincidental with factors that activate CMV or is initiated by CMV or cellular processes responsive to such CMV infection reactivation

Mutation and immune profiling of metaplastic breast cancer: Correlation with survival.

The goal of this study is to characterize the genomic and immune profiles of metaplastic breast cancer (MpBC) and identify the association with survival through an analysis of archived tumor tissue. A next-generation sequencing-based mutational assay (Onco-48) was performed for 21 MpBC patients. Clinicopathologic characteristics were captured, including relapse free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for CD3, CD4, CD8, and programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) was also performed. Recurrence free survival (RFS) at 5 years was 57% (95% CI 0.34-0.75) and overall survival (OS) at 5 years was 66% (95% CI 0.41-0.82). The most commonly altered genes were TP53 (68.4%, 13/19), PIK3CA (42.1%, 8/19), and PTEN (15.8%, 3/19. For patients with PIK3CA mutations, RFS and OS were significantly worse than for those without (HR 5.6, 95% CI 1.33-23.1 and HR 8.0, 95% CI 1.53-41.7, respectively). Cox regression estimated that PD-L1 expression was associated with worse RFS and OS (HR 1.08, 95% CI 1.01-1.16 and HR 1.05, 95% CI 1.00-1.11, respectively, for an absolute increase in PD-L1 expression of 1%). In conclusion, PIK3CA mutation and PD-L1 expression confer poor prognosis in this cohort of patients with MpBC

Peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cell mobilization and collection efficacy is not an independent prognostic factor for autologous stem cell transplantation

BACKGROUND: The successful mobilization and collection of hematopoietic stem cells are dependent on a number of clinical factors such as previous chemotherapy and disease stage. The aim of this retrospective study was to determine whether the effectiveness of mobilization and collection is an independent prognostic factor for autologous stem cell transplantation outcome. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A total of 358 patients who received transplants from January 2003 to December 2004 (201 male and 157 female patients, ages from 2.7 to 77.3 years with median of 53 years of age) underwent autologous hematopoietic stem cell collection after mobilization with granulocyte-colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) or G-CSF plus chemotherapy priming. This retrospective study included patients with diagnoses of acute myelogenous leukemia, non-Hodgkin\u27s lymphoma, Hodgkin\u27s disease, multiple myeloma, and solid tumors. All patients underwent stem cell collection until a target or a minimum CD34+ cell dose was reached. Correlations were performed between stem cell mobilization and/or collection efficacy and transplantation outcomes. RESULTS: In general, both larger reinfused CD34+ cell dose and shorter number of days for the stem cell count to reach the minimum of 2 × 106 per kg CD34+ cells do not foster quicker engraftment. Reinfused CD34+ cell dose of less than 12 × 106 and number of days stem cell collection to reach this minimum CD34+ cell dose did not independently affect the overall survival (OS) or disease-free survival (DFS). CONCLUSION: The effectiveness of hematopoietic stem cell mobilization and collection as defined as number of days to reach a CD34+ cell dose of 2 × 106 per kg should not be used independently to forecast posttransplantation prognosis, engraftment, DFS, and OS. © 2007 American Association of Blood Banks