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J Clin Oncol 2019 Feb 22:JCO1900143. Epub 2019 Feb 22.

1 Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI.

Expert Rev Hematol 2019 Feb 22. Epub 2019 Feb 22.

a Division of Medical Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine , University of Washington School of Medicine , Seattle , WA , USA.

Introduction: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy has demonstrated remarkable anti-tumor activity in B-cell malignancies and is under investigation in other hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. While highly efficacious, post-infusion T cell activity often results in massive cytokine release precipitating cytokine release syndrome (CRS), the signature toxicity of CAR T cells. This toxicity is characterized by systemic immune activation resulting in fever, hypotension, respiratory insufficiency and capillary leak. Read More

Hematol Transfus Cell Ther 2019 Jan-Mar;41(1):57-61. Epub 2018 Jul 27.

Facultad de Medicina y Hospital Universitario, Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, Monterrey, Mexico.

Background: Heterogeneity regarding clinical and laboratory findings at diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia exists. The frequency of complete blood count abnormalities and its combinations, symptoms and physical findings were investigated in Hispanic children from an open population at the diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Methods: The patient charts and electronic records of under 16-year-old children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia over 10 years at a regional hematology center of a university hospital were analyzed to retrieve data concerning the complete blood count at first evaluation. Read More

Interv Med Appl Sci 2018 Dec;10(4):216-221

Department of Pathology, Sumy State University, Sumy, Ukraine.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in pregnant women is rare experience, but it can complicate the gestation by increasing the risk of miscarriage and premature birth. However, the adequate carrying of the pregnancy is possible for women who suffered from leukemia in childhood and achieved the remission during the treatment. Furthermore, there are some facts about the possibility of immunosuppression in children whose parents suffer from various immunodeficiency disorders, including ALL. Read More

BMC Neurol 2019 Feb 21;19(1):30. Epub 2019 Feb 21.

Department of Pediatrics, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, People's Republic of China.

Background: Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is a complication that occurs during various diseases' treatment. Imaging examination is the gold standard for diagnosis. PRES frequently occurrence in patients with hematological malignancies results in poorer prognosis and higher mortality. Read More

J Leukoc Biol 2019 Feb 21. Epub 2019 Feb 21.

Unidad de Investigación Médica en Enfermedades Oncológicas, UMAE Hospital Oncología, Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City, Mexico.

Due to their increasing rates of morbidity and mortality, childhood malignancies are considered a global health priority, with acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALLs) showing the highest incidence worldwide. Control of malignant clone emergence and the subsequent normal-leukemic hematopoietic cell out-competition require antitumor monitoring mechanisms. Investigation of cancer surveillance innate cells may be critical to understand the mechanisms contributing in either disease progression or relapse, and to promote displacement of leukemic hematopoiesis by the normal counterpart. Read More

Stem Cells Transl Med 2019 Feb 21. Epub 2019 Feb 21.

Department Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, Texas, USA.

Pluripotent and tissue-specific stem cells, such as blood-forming stem cells, are maintained through a balance of quiescence, self-renewal, and differentiation. Self-renewal is a specialized cell division that generates daughter cells with the same features as the parental stem cell. Although many factors are involved in the regulation of self-renewal, perhaps the most well-known factors are members of the Krüppel-like factor (KLF) family, especially KLF4, because of the landmark discovery that this protein is required to reprogram somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. Read More

Bioimpacts 2019 13;9(1):15-23. Epub 2018 Sep 13.

Biotechnology Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

The bacterial enzyme has gained more attention in therapeutic application because of the higher substrate specificity and longer half-life. L-asparaginase is an important enzyme with known antineoplastic effect against acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Novel L-asparaginase genes were identified from a locally isolated halo-thermotolerant strain and the recombinant enzymes were overexpressed in modified strains, Origami B and BL21. Read More

Front Immunol 2019 6;10:156. Epub 2019 Feb 6.

Department of Molecular Biomedicine, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain.

The trafficking of neoplastic cells represents a key process that contributes to progression of hematologic malignancies. Diapedesis of neoplastic cells across endothelium and perivascular cells is facilitated by adhesion molecules and chemokines, which act in concert to tightly regulate directional motility. Intravital microscopy provides spatio-temporal views of neoplastic cell trafficking, and is crucial for testing and developing therapies against hematologic cancers. Read More

BMJ Open 2019 Feb 20;9(2):e022839. Epub 2019 Feb 20.

School Of Nursing, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Objectives: The primary objective was to assess the utility of the number needed to treat (NNT) to inform decision-making in the context of paediatric oncology and to calculate the NNT in all superiority, parallel, paediatric haematological cancer, randomised controlled trials (RCTs), with a comparison to the threshold NNT as a measure of clinical significance.

Design: Systematic review DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cochrane Childhood Cancer Group Specialized Register through CENTRAL from inception to August 2018.

Eligibility Criteria For Selecting Studies: Superiority, parallel RCTs of haematological malignancy treatments in paediatric patients that assessed an outcome related to survival, relapse or remission; reported a sample size calculation with a delta value to allow for calculation of the threshold NNT, and that included parameters required to calculate the NNT and associated CI. Read More

J Pediatr Nurs 2019 Feb 17. Epub 2019 Feb 17.

Faculty of Health, Science and Technology, Institution for Health, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden; University Health Care Research Center, School of Health and Medical Sciences, Örebro University, Örebro, Sweden. Electronic address:

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe the fears of 5- to 9-year-old children related to having acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and their strategies for coping with those fears.

Design And Methods: The study had a qualitative descriptive longitudinal design and included a total of 35 interviews with 13 children at three different times during their treatment period. Data were analyzed using a matrix-based method inspired by the work of Miles et al. Read More

Pediatr Endocrinol Diabetes Metab 2018 ;2018(3):136-139

Steroid-induced diabetes is a rare disease in the paediatric population. High doses of corticosteroids are used in diseases such as acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), lymphomas, or connective tissue diseases. Post-steroid hyperglycaemia arises as a result of increased gluconeogenesis and increased glycogen synthesis. Read More

Acta Paediatr 2019 Feb 20. Epub 2019 Feb 20.

Department of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology, Oslo University Hospital, Norway.

Children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia face increased risks of thromboembolism, and major risk factors for this serious treatment-related toxicity are central venous lines, asparaginase and steroids. Central venous lines have become standard care in paediatric oncology, facilitating therapy and improving patients' quality of life. However, up to half of the children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia will develop asymptomatic central venous line-related thromboembolism. Read More

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2019 Feb 20;7(2):e13159. Epub 2019 Feb 20.

School of Nursing, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/mhealth.9981. Read More

Leuk Res 2019 Jan 24;79:6-16. Epub 2019 Jan 24.

Department of Laboratory Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, People's Republic of China. Electronic address:

The BCR-ABL fusion gene (BCR-ABL) has different subtypes such as p210 and p190 with p190 appear to lead to a worse prognosis. To explore the mechanism of difference in pathogenesis and prognosis in different BCR-ABL subtype-related leukemia, expression profile microarray analysis was conducted between p190 and p210 patients and verified by RT-PCR. The p21-activated kinase (PAK1) gene was chosen and regulation of the PAK1-STAT5 biological axis and its influence on proliferation and apoptosis in leukemia cells were also analyzed. Read More

Am J Hematol 2019 Feb 19. Epub 2019 Feb 19.

Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) modified T cells targeted to CD19 have resulted in unprecedented remission rates for adult and pediatric patients with relapsed and refractory B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). With regulatory approval for tisagenlecleucel and many other agents under active investigation, the use of CAR T cells for ALL continues to expand. While some remissions from anti-CD19 CAR T cells are durable without a consolidative allogeneic stem cell transplantation, CD19 positive and negative relapses remain a significant concern fueling investigations into the biology of CAR T cell persistence and the development of CARTs that target more than one antigen. Read More

Exp Ther Med 2019 Mar 4;17(3):1593-1600. Epub 2019 Jan 4.

Department of Hematology, Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong 266555, P.R. China.

Three dimensional (3D) culture has gradually become a research hotspot in the field of drug screening, stem cell research, and tissue engineering due to its more physiological-like morphology and function. In this study, we compared the differences of cell proliferation, population, protein expression and chemoresistance profiles between two dimensional (2D) and 3D culture of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) Jurkat cell line. Polycaprolactone (PCL) is used for 3D culture owing to its biochemical properties and compatibility. Read More

Contemp Oncol (Pozn) 2018 31;22(4):266-269. Epub 2018 Dec 31.

Department of Pediatrics, Hematology and Oncology, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.

Sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS), also termed veno-occlusive disease (VOD) of the liver, is a well-known complication of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) both in children and adults. In the medical literature there are occasional reports of SOS in patients receiving conventional chemotherapy. In children with solid tumours this entity occurs during treatment of nephroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and medulloblastoma. Read More

Acta Haematol 2019 Feb 15;141(3):135-137. Epub 2019 Feb 15.

Department of Hematology, Graduate School of Medicine, Gunma University, Maebashi,

Biomedicines 2019 Feb 16;7(1). Epub 2019 Feb 16.

The Simon Flavell Leukaemia Research Laboratory, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK.

We have previously shown that antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) cooperates with immunotoxin (IT)-mediated killing of human leukaemia cells in an severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mouse model of human T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (SCID-HSB-2 mice), but not in an equivalent non-obese diabetic (NOD)/SCID mouse model. In these earlier studies, we reasoned that diminished ADCC due to the functional deficit in natural killer (NK) cell activity in NOD/SCID mice resulted in a failure of effective perforin/granzyme-mediated cytotoxicity necessary for the delivery of the augmentative effect. Poly-inosinic-cytidylic acid [poly (I:C)] is a synthetic dsRNA toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) agonist that possesses a number of biological properties that includes the in vivo activation of NK cells. Read More

Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 2019 Feb;23(3):1184-1195

Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the candidate genes and their potential mechanism in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (cALL).

Materials And Methods: Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened from GSE67684 (treatment), GSE28460 (relapse), and GSE60926 (relapse). The expression of AEBP1 at different stages of cALL was analyzed followed by functional enrichment analysis of its co-expressed genes. Read More

Clin Res Cardiol 2019 Feb 18. Epub 2019 Feb 18.

Laboratoire de Physiopathologie de l'EXercice (LPEX), Département de Kinésiologie, Université de Montréal, CEPSUM, 2100, boulevard Édouard Montpetit, H3C 3J7, Montreal, QC, Canada.

Aims: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the leading malignancies in children worldwide. The cardiotoxicity of anti-cancer treatments leads to a dysfunction of the cardiac autonomic nervous system. Protection strategies, with dexrazoxane treatments, were used to counter these adverse effects. Read More

Clin Cancer Res 2019 Feb 18. Epub 2019 Feb 18.

Pediatrics, Division of Pediaric Hematology/Oncology, University of Minnesota.

Background: Aurora A kinase (AAK) plays an integral role in mitotic entry, DNA damage checkpoint recovery, and centrosome and spindle maturation. Alisertib (MLN8237) is a potent and selective AAK inhibitor. In pediatric preclinical models, antitumor activity was observed in neuroblastoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and sarcoma xenografts. Read More

Clin Pract Cases Emerg Med 2019 Feb 29;3(1):59-61. Epub 2019 Jan 29.

Dalhousie University, Department of Emergency Medicine, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

A 23-year-old man with acute lymphoblastic leukemia presented to the emergency department without any history of constitutional symptoms (fatigue, anorexia, or weight loss), dyspnea, bruising, or bleeding. Presentation of acute leukemia solely as musculoskeletal pathology is common in pediatric populations but rare among adult patients. Recognizing this presentation of acute leukemia in adult patients could help prevent delayed diagnoses. Read More

Expert Opin Orphan Drugs 2018 8;6(10):563-566. Epub 2018 Oct 8.

Department of Pediatrics and Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA.

Introduction: The recent approval of CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells for refractory or second relapse of B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) has led to a paradigm shift. Besides being an alternative to chemotherapy and antibody-based approaches, CAR-T cells have become the first successful example of "personalized medicine."

Areas Covered: In clinical trials, tisagenlecleucel demonstrated higher response rates than prior therapies, and led to durable remissions lasting up to years for some children. Read More

Leuk Lymphoma 2019 Feb 18:1-11. Epub 2019 Feb 18.

a Division of Haematology/Oncology, Department of Paediatrics , The Hospital for Sick Children , Toronto , Canada.

Infections are a common complication of treatment for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) or acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Less is known about infections occurring after treatment. We performed a systematic review of the literature to assess the incidence of infections after therapy completion in children and young adults with ALL or AML. Read More

Leuk Lymphoma 2019 Feb 18:1-4. Epub 2019 Feb 18.

a Hematology Department , Cochin Hospital , Paris , France.

BMJ Case Rep 2019 Feb 15;12(2). Epub 2019 Feb 15.

Department of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, University of California San Diego, San Diego, California, USA.

We describe an unusual case of pre-B lymphoblastic leukaemia presenting with a unilateral maxillary sinus mass in which biopsies of the primary mass and the bone marrow demonstrated conflicting immunophenotyping results. The extramedullary mass was consistent with a precursor B-cell malignancy, while the bone marrow was initially reported as a possible mature B-cell malignancy. The treatments for the two are fundamentally different, which necessitated a delay in the initiation of his chemotherapy until a clear diagnosis was made. Read More

Int J Infect Dis 2019 Feb 14. Epub 2019 Feb 14.

Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

We report the first case of microabscesses detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of nucleic acid from ultrasound-guided aspirated fluid in a three-year old boy with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and febrile neutropenia during induction chemotherapy. Fever persisted despite effective antifungal treatment. The addition of corticosteroid therapy successfully controlled the suspected immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS). Read More

Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2019 Feb 15. Epub 2019 Feb 15.

Department of Pediatrics, Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Research, University of Minnesota

While substantial advances in the identification of cytogenomic subtypes of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have been made in recent decades, epidemiologic research characterizing the etiologic heterogeneity of ALL by subtype has not kept pace. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current literature concerning subtype-specific epidemiologic risk factor associations with ALL subtype defined by immunophenotype (e.g. Read More

Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2019 Feb 12. Epub 2019 Feb 12.

Division of Hematology/Oncology, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario.

Introduction: Access to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is primarily dependent on disease-related factors but may be influenced by social and economic determinants.

Methods: We included all children < 15 years old with newly diagnosed ALL in Canada between 2001 and 2018 using the Cancer in Young People in Canada (CYP-C) national registry. We examined factors potentially associated with the likelihood of receiving HSCT using univariate and multivariable logistic regression models. Read More

Br J Haematol 2019 Feb 15. Epub 2019 Feb 15.

Department of Paediatric Haematology, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK.

Oncol Nurs Forum 2019 03;46(2):228-237

Duke University.

Objectives: To examine the relationship of the Childhood Cancer Symptom Cluster-Leukemia (CCSC-L) with health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Sample & Setting: 327 children receiving treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia from four pediatric oncology programs across the United States.

Methods & Variables: Participants completed fatigue, sleep disturbance, pain, nausea, and depression symptom questionnaires at four time points; these symptoms comprised the CCSC-L. Read More

Haematologica 2019 Feb 14. Epub 2019 Feb 14.

Pediatric Oncology, University Children Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland;

J Hematol Oncol 2019 Feb 14;12(1):17. Epub 2019 Feb 14.

The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University and Henan Cancer Hospital, 127 Dongming Road, Zhengzhou, 450008, China.

The current treatment for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is highly successful with high cure rate. However, the treatment of adult ALL remains a challenge, particularly for refractory and/or relapsed (R/R) ALL. The advent of new targeted agents, blinatumomab, inotuzumab ozogamycin, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, are changing the treatment paradigm for ALL. Read More

Neoplasia 2019 Feb 11;21(3):294-310. Epub 2019 Feb 11.

Institute of Human Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Strzeszyńska 32, 60-479 Poznań, Poland. Electronic address:

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is an aggressive malignancy originating from T-cell precursors. The genetic landscape of T-ALL has been largely characterized by next-generation sequencing. Yet, the transcriptome of miRNAs (miRNome) of T-ALL has been less extensively studied. Read More

J Oncol Pract 2019 Feb;15(2):67-75

1 Gehr Family Leukemia Research Center, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in older adults presents a real challenge as a result of adverse disease biology and comorbidities that preclude delivering curative regimens. Conventional chemotherapy approaches have generally yielded unsatisfactory results in older patients with ALL as a result of excessive induction mortality, chemotherapy resistance of the leukemia, and the need to omit or dose reduce key drugs during the course of therapy because of adverse effects. Philadelphia chromosome-positive ALL represents about a quarter of newly diagnosed older adults, and the striking single-agent activity and excellent safety profile of tyrosine kinase inhibitors has allowed incorporation of these agents into therapy, significantly improving the outcome of older adults with Philadelphia chromosome-positive ALL. Read More

World J Microbiol Biotechnol 2019 Feb 14;35(3):41. Epub 2019 Feb 14.

Department of Animal Biology, Laboratory of Evolutionary and Ambient Genetics, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil.

L-asparaginase is an enzyme capable of hydrolyzing the substrate asparagine in aspartic acid and ammonia. Due to this mechanism of action observed, L-asparaginase is widely used in the treatment of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, since these cells use asparagine for their survival. Because it is frequently used as an antineoplastic, it is necessary to evaluate its genotoxic effects. Read More

Front Immunol 2018 25;9:3169. Epub 2019 Jan 25.

John van Geest Cancer Research Centre, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Although immunotherapy has emerged as the "next generation" of cancer treatments, it has not yet been shown to be successful in the treatment of patients with prostate cancer, for whom therapeutic options remain limited to radiotherapy and androgen (hormone) deprivation therapy. Previous studies have shown that priming natural killer (NK) cells isolated from healthy individuals via co-incubation with CTV-1 cells derived from an acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) enhances their cytotoxicity against human DU145 (metastatic) prostate cancer cells, but it remains unknown to what extent NK cells from patients with prostate cancer can be triggered to kill. Herein, we explore the phenotype of peripheral blood NK cells in patients with prostate cancer and compare the capacity of CTV-1 cell-mediated priming and IL-2 stimulation to trigger NK cell-mediated killing of the human PC3 (metastatic) prostate cancer cell line. Read More

J Oncol Pharm Pract 2019 Feb 13:1078155219829534. Epub 2019 Feb 13.

2 Department of Pharmacy Services and Clinical Sciences, Michigan Medicine, University of Michigan College of Pharmacy, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.

Relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia poses a significant clinical challenge due to its poor prognosis, with survival rates of less than a year, even with novel therapies. Patients frequently experience toxicities from induction chemotherapy such as hepatotoxicity, which can limit therapeutic options upon relapse. Blinatumomab, a novel immunotherapy, has demonstrated excellent efficacy in relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia; however, there are limited data on use of this agent in patients with significant organ dysfunction. Read More

Adv Ther 2019 Feb 13. Epub 2019 Feb 13.

Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York, UK.

Introduction: In the absence of head-to-head trials, this analysis aimed to provide a fair indirect comparison of the efficacy between blinatumomab and inotuzumab ozogamicin (InO), two treatments for adult patients with relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (R/R ALL) who received no more than one prior salvage therapy, by adjusting for cross-trial differences.

Methods: Patient-level data from the Phase 3 blinatumomab trial TOWER and published aggregated data from the Phase 3 InO trial INO-VATE-ALL were used to conduct matching-adjusted indirect comparisons. Patients with 2+ prior salvage therapies from TOWER were excluded because such patients were not included in INO-VATE-ALL. Read More

Pediatr Blood Cancer 2019 Feb 13:e27669. Epub 2019 Feb 13.

Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee.

Background: Osteonecrosis is a common toxicity associated with glucocorticoid (e.g., dexamethasone and prednisone) treatment of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), but risk factors are incompletely defined. Read More

Hematology 2019 Dec;24(1):337-348

n Ospedale dell'Angelo , Mestre-Venezia , Italy.

Objectives: Detectable minimal residual disease (MRD) after therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the strongest predictor of hematologic relapse. This study evaluated outcomes of patients with B-cell precursor ALL with MRD of ≥10 Methods: Study population was from ALL study groups in Europe managed in national study protocols 2000-2014. MRD was measured by polymerase chain reaction or flow cytometry. Read More

Am J Cancer Res 2019 1;9(1):64-78. Epub 2019 Jan 1.

The Cyrus Tang Hematology Center, Soochow University Suzhou, Jiangsu, P. R. China.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) immunotherapy has recently shown promise in clinical trials for B-cell malignancies; however, designing CARs for T-cell based diseases remain a challenge since most target antigens are shared between normal and malignant cells, leading to CAR-T cell fratricide. CD7 is highly expressed in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), but it is not expressed in one small group of normal T lymphocytes. Here, we constructed monovalent CD7-CAR-NK-92MI and bivalent dCD7-CAR-NK-92MI cells using the CD7 nanobody VHH6 sequences from our laboratory. Read More

Sci Rep 2019 Feb 12;9(1):1875. Epub 2019 Feb 12.

Department of Pediatric Oncology, Erasmus Medical Center - Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

The FGF receptor signaling pathway is recurrently involved in the leukemogenic processes. Oncogenic fusions of FGFR1 with various fusion partners were described in myeloid proliferative neoplasms, and overexpression and mutations of FGFR3 are common in multiple myeloma. In addition, fibroblast growth factors are abundant in the bone marrow, and they were shown to enhance the survival of acute myeloid leukemia cells. Read More

J Natl Cancer Inst 2019 Feb 11. Epub 2019 Feb 11.

Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark.

Background: Adverse effects from childhood leukemia treatment may persist or present years after cure from cancer. We provide a comprehensive evaluation of subsequent hospitalization in five-year survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).

Methods: In the Adult Life after Childhood Cancer in Scandinavia (ALiCCS) study we identified 4,003 five-year survivors diagnosed with childhood leukemia 1970-2008 in Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, and Finland. Read More

PLoS One 2019 12;14(2):e0211951. Epub 2019 Feb 12.

Department of Biochemical and Pharmaceutical Technology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.

L-asparaginase (ASNase) from Escherichia coli is currently used in some countries in its PEGylated form (ONCASPAR, pegaspargase) to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). PEGylation refers to the covalent attachment of poly(ethylene) glycol to the protein drug and it not only reduces the immune system activation but also decreases degradation by plasmatic proteases. However, pegaspargase is randomly PEGylated and, consequently, with a high degree of polydispersity in its final formulation. Read More

Acta Oncol 2019 Feb 12:1-8. Epub 2019 Feb 12.

e Department of Endocrinology , Skåne University hospital , Lund , Sweden.

Background: Cranial radiotherapy (CRT) is a known risk factor for neurocognitive impairment in survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) are MRI techniques that quantify microstructural changes in brain white matter (WM) and DKI is regarded as the more sensitive of them. Our aim was to more thoroughly understand the nature of cognitive deficits after cranial radiotherapy (CRT) in adulthood after childhood ALL. Read More

J Clin Oncol 2019 Feb 11:JCO1800884. Epub 2019 Feb 11.

14 New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY.

Purpose: Children and young adults with hypodiploid B-lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) fare poorly and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is often pursued in first complete remission (CR1). We retrospectively reviewed the outcomes of children and young adults with hypodiploid B-ALL who were enrolled in recent Children's Oncology Group (COG) trials to evaluate the impact of HSCT on outcome.

Patients And Methods: Cytogenetic analyses and DNA index were performed at COG-approved laboratories, and hypodiploidy was defined as modal chromosome number less than 44 and/or DNA index less than 0. Read More