Sporadic late‐onset nemaline myopathy (SLONM) associated with monoclonal protein (MP) is a rare disease with an aggressive, and often fatal course. Whether SLONM + MP represents a malignancy or dysimmune disease remains unclear. Currently, two main approaches are used to treat SLONM + MP: nonchemotherapy‐based treatment (immunosuppression, intravenous immunoglobulins, plasmapheresis and plasma exchange) or chemotherapy with or without autologous stem cell transplantation. Due to the rare occurrence of the disease, the best treatment modality is unknown. We analyzed treatment and outcomes in a large cohort of 53 patients with SLONM + MP: four our own patients and 49 cases from published literature. Neurological improvement in the nonchemotherapy group (N = 25) was observed in 52% of patients: 8% reached marked improvement, 8% moderate response, 36% mild response; none reached complete remission (CR). In the chemotherapy group (N = 28), neurological improvement was seen in 86% of patients: 46% reached CR, 25% marked response, 11% moderate response and 4% mild response. The best neurological improvement correlated with deep hematological remission. Mean time to best response in the chemotherapy group was 8 months versus 21 months in the nonchemotherapy group (P < .001). Overall survival was higher in patients in the chemotherapy group. A chemotherapy approach should be the preferred treatment for patients with SLOMN + MP with the goal to reach complete hematologic remission. Based on the clinical, morphological peculiarities, aggressive disease course and superior clinical benefits of chemotherapy over nonchemotherapy, SLONM + MP should be considered as a hematological malignancy with the presence of MP of clinical rather than undetermined significance.

Breast cancer is a prominent cause of cancer diagnosis and death in women globally, with over 90% of deaths being attributed to complications that arise from metastasis. One of the common locations for breast cancer metastasis is the lung, which is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Curative treatments for metastatic breast cancer patients are not available and the molecular mechanisms that underlie lung metastasis are not fully understood. In order to better treat these patients, identifying events that occur both prior to and during metastatic spread to the lung is essential. Several studies have demonstrated that breast cancer-derived extracellular vesicles secreted from the primary breast tumor play a key role in establishing the lung pre-metastatic niche to support colonization of metastatic tumor cells. In this review, we summarize recent work supporting the influence of extracellular vesicles on stromal components of the lung to construct the pre-metastatic niche and support metastasis. Furthermore, we discuss the potential clinical applications of utilizing extracellular vesicles for diagnosis and treatment. Together, this review highlights the dynamic nature of extracellular vesicles, their roles in breast cancer metastasis to the lung, and their value as potential biomarkers and therapeutics for cancer prevention.

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Bendamustine and rituximab (BR) is a preferred first-line therapy for indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (iNHL) and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL); however, few reports on BR performance in elderly patients are available to date. We compared safety and efficacy of BR in patients ≥70 years (elderly) vs <70 years (younger) treated at our institution. Among 201 patients, 113 were elderly (median age: 77 years), including 38 patients ≥80 years, and 88 were younger (median age: 62 years). Elderly patients had more bone marrow involvement by lymphoma, anemia, ECOG status 3 and highrisk disease follicular lymphoma (P < .05 for all). Fifty-four percent of elderly received full dose of bendamustine vs 79.5% of younger patients. More elderly patients (54%) vs younger (43.2%) experienced treatment delay. Less elderly proceeded to rituximab maintenance. Overall, the number of adverse events per patient and transformed B-Cell lymphoma/secondary malignancies were similar between groups. Elderly patients had less febrile neutropenia, rituximab-associated infusion reactions, but more herpes zoster reactivation. There were more deaths in the elderly (37.2%) vs younger (10.2%) groups (P < .001), mainly due to non-lymphoma-related causes. With median follow-up of 42 months [4.0-97.0] disease-free survival for the elderly was similar to younger patients. There was no difference between patients <80 and ≥80 years (P = .274). In conclusion, the real-world elderly patients have more advanced disease and higher ECOG status. BR is well-tolerated; elderly patients had lower incidence of febrile neutropenia. Dose reduction and treatment delays are common, but BR efficacy was not affected even in very old patients (≥80 years).

Introduction A rare subset of sporadic late-onset nemaline myopathy (SLONM) is associated with monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS). The role of monoclonal protein (M-protein) in SLONM is unknown, but SLONM with MGUS (SLONM+MGUS) demonstrates an aggressive disease course with severe muscular weakness, early development of respiratory failure, and is often fatal. Whether SLONM+MGUS represents a malignant or dysimmune disease remains unclear. Currently, two approaches are used to treat SLONM+MGUS: 1) immunosuppression ± plasmapheresis/exchange; or 2) chemotherapy (ChT) ± autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). Unfortunately, due to the rare occurrence of the disease, the best treatment modality is unknown. Methods We conducted a literature search to identify previous treatment modalities for patients diagnosed with SLONM+MGUS using PubMed, Elsevier, Medline, and CINAHL databases from 1975 to 2019. All publications were carefully reviewed to remove "duplicate" patients. Overall, 28 reports were included for the final analysis. Results We identified 38 unique patients diagnosed with SLONM+MGUS treated either with immunotherapy (IT) (n=19) or ChT ± ASCT (n=19). The median age was 49 years [range: 26-75] in the IT group and 47 years [range: 24-64] in the ChT group. There was a slight male preponderance in the IT group [n=14 (74%)] than in the ChT group [n=10 (53%)]. Similarly, more cases with kappa light chain restricted M-protein were observed in the IT group [n=12 (67%)] than in the ChT group [n=8 (42%)]. In the IT group, M-protein values were only reported in two patients (mean: 0.42 g/L), while M-protein values were reported for 14 patients in the ChT group (mean: 6.54 g/L). In the IT group 16 patients (84%) received steroids, 5 (26%) plasmapheresis, 10 (53%) steroid-sparing immunosuppressants (low dose cyclophosphamide, azathioprine, cytarabine, and mycophenolate mofetil), 2 (11%) rituximab, and 10 (53%) IVIG. Twelve (63%) patients received oral prednisone (mean dose: 67 mg) and 3 (16%) received pulse methylprednisolone (1 g). Patients received IT modalities sequentially or in parallel. Six patients (32%) received 1 and 13 patients (68%) received 2 or 3 (median = 2) IT types. Neurological improvement was observed in 10 patients, a 53% overall response rate (ORR) with 3 (16%) patients in complete remission (CR), and 7 (37%) patients in partial response (PR). No improvement or progression was observed in 9 (47%) patients (Figure 1). In 2 patients, neurological CR was associated with complete disappearance of M-protein. Mean time to best response was 19 months in a follow-up duration of 23 months. The ChT group included three categories: 1) 10 (53%) patients received ASCT with high dose melphalan (mean: 164 mg/m2); 2) 3 patients (16%) were treated with Cyclophosphamide/Bortezomib/Dexamethasone (CyBorD), cyclophosphamide/Thalidomide/Dexamethasone and Lenalidomide and Dexamethasone (Ld) chemotherapy without ASCT; and 3) 6 (31%) patients underwent induction chemotherapy with CyBorD (n=2) and Ld (n=4), followed by consolidative ASCT. Neurological improvement was achieved in 18 patients, a 94.7% ORR with CR in 14 (73.7%) and PR in 3 (21.0%) patients. Only one patient did not respond to therapy. The best neurological improvement correlated with disappearance of M-protein [complete hematological remission (CHR)]. Mean time to best response was 10 months, which was shorter than the IT group. Follow-up duration was 31 months. Conclusion Based on a comprehensive evaluation of existing treatment modalities for patients with SLOMN+MGUS we conclude that the best course of treatment is through consideration of the disease as a malignancy rather than a dysimmune disease. Our review supports that the best method of treatment entails ChT with or without of consolidative ASCT in the pursuit of eliminating the malignant plasma cell clone. In conjunction with nemaline myopathy presence of M-protein has clinical significance and it may be worth considering reclassifying SLONM+MGUS as SLONM with Monoclonal Gammopathy of Clinical (Neurological) Significance (SLONM+MGCS). Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.