Planning and scheduling for the Large Hadron Collider Project

This report gives the procedure which must be used for the Planning and Scheduling activities of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Project, including the software tools, and which applies to all phases of the Project, from prototyping to commissioning. The contents of this report has been approved by the LHC Project Leader and is published in the form of a Project Report in order to allow immediate implementation. It will be incorporated later in the Quality Assurance Plan of the LHC Project which is under preparation

Phase III Clinical Trials in First-Line Follicular Lymphoma: A Review of Their Design and Interpretation

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is one of the most common subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma worldwide. Improved survival outcomes with rituximab-based therapy in clinical trials led to the establishment of rituximab-based immunochemotherapy as standard of care for first-line (1L) treatment of FL. In the GALLIUM trial, obinutuzumab-based immunochemotherapy demonstrated improved progression-free survival (PFS), prolonged time-to-next antilymphoma treatment (TTNT) and comparable overall survival (OS) compared with rituximab-based immunochemotherapy as 1L treatment for FL. Using GALLIUM as an example, this article aims to explain how improved outcomes in 1L treatment of FL have changed the landscape for the design and interpretation of future trials. As approved therapies for 1L FL already achieve good responses, it is becoming more difficult to design trials that demonstrate further treatment benefits with the currently accepted primary endpoints. New endpoints are needed to reflect the long remission times, low relapse rates, and impact of subsequent therapies in FL. PFS is used as a primary efficacy endpoint in registrational clinical trials for indolent malignancies like FL, where improvement in OS is not always observed due to the large number of patients and long study duration required to demonstrate a clear survival benefit. However, there are limitations to using PFS as the primary endpoint. Other potential endpoints, including TTNT, progression of disease within 2 years, response rate, and minimal residual disease status are explored

Controversies in the Treatment of Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma.

Peripheral T-cell lymphomas are a heterogeneous group of rare diseases with an aggressive behavior and dismal prognosis. Their classification is complex and still evolving, and several biomolecular markers now help refine the prognosis of specific disease entities, although still have limited impact in tailoring the treatment. First-line treatment strategies can cure only a minority of patients and relapsed-refractory disease still represents the major cause of failure. Frontline autologous transplantation may have an impact in the consolidation of response; however, its role is still questioned as far as complete responses obtained after induction chemotherapy are concerned. Newer drugs are now being evaluated in clinical trials, but effective salvage strategies for those who experience treatment failures are lacking. Here we review and discuss the most controversial aspects of diagnosis and treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphomas

Closely related viruses of the marine picoeukaryotic alga Ostreococcus lucimarinus exhibit different ecological strategies

In marine ecosystems, viruses are major disrupters of the direct flow of carbon and nutrients to higher trophic levels. Although the genetic diversity of several eukaryotic phytoplankton virus groups has been characterized, their infection dynamics are less understood, such that the physiological and ecological implications of their diversity remain unclear. We compared genomes and infection phenotypes of the two most closely related cultured phycodnaviruses infecting the widespread picoprasinophyte Ostreococcus lucimarinus under standard- (1.3 divisions per day) and limited-light (0.41 divisions per day) nutrient replete conditions. OlV7 infection caused early arrest of the host cell cycle, coinciding with a significantly higher proportion of infected cells than OlV1-amended treatments, regardless of host growth rate. OlV7 treatments showed a near-50-fold increase of progeny virions at the higher host growth rate, contrasting with OlV1's 16-fold increase. However, production of OlV7 virions was more sensitive than OlV1 production to reduced host growth rate, suggesting fitness trade-offs between infection efficiency and resilience to host physiology. Moreover, although organic matter released from OlV1- and OlV7-infected hosts had broadly similar chemical composition, some distinct molecular signatures were observed. Collectively, these results suggest that current views on viral relatedness through marker and core gene analyses underplay operational divergence and consequences for host ecology

Rituximab in B-Cell Hematologic Malignancies: A Review of 20 Years of Clinical Experience

Rituximab is a human/murine, chimeric anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody with established efficacy, and a favorable and well-defined safety profile in patients with various CD20-expressing lymphoid malignancies, including indolent and aggressive forms of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Since its first approval 20 years ago, intravenously administered rituximab has revolutionized the treatment of B-cell malignancies and has become a standard component of care for follicular lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and mantle cell lymphoma. For all of these diseases, clinical trials have demonstrated that rituximab not only prolongs the time to disease progression but also extends overall survival. Efficacy benefits have also been shown in patients with marginal zone lymphoma and in more aggressive diseases such as Burkitt lymphoma. Although the proven clinical efficacy and success of rituximab has led to the development of other anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies in recent years (e.g., obinutuzumab, ofatumumab, veltuzumab, and ocrelizumab), rituximab is likely to maintain a position within the therapeutic armamentarium because it is well established with a long history of successful clinical use. Furthermore, a subcutaneous formulation of the drug has been approved both in the EU and in the USA for the treatment of B-cell malignancies. Using the wealth of data published on rituximab during the last two decades, we review the preclinical development of rituximab and the clinical experience gained in the treatment of hematologic B-cell malignancies, with a focus on the well-established intravenous route of administration. This article is a companion paper to A. Davies, et al., which is also published in this issue

Chronic T cell receptor stimulation unmasks NK receptor signaling in peripheral T cell lymphomas via epigenetic reprogramming.

Peripheral T cell lymphomas (PTCLs) represent a significant unmet medical need with dismal clinical outcomes. The T cell receptor (TCR) is emerging as a key driver of T lymphocyte transformation. However, the role of chronic TCR activation in lymphomagenesis and in lymphoma cell survival is still poorly understood. Using a mouse model, we report that chronic TCR stimulation drove T cell lymphomagenesis, whereas TCR signaling did not contribute to PTCL survival. The combination of kinome, transcriptome, and epigenome analyses of mouse PTCLs revealed a NK cell-like reprogramming of PTCL cells with expression of NK receptors (NKRs) and downstream signaling molecules such as Tyrobp and SYK. Activating NKRs were functional in PTCLs and dependent on SYK activity. In vivo blockade of NKR signaling prolonged mouse survival, demonstrating the addiction of PTCLs to NKRs and downstream SYK/mTOR activity for their survival. We studied a large collection of human primary samples and identified several PTCLs recapitulating the phenotype described in this model by their expression of SYK and the NKR, suggesting a similar mechanism of lymphomagenesis and establishing a rationale for clinical studies targeting such molecules

Integrative analysis of a phase 2 trial combining lenalidomide with CHOP in angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.

Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) is a frequent T-cell lymphoma in the elderly population that has a poor prognosis when treated with cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) therapy. Lenalidomide, which has been safely combined with CHOP to treat B-cell lymphoma, has shown efficacy as a single agent in AITL treatment. We performed a multicentric phase 2 trial combining 25 mg lenalidomide daily for 14 days per cycle with 8 cycles of CHOP21 in previously untreated AITL patients aged 60 to 80 years. The primary objective was the complete metabolic response (CMR) rate at the end of treatment. Seventy-eight of the 80 patients enrolled were included in the efficacy and safety analysis. CMR was achieved in 32 (41%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 30%-52.7%) patients, which was below the prespecified CMR rate of 55% defined as success in the study. The 2-year progression-free survival (PFS) was 42.1% (95% CI, 30.9%-52.8%), and the 2-year overall survival was 59.2% (95% CI, 47.3%-69.3%). The most common toxicities were hematologic and led to treatment discontinuation in 15% of patients. This large prospective and uniform series of AITL treatment data was used to perform an integrative analysis of clinical, pathologic, biologic, and molecular data. TET2, RHOA, DNMT3A, and IDH2 mutations were present in 78%, 54%, 32%, and 22% of patients, respectively. IDH2 mutations were associated with distinct pathologic and clinical features and DNMT3A was associated with shorter PFS. In conclusion, the combination of lenalidomide and CHOP did not improve the CMR in AITL patients. This trial clarified the clinical impact of recurrent mutations in AITL. This trial was registered at www.clincialtrials.gov as #NCT01553786

Monomorphic epitheliotropic intestinal T-cell lymphoma comprises morphologic and genomic heterogeneity impacting outcome.

Monomorphic epitheliotropic intestinal T-cell lymphoma (MEITL) is a rare aggressive T-cell lymphoma most reported in Asia. We performed a comprehensive clinical, pathological and genomic study of 71 European MEITL patients (36 males; 35 females, median age 67 years). The majority presented with gastrointestinal involvement and had emergency surgery, and 40% had stage IV disease. The tumors were morphologically classified into two groups: typical (58%) and atypical (i.e. nonmonomorphic or with necrosis, angiotropism or starry-sky pattern) (42%), sharing a homogeneous immunophenotypic profile (CD3+ (98%) CD4- (94%) CD5- (97%) CD7+ (97%) CD8+ (90%) CD56+ (86%) CD103+ (80%) cytotoxic marker+ (98%)) with more frequent expression of TCRgd (50%) than TCRab (32%). MYC expression (30% of cases) partly reflecting MYC gene locus alterations, correlated with nonmonomorphic cytology. Almost all cases (97%) harbored deleterious mutation(s) and/or deletion of the SETD2 gene and 90% had defective H3K36 trimethylation. Other frequently mutated genes were STAT5B (57%), JAK3 (50%), TP53 (35%) JAK1 (12.5%), BCOR and ATM (11%). Both TP53 mutations and MYC expression correlated with atypical morphology. The median overall survival (OS) of 63 patients (43/63 only received chemotherapy after initial surgery) was 7.8 months. Multivariate analysis found a strong negative impact on outcome of MYC expression, TP53 mutation, STAT5B mutation and poor performance status while aberrant B-cell marker expression (20% of cases) correlated with better survival. In conclusion, MEITL is an aggressive disease with resistance to conventional therapy, predominantly characterized by driver gene alterations deregulating histone methylation and JAK/STAT signalling and encompasses genetic and morphologic variants associated with very high clinical risk

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011