Drug resistance and minimal residual disease in multiple myeloma

Great progress has been made in improving survival in multiple myeloma (MM) patients over the last 30 years. New drugs have been introduced and complete responses are frequently seen. However, the majority of MM patients do experience a relapse at a variable time after treatment, and ultimately the disease becomes drug-resistant following therapies. Recently, minimal residual disease (MRD) detection has been introduced in clinical trials utilizing novel therapeutic agents to measure the depth of response. MRD can be considered as a surrogate for both progression-free and overall survival. In this perspective, the persistence of a residual therapy-resistant myeloma plasma cell clone can be associated with inferior survivals. The present review gives an overview of drug resistance in MM, i.e., mutation of β5 subunit of the proteasome; upregulation of pumps of efflux; heat shock protein induction for proteasome inhibitors; downregulation of CRBN expression; deregulation of IRF4 expression; mutation of CRBN, IKZF1, and IKZF3 for immunomodulatory drugs and decreased target expression; complement protein increase; sBCMA increase; and BCMA down expression for monoclonal antibodies. Multicolor flow cytometry, or next-generation flow, and next-generation sequencing are currently the techniques available to measure MRD with sensitivity at 10-5. Sustained MRD negativity is related to prolonged survival, and it is evaluated in all recent clinical trials as a surrogate of drug efficacy

PATHOGENETIC ASPECTS OF MYELODISPLASTIC SYNDROMES

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PATHOGENETIC ASPECTS OF MYELODISPLASTIC SYNDROMES

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SELECTIVE INFLUENCES IN THE B-CELL RECEPTOR IMMUNOGLOBULIN HEAVY AND LIGHT CHAIN IN HAIRY CELL LEUKEMIA

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SELECTIVE INFLUENCES IN THE B-CELL RECEPTOR IMMUNOGLOBULIN HEAVY AND LIGHT CHAIN IN HAIRY CELL LEUKEMIA

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Straight aortic endograft in abdominal aortic disease

Background: We describe our 8-year experience with the use of endovascular techniques (ET) for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) through a straight endograft. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed data of all patients who were treated for AAA using ET in two centres from 1998 to 2012 and who received a single straight endograft (group A) or a double straight tube (group B). Outcomes were analyzed to assess survival, absence of endoleak and absence of reintervention for both groups. Log-rank and Chi-Square were used as appropriate to make comparison between the two groups. P values <.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: Fifty-three patients from 1998 to May 2012 were treated for AAA using a straight endograft. In 28 cases (52.8%) a single aortic straight tube was used (Group A), while in the remaining cases a "double trombone technique" was used (Group B). Primary success was obtained in 52 cases (98.1%). In one patient of group A immediately after the operation we observed a type Ia endoleak, which was correct with a proximal aortic cuff. Fluoroscopy time, operation time, amount of intraprocedural contrast medium and blood loss were slightly higher for group B, even if not significantly. Mortality at 30 days was nil for both groups. Mean follow-up was 49 months (range 2-153 months). Five patients died in group A, four of them for a neoplastic disease and the remaining for aortic rupture. No patients died in group B. Endoleaks occurred more frequently in patients of group A (5 type I endoleaks and 1 type II endoleak from a lumbar artery). Reintervention were more frequent for patients of group A, being type I endoleak the main cause. A stent fracture was observed in a patient who received EVAR by "trombone technique" 3 months later. Reintervention was then necessary and a third stent was successfully placed to cover the lesion. Conclusions: In our experience the endovascular repair of AAA using straight aortic endografts was a safe and effective technique. Reintervention and endoleaks were slightly more frequent in patients who had received a single endograft compared to patients who were treated using the "trombone technique"

The polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) inhibitor NMS-P937 is effective in a new model of disseminated primary CD56+ acute monoblastic leukaemia

CD56 is expressed in 15–20% of acute myeloid leukaemias (AML) and is associated with extramedullary diffusion, multidrug resistance and poor prognosis. We describe the establishment and characterisation of a novel disseminated model of AML (AML-NS8), generated by injection into mice of leukaemic blasts freshly isolated from a patient with an aggressive CD56+ monoblastic AML (M5a). The model reproduced typical manifestations of this leukaemia, including presence of extramedullary masses and central nervous system involvement, and the original phenotype, karyotype and genotype of leukaemic cells were retained in vivo. Recently Polo-Like Kinase 1 (PLK1) has emerged as a new candidate drug target in AML. We therefore tested our PLK1 inhibitor NMS-P937 in this model either in the engraftment or in the established disease settings. Both schedules showed good efficacy compared to standard therapies, with a significant increase in median survival time (MST) expecially in the established disease setting (MST = 28, 36, 62 days for vehicle, cytarabine and NMS-P937, respectively). Importantly, we could also demonstrate that NMS-P937 induced specific biomarker modulation in extramedullary tissues. This new in vivo model of CD56+ AML that recapitulates the human tumour lends support for the therapeutic use of PLK1 inhibitors in AML

CD26/DPP-4 in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

CD26 expression is altered in many solid tumors and hematological malignancies. Recently, it has been demonstrated that it is a specific marker expressed on LSCs of CML, both in BM and PB samples, and absent on CD34+/CD38− stem cells in normal subjects or on LSCs of other myeloid neoplasms. CD26+ LSCs have been detected by flow-cytometry assays in all PB samples of Chronic-Phase CML patients evaluated at diagnosis. Additionally, it has been demonstrated that most CML patients undergoing Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs) treatment still harbored circulating measurable residual CD26+ LSCs, even when displaying a consistent deep molecular response without any significant association among the amounts of BCR-ABL transcript and CD26+ LSCs. Preliminary data of our Italian prospective multicenter study showed that CML patients with a poorer response presented with a higher number of CD26+ LSCs at diagnosis. These data confirmed that CD26 is a specific marker of CML and suggest that it could be considered for the monitoring of therapeutic responses

Absence of surface CD27 distinguishes hairy cell leukemia from other leukemic B-cell malignancies.

Surface expression of CD27 was evaluated in 75 mature leukemic B-cell neoplasms. All cases other than hairy cell leukemia (HCL) expressed CD27. Intensity was significantly higher in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Lack of CD27 in 17/17 HCL contrasted with expression of this marker in 5/5 splenic lymphomas with villous lymphocytes. Lack of CD27 is a new distinctive feature of HCL among B-cell malignancies