Surpassing the Line: Urban-Oriented Strategies in the Development of Business Complexes in Poland

Development trends regarding the business-related urban complexes seem to evolve from the "big-box" towards the more "multi-use" types of structures. Within it, the special role is reserved for places, which - due to economic, political, and geographical reasons - have not been previously considered as major business hubs. Only recently, places like cities in Central and Eastern Europe have become attractive locations for business complexes. These could offer centrally located and attractive locations for new structures, which resulted in the development of the new type of commercial centers - in the form of multi-use districts, walkable, and complemented by other uses. Therefore, to some extent, these cities "surpassed the development line" of the commercial and business complexes, and have become home to something much more advanced. Within the article, the cases from Poland, including Gdańsk, Warsaw, Cracow, and Wroclaw, are discussed. Not only is the urban arrangement of selected complexes presented, but the planning and socio-economic, legal, and infrastructural aspects of these developments are also discussed

Vaccination of hematopoietic cell transplantation adult recipients – guidelines of Infectious Diseases Working Group PALG

Infections are the most serious complications in patients undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Vaccinations occur to be undeniably one of the most important prophylactic strategies and are routinely recommended in the post-transplantation period. Their use reduces the incidence of infections and infection-related mortality. In this paper, we present the current guidelines for active immunization after HCT for the Polish patient population as worked out by the Polish Adult Leukemia Group (PALG). The guidelines include the recommended vaccines, the optional vaccines and vaccination with live pathogens. The management in specific situations such as graft versus host disease and for HCT recipients travelling to exotic countries is clarified. We also present the proposal for organization of the vaccination program in transplant centers. The improvement in realization of the vaccination protocol is one of the key aspects of post-transplantation care in Poland

Age-dependent determinants of infectious complications profile in children and adults after hematopoietic cell transplantation : lesson from the nationwide study

Incidence and outcome of microbiologically documented bacterial/viral infections and invasive fungal disease (IFD) in children and adults after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) were compared in 650 children and 3200 adults in multicenter cross-sectional nationwide study. Infections were diagnosed in 60.8% children and 35.0% adults, including respectively 69.1% and 63.5% allo-HCT, and 33.1% and 20.8% auto-HCT patients. The incidence of bacterial infections was higher in children (36.0% vs 27.6%; p  21 days were risk factors for death from infection. In conclusion, pediatric patients have 2.9-fold higher incidence and 2.5-fold better outcome of infections than adults after HCT

Hematopoietic stem cell mobilization with the reversible CXCR4 receptor inhibitor plerixafor (AMD3100)—Polish compassionate use experience

Recent developments in the field of targeted therapy have led to the discovery of a new drug, plerixafor, that is a specific inhibitor of the CXCR4 receptor. Plerixafor acts in concert with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) to increase the number of stem cells circulating in the peripheral blood (PB). Therefore, it has been applied in the field of hematopoietic stem cell mobilization. We analyzed retrospectively data regarding stem cell mobilization with plerixafor in a cohort of 61 patients suffering from multiple myeloma (N = 23), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (N = 20), or Hodgkin’s lymphoma (N = 18). At least one previous mobilization attempt had failed in 83.6% of these patients, whereas 16.4% were predicted to be poor mobilizers. The median number of CD34+ cells in the PB after the first administration of plerixafor was 22/μL (range of 0–121). In total, 85.2% of the patients proceeded to cell collection, and a median of two (range of 0–4) aphereses were performed. A minimum of 2.0 × 106 CD34+ cells per kilogram of the patient’s body weight (cells/kg b.w.) was collected from 65.6% of patients, and the median number of cells collected was 2.67 × 106 CD34+ cells/kg b.w. (0–8.0). Of the patients, 55.7% had already undergone autologous stem cell transplantation, and the median time to neutrophil and platelet reconstitution was 12 and 14 days, respectively. Cases of late graft failure were not observed. We identified the diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and previous radiotherapy as independent factors that contributed to failure of mobilization. The current report demonstrates the satisfactory efficacy of plerixafor plus G-CSF for stem cell mobilization in heavily pre-treated poor or predicted poor mobilizers

Autologous stem cell transplantation in lymphomas: current indications

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is an established curative treatment for a number of conditions including malignant hematologic diseases and non-malignant congenital and acquired disorders involving the hematopoietic system and some types of solid tumors, e.g. germ cell tumors and soft tissue sarcomas. Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin lymphomas can be treated and, in a large number of cases cured, by first-line chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Unlike many other malignancies, relapse is not uniformly fatal but the treatment is usually markedly myelotoxic with the high doses of chemotherapy (HDC) used in relapse. Hematopoietic reconstitution with either autologous marrow or peripheral stem cells post-chemotherapy has made HDC relatively safe, with mortality rates as low as 2% in some centers. The choice of conditiong regimen has traditionally been based on institutional experience, and several regimens are considered standard and routinely used for patients with all histologies of lymphoma. Each HDC regimen is associated with its own unique toxicities, based on the individual agents or modalities used. Novel targeted and immunotherapy approaches, including chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, are currently being studied in clinical trials with promising early results, so the role of autologous stem cell transplantation in the treatment of lymphomas could be changed. The current clinical indications for HDC followed by autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in lymphomas management for patients with a bad prognosis (as a consolidation therapy) or relapsed/refractory disease are reviewed in this paper