Central nervous system (CNS) events, including CNS relapse and progression to CNS, are known to be serious complications in the clinical course of patients with lymphoma. This study aimed to evaluate the risk of CNS events in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in the rituximab era. We performed a retrospective survey of Japanese patients diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma who underwent primary therapy with R-CHOP chemoimmunotherapy between September 2003 and December 2006. Patients who had received any prophylactic CNS treatment were excluded. Clinical data from 1221 patients were collected from 47 institutions. The median age of patients was 64 years (range, 15-91 years). We noted 82 CNS events (6.7%) and the cumulative 5-year probability of CNS events was 8.4%. Patients with a CNS event demonstrated significantly worse overall survival (P < 0.001). The 2-year overall survival rate after a CNS event was 27.1%. In a multivariate analysis, involvement of breast (relative risk [RR] 10.5), adrenal gland (RR 4.6) and bone (RR 2.0) were identified as independent risk factors for CNS events. We conclude that patients with these risk factors, in addition to patients with testicular involvement in whom CNS prophylaxis has been already justified, are at high risk for CNS events in the rituximab era. The efficacy and manner of CNS prophylaxis in patients for each involvement site should be evaluated further. (Cancer Sci 2012; 103: 245-251) T he central nervous system (CNS) is thought to be a sanctuary for lymphoma cells from systemic chemoimmunotherapy, such as rituximab (R) plus CHOP (cyclophosphamide [CPA], doxorubicin [adriamycin, ADR], vincristine [VCR] and prednisolone [PSL]), because standard doses of these drugs do not adequately penetrate the CNS. Occurrence of a CNS event, defined as CNS relapse during systemic complete remission or CNS progression during concurrent systemic active lymphoma, is associated with extremely poor prognosis, with median survival of <6 months.(1-6) Many studies concerning CNS prophylaxis have been conducted; however, the efficacy of such prophylaxis in preventing CNS events is controversial. (5,(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12) The discrepancies between reports might be due to the differences in the various subtypes of lymphoma histology and the variability of treatment of CNS prophylaxis. (13)(14)(15)(16) In addition, R has had a substantial impact on outcomes in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).(17) It is thus necessary to re-evaluate the risk of CNS events in the R era.The present study comprises a multicenter retrospective analysis of patients with uniform DLBCL histology who have undergone uniform treatment with R-CHOP, widely accepted as the standard therapy in the R era. Patients who received any CNS prophylactic treatment, such as intrathecal chemotherapy, intraveneous high-dose methotrexate or whole brain irradiation, were excluded to evaluate the natural risk of CNS events in R-CHOP therapy. This study also took particular note of the evaluation ...

We evaluated the kinetics of immune reconstitution (IR) after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HSCT) and analyzed the clinical effect of IR on posttransplant outcomes. Absolute lymphocyte and its subset counts were measured using flow cytometry on days 28, 100, 180, 365, and 730 after transplantation in 358 adult patients who underwent HSCT between 2009 and 2017. On day 100 after HSCT, 310 surviving patients were analyzed. Bone marrow transplantation (BMT), peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT), and cord blood transplantation (CBT) were performed in 119, 55, and 136 patients, respectively. Mature B-cell and differentiated natural killer (NK) cell subset counts significantly increased after CBT. The 2-year overall survival (OS), nonrelapse mortality (NRM), cumulative incidence of relapse, and chronic GVHD in BMT, PBSCT, and CBT were 62%, 67%, and 76% (P = .021); 17%, 17%, and 13% (P = .82); 33%, 40%, and 27% (P = .063); and 43%, 45%, and 28% (P = .025), respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that higher CD16+CD57− NK cell counts correlated with lower disease relapse, whereas higher CD20+ B-cell counts correlated with lower NRM. OS-favoring factors were higher CD16+CD57− NK cell count (hazard ratio, 0.36; 95% confidence interval, 0.22-0.60; P &lt; .001) and CD20+ B-cell count (hazard ratio, 0.53; 95% confidence interval, 0.30-0.93; P &lt; .001) and lower Disease Risk/HCT-Specific Comorbidity index score. Collective contribution of graft source-specific and event-related immune reconstitution might yield better posttransplant outcomes in CBT.

We retrospectively studied the association between iron overload and bloodstream infections (BSI) in the 100-day period following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) for acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndromes. Serum ferritin was measured before transplantation to evaluate iron overload. Of 114 adult patients who underwent transplantation between 2000 and 2008, 36 (32%) developed BSI. Of the 44 isolates, 63% were Gram-positive bacteria, 32% were Gram-negative bacteria, and 4% were fungi. The median time to the onset of the first BSI was day 28 (range day 0-95) after transplantation. Univariate analysis revealed a significantly higher incidence of BSI in the high (≥ 1,000 ng/ml, n = 57) than in the low (< 1,000 ng/ml, n = 57) ferritin group (42.1 versus 21.1%, respectively, P = 0.017). Peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) (n = 23) showed a greater protective effect against BSI compared with bone marrow (n = 71) and cord blood (n = 20) transplantation. Pretransplantation serum ferritin (HR = 2.844, 95% CI: 1.180-6.859, P = 0.020) and PBSCT (HR = 0.135, 95% CI: 0.025-0.717, P = 0.019) were significant factors on multivariate analysis. In conclusion, pretransplantation serum ferritin significantly predicts BSI within the 100-day period after allo-HSCT.

Human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) is known to reactivate after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) and may be associated with development of acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and nonrelapse mortality (NRM). However, the clinical significance of HHV-6 reactivation after allo-HSCT remains unclear. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective analysis to elucidate the impact of HHV-6 reactivation on transplantation outcomes. Of 236 patients who underwent allo-HSCT, 138 (58.5%) developed HHV-6 reactivation and 98 (41.5%) did not. Univariate analysis indicated that at 3 years, patients with HHV-6 reactivation had significantly higher NRM (27.7% versus 13.7%, P = .003) and worse overall survival (42.1% versus 59.0%, P = .008) than those without reactivation. In multivariate analysis, HHV-6 reactivation was associated with higher incidence of acute GVHD (hazard ratio [HR], 1.87; P = .01), cytomegalovirus reactivation (HR, 2.24; P < .001), and NRM (HR, 2.73; P = .007). Subgroup analysis stratified according to conditioning intensity indicated that a significant impact of HHV-6 reactivation on acute GVHD was observed only in patients who received myeloablative conditioning (MAC). These results indicate that HHV-6 reactivation was associated with development of acute GVHD, cytomegalovirus reactivation, and NRM. Furthermore, adverse impact of HHV-6 reactivation on transplantation outcomes was prominent in the setting of MAC.

No abstract

Amoebiasis has rarely been reported in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, although it is a world-wide infection and extremely common. We present a case of intestinal amoebiasis unexpectedly revealed by colonoscopy after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation from a human leukocyte antigen-mismatched unrelated donor for acute myeloid leukemia arising from chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and successfully treated by metronidazole.

This prospective study aimed to investigate the influence of pretransplant serum ferritin levels on the outcomes of allogeneic hematopoietic SCT (HSCT). In total, 190 patients with acute leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome were consecutively enrolled. The patients were divided into two groups: low-ferritin group (o 1000 ng/mL) and high-ferritin group (⩾1000 ng/mL). The primary end point was the cumulative incidence of infection within 100 days after HSCT, which was similar between the two groups: bloodstream infection, 35 vs 38%, P = 0.65; bacterial infection, 44 vs 41%, P = 0.68; and fungal infection, 6 vs 8%, P = 0.71. The 1-year adjusted probability of OS of the high-ferritin group was significantly lower than that of the low-ferritin group (76 vs 63%, P = 0.017). Using receiver operating characteristic curve, the threshold of pretransplant serum ferritin levels for bloodstream infection was 1400 ng/mL; the threshold for OS, EFS and non-relapse mortality was 1349 ng/mL. In conclusion, pretransplant serum ferritin levels of ⩾ 1000 ng/mL did not influence the incidence of infection but adversely affected OS after HSCT. A higher threshold of pretransplant serum ferritin levels may predict HSCT outcomes.

This study evaluated the efficacy of central nervous system (CNS) prophylaxis using intrathecal methotrexate (IT-MTX) in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). We retrospectively studied 322 patients who achieved first complete remission (CR) after rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) therapy. The CNS prophylaxis consisted of four doses of IT-MTX (15 mg) with hydrocortisone (25 mg) administered after CR was achieved. Forty patients (12%) received CNS prophylaxis (group A) and 282 patients (88%) did not (group B). Three patients in group A (8%) and eight in group B (3%) experienced isolated CNS relapse during the first CR, although this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.14). Ten of 11 CNS relapses occurred in the brain parenchyma with (n = 3) or without (n = 7) leptomeningeal involvement, and the remaining patient had exclusive leptomeningeal involvement. In patients with DLBCL attaining CR after R-CHOP, IT-MTX administration was insufficient to prevent CNS relapse.