Mutational Profile and Dynamics of PPM1D -Mutant Clones in the Spectrum of Myeloid Disorders

International audienceIntroduction Mutations in PPM1D a regulator of DNA damage response, are enriched in patients with clonal hematopoiesis (CH) exposed to cytotoxic treatment or with therapy-related myeloid neoplasm. However, their role in leukemic transformation is unclear. Here, we describe a large cohort of patients with PPM1D mutations from CH to acute myeloid leukemia (AML) to understand the molecular landscape of mutant PPM1D related disease and the longitudinal dynamics of CH under treatment. Methods We included, in a non-sequential cohort, 96 PPM1D mutated patients treated at Gustave Roussy with CH, clonal cytopenia of unknown significance (CCUS), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) or AML. A 77 gene panel NGS analysis was performed. An additional 16 PPM1D mutated AML patients from ALFA trials (1200, 0701,0702) were included. 10 patients with ovarian cancer from this cohort had sequential blood samples (OvBIOMark trial) available prior to hematologic evaluation, from the diagnosis or first relapse of their cancer through the course of therapy. Those samples were analyzed with a UMI based 18 gene panel (HaloplexHS, Agilent). Overall survival (OS) analyses were performed with the Kaplan-Meier method from the time of diagnosis until death from any cause. Results Among the 112 patients with PPM1D mutations, 23 (21%) had CH, 36 (32%) CCUS, 19 (17%) MDS, 25 (22%) AML (including 4 relapses), and 9 (8%) MPN. Median age was 65 [range, 21-88] years with 67% of females. Only 18% of the patients had no previous cancer history. Most frequent primary cancers were gynecological cancer (27%), lymphoid malignancies (22%), and breast cancer (17%). Median time between primary cancer diagnosis and hematologic assessment was 5.3 [range, 1.2-8.5] years. Eighty six percent of patients had one PPM1D mutation, 9% had 2, and 5% had 3 or more (restricted to CH and CCUS). Median variant allele frequency (VAF) was 3% [0.2-38], 3% [1-31], 2.4% [1-41], 23% [1-50], and 4% [1-42] in CH, CCUS, MDS, AML and MPN, respectively. Among CH/CCUS patients, PPM1D was the sole detected somatic mutation in 39% (23/59), compared to 9% (5/53) in MDS/AML/MPN patients (odds ratio=6, p=0.0004); 3/5 of the latter had complex karyotype. The most frequently co-mutated genes were DNMT3A (29%) and TP53 (25%), uniformly across all conditions ( Fig 1A). MDS-related gene mutations, RUNX1 (7%), ASXL1 (4%), SF3B1 (4%), SRSF2 (4%), U2AF1 (4%), were specific to AML/MDS/MPN. Among 28 patients with both PPM1D and TP53 mutations, PPM1D mutations were dominant or co-dominant in 64% (18/28), and secondary in 36% (10/28). IPSS-M risk of evaluable MDS was high/very high in 54% (7/13) of patients. ELN 2022 classification of AML was adverse in 68% (17/25) of patients. AML treatment options included best supportive care for 8% of patients (2), 5-Azacytidine for 32% (8), intensive chemotherapy for 60% (15). With a median follow up of 2.4 years, the median OS was 4.6 (CI95%; 4.1-NA), 1.31 (CI95%; 0.53-NA), 1.27 (0.43-NA), 0.66 (CI95%; 0.42-1.26) and 20.4 (CI95%; 20.4-NA) years for CH, CCUS, MDS, AML and MPN, respectively. TP53 mutation status did not stratify OS. Four ovarian cancer patients with CH/CCUS transformed to MDS/AML with a median of 5.3 [1-12] years. At transformation, 3/4 had a stable PPM1D mutation, 1/4 an increase in PPM1D VAF (2 to 28%), and 3/4 had TP53 mutations before and at transformation. We analyzed 67 timepoints from 10 ovarian cancer patients during therapy (median 7 per patient). 10/10 received alkylating agents and 5/10 PARPi. The median number of mutations per patient was 4 and 6 at baseline and last follow-up, respectively. PPM1D-mutated clone size increased from 0.4% [0.1-3] at baseline to 7% [2-30] at last follow-up. Beyond clonal expansion, PPM1D VAF dynamics showed non-linear changes related to alkylating agents exposure: 2/10 patients had a continuous expansion, 2/10 had expansion then contraction (GR-1/3, Fig 1B), and 6/10 had expansion then stabilization (GR-2, Fig 1B). Conclusion We described a large cohort of PPM1D mutated patients from CH to AML. Their prognosis was poor independently of TP53 mutation at AML/MDS stage. PPM1D mutations were frequently part of the dominant clone. To confirm the clonal architecture, single cell sequencing analysis in 8 AML/MDS patients are ongoing. Trajectory of PPM1D mutations in ovarian cancer patients revealed a non-linear alkylating agent dependency which warrants further investigation

French National Retrospective Cohort of Hairy-Cell Leukemias: Risk of Second Malignancies after 10 Years of Follow-up

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Gilteritinib activity in refractory or relapsed FLT3-mutated acute myeloid leukemia patients previously treated by intensive chemotherapy and midostaurin: a study from the French AML Intergroup ALFA/FILO

The real-world efficacy and safety of gilteritinib was assessed in an ambispective study that included 167 R/R FLT3-mutated AML patients. Among them, 140 received gilteritinib as single agent (cohort B), including 67 previously treated by intensive chemotherapy and midostaurin (cohort C). The main differences in patient characteristics in this study compared to the ADMIRAL trial were ECOG ≥ 2 (83.6% vs. 16.6%), FLT3-TKD mutation (21.0% vs. 8.5%), primary induction failure (15.0% vs. 40.0%) and line of treatment (beyond 2nd in 37.1% vs. 0.0%). The rates of composite complete remission, excluding those that occurred after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), were similar at respectively 25.4% and 27.5% in cohorts B and C. Median overall survival (OS) for these two groups was also similar at respectively 6.4 and 7.8 months. Multivariate analyses for prognostic factors associated with OS identified female gender (HR 1.61), adverse cytogenetic risk (HR 2.52), and allogenic HSCT after gilteritinib (HR 0.13). Although these patients were more heavily pretreated, these real-world data reproduce the results of ADMIRAL and provide new insights into the course of patients previously treated by intensive chemotherapy and midostaurin and beyond the 2nd line of treatment who can benefit from treatment in an outpatient setting

Characteristics and outcome of patients with low-/intermediate-risk acute promyelocytic leukemia treated with arsenic trioxide: an international collaborative study

The aim of this study was to characterize a large series of 154 patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (median age, 53 years; range, 18-90 years) and evaluate real-life outcome after up-front treatment with arsenic trioxide and all-trans retinoic acid. All patients were included in the prospective NAPOLEON registry (NCT02192619) between 2013 and 2019. The acute promyelocytic leukemia was de novo in 91% (n=140) and therapy-related in 9% (n=14); 13% (n=20) of the patients were older than 70 years. At diagnosis bleeding/hemorrhage was present in 38% and thrombosis in 3%. Complete remission was achieved in 152 patients (99%), whereas two patients (1%) experienced induction death within 18 days after starting therapy. With a median follow-up of 1.99 years (95% confidence interval: 1.61-2.30 years) 1-year and 2-year overall survival rates were 97% (95% confidence interval: 94-100%) and 95% (95% confidence interval: 91-99%), respectively. Age above 70 years was associated with a significantly shorter overall survival (P<0.001) compared to that of younger patients. So far no relapses have been observed. Six patients (4%) died in complete remission at a median of 0.95 years after diagnosis (range, 0.18-2.38 years). Our data confirm the efficiency and durability of arsenic trioxide and all-trans retinoic acid therapy in the primary management of adults with low-/intermediate-risk acute promyelocytic leukemia in the real-life setting, irrespective of age

Characteristics and outcome of patients with low-/intermediate-risk acute promyelocytic leukemia treated with arsenic trioxide - an international collaborative study

International audienceThe aim of this study was to characterize a large series of 154 patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL; median age, 53 years; range, 18-90 years) and evaluate real-life outcome after up-front treatment with arsenic trioxide (ATO) and alltrans retinoic acid (ATRA). All patients were included in the prospective NAPOLEON registry (NCT02192619) between 2013 and 2019. APL was de novo in 91% (n=140) and therapy-related in 9% (n=14); 13% (n=20) were older than 70 years. At diagnosis bleeding/hemorrhage was present in 38% and thrombosis in 3%. Complete remission was achieved in 152 patients (99%), whereas two patients (1%) experienced induction death within 18 days after start of therapy. With a median follow-up of 1.99 years (95%-CI, 1.61-2.30 years) 1-year and 2-years overall survival (OS) rates were 97% (95%-CI, 94-100%) and 95% (95%-CI, 91-99%), respectively. Age above 70 years was associated with a significantly shorter OS (P<0.001) as compared to younger patients. So far no relapses were observed. Six patients (4%) died in CR after in median 0.95 years after diagnosis (range, 0.18-2.38 years). Our data confirm the efficiency and durability of ATO/ATRA in the primary management of adult low-/ intermediate-risk APL patients in the real life setting, irrespective of age

Low incidence of SARS-CoV-2, risk factors of mortality and the course of illness in the French national cohort of dialysis patients

International audienceThe aim of this study was to estimate the incidence of COVID-19 disease in the French national population of dialysis patients, their course of illness and to identify the risk factors associated with mortality. Our study included all patients on dialysis recorded in the French REIN Registry in April 2020. Clinical characteristics at last follow-up and the evolution of COVID-19 illness severity over time were recorded for diagnosed cases (either suspicious clinical symptoms, characteristic signs on the chest scan or a positive reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) for SARS-CoV-2. A total of 1,621 infected patients were reported on the REIN registry from March 16th, 2020 to May 4th, 2020. Of these, 344 died. The prevalence of COVID-19 patients varied from less than 1% to 10% between regions. The probability of being a case was higher in males, patients with diabetes, those in need of assistance for transfer or treated at a self-care unit. Dialysis at home was associated with a lower probability of being infected as was being a smoker, a former smoker, having an active malignancy, or peripheral vascular disease. Mortality in diagnosed cases (21%) was associated with the same causes as in the general population. Higher age, hypoalbuminemia and the presence of an ischemic heart disease were statistically independently associated with a higher risk of death. Being treated at a selfcare unit was associated with a lower risk. Thus, our study showed a relatively low frequency of COVID-19 among dialysis patients contrary to what might have been assumed