The cell biology content in the Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio - ENEM

The Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio (ENEM) has become extremely important to evaluate high school graduates. This is because it is used to select students for college and it evaluates their skills and competencies acquired in high school. We analyzed the formulation of questions, as well as the skills assessed in this exam. We observed that, out of the sample of 900 questions of several subjects, 35 included cell biology content. Some questions were associated with other high school subjects or could require a stronger content specific memorization. However, most questions emphasized problem solving associated with biological phenomena. This type of emphasis on problem solving questions is not recurrent in most high schools, as students are usually encouraged to memorize extensive content.O Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio vem se tornando um exame de extrema importância para avaliar os egressos do ensino médio. Isso porque ele seleciona estudantes para o ensino superior e contempla, em sua fundamentação a elaboração de competências e habilidades relacionadas a esse nível de ensino. O nosso estudo analisou a forma das questões exigidas pelo ENEM, bem como as habilidades avaliadas neste exame. De um total de 900 questões de diversas disciplinas, observamos 35 que continham algum conteúdo de biologia celular. Algumas dessas perguntas estavam associadas a diferentes disciplinas do ensino médio ou podiam exigir uma forte memorização de conteúdos específicos. Também foram encontradas questões que enfatizavam a resolução de problemas contextualizados, relacionados a fenômenos biológicos, mitigando, desse modo, o enfoque conteudista ou de conteúdo primado na aprendizagem no ensino médio.59161

Treatment for patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma: European-based recommendations

Patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) usually respond to initial combination chemotherapy, but the disease inevitably relapses and often follows an aggressive course. Here, clinical study results published since 2008 for patients with relapsed/refractory MCL were reviewed to compare available evidence for treatment guidance. Most trials identified were non-randomized, phase II studies performed at a limited number of sites, and many evaluated MCL as one of multiple non-Hodgkin lymphoma subtypes. Additional randomized, comparative trials are needed. Treatment selection generally depends on patient need, age and fitness, time of relapse, and line of therapy. Combination regimens typically produce higher response rates than single agents, and adding rituximab generally improves outcomes. The inclusion of ibrutinib, lenalidomide, temsirolimus, and bortezomib, represents an important advance for patients ineligible for, unable to tolerate, or failing high-intensity combination chemotherapy. A high need for effective treatments in relapsed/refractory MCL remains, particularly for elderly and frail patients

Clofarabine and Treosulfan as Conditioning for Matched Related and Unrelated Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: Results from the Clo3o Phase II Trial

ABSTRACT Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) can be curative for patients with hematologic malignancies. The ideal conditioning regimen before allo-HSCT has not been established. We conducted a Phase II study to evaluate the tolerability and efficacy of clofarabine and treosulfan as conditioning regimen before allo-HSCT. The primary objective was to evaluate the cumulative incidence of nonrelapse mortality (NRM) on day +100. Forty-four patients (36 with acute myelogenous leukemia, 5 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 3 with myelodysplastic syndromes) were enrolled. The median patient age was 47 years, and the median duration of follow-up was 27 months. The conditioning regimen was based on clofarabine 40 mg/m2 (days -6 to -2) and treosulfan 14 g/m2 (days -6 to -4). Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells were derived from a sibling (n = 22) or a well-matched unrelated donor (n = 22). Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis consisted of antithymocyte globulin, rituximab, cyclosporine, and a short-course of methotrexate. The regimen allowed for rapid engraftment and a 100-day NRM of 18%, due mainly to bacterial infections. The incidences of grade II-IV acute GVHD and chronic GVHD were 16% and 19%, respectively. The rates of overall survival (OS), progression-free survival, and relapse at 2 years were 51%, 31%, and 50%, respectively. Significantly different outcomes were observed between patients with low-intermediate and patients with high-very high Disease Risk Index (DRI) scores (1-year OS, 78% and 24%, respectively). Our findings show that the use of treosulfan and clofarabine as a conditioning regimen for allo-HSCT is feasible, with a 78% 1-year OS in patients with a low-intermediate DRI score. However, 1-year NRM was 18%, and despite the intensified conditioning regimen, relapse incidence remains a major issue in patients with poor prognostic risk factors

Applying Data Warehousing to a Phase III Clinical Trial From the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi Ensures Superior Data Quality and Improved Assessment of Clinical Outcomes

Data collection in clinical trials is becoming complex, with a huge number of variables that need to be recorded, verified, and analyzed to effectively measure clinical outcomes. In this study, we used data warehouse (DW) concepts to achieve this goal. A DW was developed to accommodate data from a large clinical trial, including all the characteristics collected. We present the results related to baseline variables with the following objectives: developing a data quality (DQ) control strategy and improving outcome analysis according to the clinical trial primary end points

A B-cell receptor-related gene signature predicts survival in mantle cell lymphoma: Results from the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi MCL-0208 trial

Mantle cell lymphoma patients have variable clinical courses, ranging from indolent cases that do not require immediate treatment to aggressive, rapidly progressing diseases. Thus, diagnostic tools capable of stratifying patients according to their risk of relapse and death are needed. This study included 83 samples from the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi MCL-0208 clinical trial. Through gene expression profiling and quantitative real-time PCR we analyzed 46 peripheral blood and 43 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded lymph node samples. A prediction model to classify patients was developed. By analyzing the transcriptome of 27 peripheral blood samples, two subgroups characterized by a differential expression of genes from the B-cell receptor pathway (B-cell receptor low and B-cell receptor high ) were identified. The prediction model based on the quantitative real-time PCR values of six representative genes (AKT3, BCL2, BTK, CD79B, PIK3CD, and SYK), was used to classify the 83 cases (43 B-cell receptor low and 40 B-cell receptor high ). The B-cell receptor high signature associated with shorter progression-free survival (P=0.0074), selected the mantle cell lymphoma subgroup with the shortest progression-free survival and overall survival (P=0.0014 and P=0.029, respectively) in combination with high ( extgreater30%) Ki-67 staining, and was an independent predictor of short progression-free survival along with the Mantle Cell Lymphoma International Prognostic Index-combined score. Moreover, the clinical impact of the 6-gene signature related to the B-cell receptor pathway identified a mantle cell lymphoma subset with shorter progression-free survival intervals also in an external independent mantle cell lymphoma cohort homoge-nously treated with different schedules. In conclusion, this 6-gene signature associates with a poor clinical response in the context of the MCL-0208 clinical trial. (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: 02354313)

Treatment of Graft versus Host Disease with Mesenchymal Stromal Cells: A Phase I Study on 40 Adult and Pediatric Patients

Abstract This phase I multicenter study was aimed at assessing the feasibility and safety of intravenous administration of third party bone marrow–derived mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) expanded in platelet lysate in 40 patients (15 children and 25 adults), experiencing steroid-resistant grade II to IV graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Patients received a median of 3 MSC infusions after having failed conventional immunosuppressive therapy. A median cell dose of 1.5 × 10 6 /kg per infusion was administered. No acute toxicity was reported. Overall, 86 adverse events and serious adverse events were reported in the study, most of which (72.1%) were of infectious nature. Overall response rate, measured at 28 days after the last MSC injection, was 67.5%, with 27.5% complete response. The latter was significantly more frequent in patients exhibiting grade II GVHD as compared with higher grades (61.5% versus 11.1%, P = .002) and was borderline significant in children as compared with adults (46.7 versus 16.0%, P = .065). Overall survival at 1 and 2 years from the first MSC administration was 50.0% and 38.6%, with a median survival time of 1.1 years. In conclusion, MSC can be safely administered on top of conventional immunosuppression for steroid resistant GVHD treatment. Eudract Number 2008-007869-23, NCT01764100

Punctual and kinetic MRD analysis from the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi MCL0208 phase III trial in mantle cell lymphoma

Minimal residual disease (MRD) analysis is a known predictive tool in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). We describe MRD results from the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi phase III MCL0208 prospective clinical trial assessing lenalidomide maintenance vs observation after autologous transplantation (ASCT), in the first prospective comprehensive analysis of different techniques, molecular markers, and tissues (peripheral blood, PB, and bone marrow, BM), taken at well-defined timepoints. Among the 300 patients enrolled, a molecular marker was identified in 250 (83%), allowing us to analyze 234 patients and 4351 analytical findings from 10 timepoints. ASCT induced high rates of molecular remission (91% in PB and 83% in BM, by quantitative real-time PCR [RQ-PCR]). Nevertheless, the number of patients with persistent clinical and molecular remission decreased over time in both arms (up to 30% after 36 months). MRD predicted early progression and long-term outcome, particularly from 6 months after ASCT (6-month TTP HR 3.83, p<0.001). In single-timepoint analysis, BM outperformed PB, and RQ-PCR was more reliable, while nested PCR appeared applicable to a larger number of patients (234 vs 176). To improve MRD performance we developed a time-varying kinetic model, based on regularly updated MRD results and the Mantle Cell Lymphoma International Prognostic Index, showing an area under the ROC curve (AUROC) of up to 0.87 using BM. Most notably, PB reached an AUROC of up to 0.81: with kinetic analysis it was comparable to BM in performance. MRD is a powerful predictor over the entire natural history of MCL and suitable for models with continuous adaptation of patient risk. Study can be found in EudraCT N. 2009-012807-25 https://eudract.ema.europa.eu/