Treatments for immune thrombocytope-nic purpura (ITP) providing durable plate-let responses without continued dosing are limited. Whereas complete responses (CRs) to B-cell depletion in ITP usually last for 1 year in adults, partial responses (PRs) are less durable. Comparable data do not exist for children and 5-year outcomes are unavailable. Patients with ITP treated with rituximab who achieved CRs and PRs (platelets > 150 10 9 /L or 50-150 10 9 /L, respectively) were selected to be assessed for duration of their response; 72 adults whose response lasted at least 1 year and 66 children with response of any duration were included. Patients had baseline platelet counts < 30 10 9 /L; 95% had ITP of > 6 months in duration. Adults and children each had initial overall response rates of 57% and similar 5-year estimates of persisting response (21% and 26%, respectively). Children did not relapse after 2 years from initial treatment whereas adults did. Initial CR and prolonged B-cell depletion predicted sustained responses whereas prior splenectomy, age, sex, and duration of ITP did not. No novel or substantial long-term clinical toxicity was observed. In summary, 21% to 26% of adults and children with chronic ITP treated with standard-dose rituximab maintained a treatment-free response for at least 5 years without major toxicity. These results can inform clinical decision-making. (Blood. 2012;119(25):5989-5995)

Object Maximal safe tumor resection is part of the standard of care for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma. The role of reoperation in the care of patients with recurrent glioblastoma is less clear, and less than a quarter of patients undergo a second surgery. Previous studies have identified preoperative variables associated with the improved survival of patients following reoperation, and guidelines for the selection of patients for reoperation have been devised and validated. In this study, the authors analyzed the relative survival benefit of maximal safe tumor removal in a series of patients with recurrent glioblastoma who all underwent reoperation. Methods In this longitudinal study, the clinical and radiological data of 97 consecutive patients who underwent reoperation for recurrent glioblastoma were prospectively collected. Multiple regression analyses and Kaplan-Meier plotting were performed to identify pre- and postoperative clinical and radiological variables associated with increased survival following reoperation. Results The median postoperative survival of all patients following reoperation was 12.4 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 9.0–15.6 months). Multiple Cox regression analysis revealed that patients with large (> 3 cm3) residual tumors following reoperation had significantly decreased survival relative to those with residual tumors that were small (> 0–3 cm3; hazard ratio [HR] = 3.10, 95% CI 1.69–5.70; p < 0.001) or radiologically absent (0 cm3; HR = 5.82, 95% CI 2.98–11.37; p < 0.001). Large residual tumors had faster rates of subsequent regrowth than small (odds ratio [OR] = 4.22, 95% CI 1.19–14.97; p = 0.026) or radiologically absent (OR = 11.00, 95% CI 2.79–43.43; p = 0.001) residual tumors, and a faster regrowth rate was significantly associated with decreased survival (HR = 4.01, 95% CI 2.26–7.14; p < 0.001). Conclusions The overall survival of patients with recurrent glioblastoma who underwent reoperations increased with decreasing postoperative residual tumor volumes. For patients meeting prognostic criteria for reoperation, the surgical goal should be to minimize residual tumor volume to maximize overall survival. Clinical trial registration no.: NCT00060541 (ClinicalTrials.gov).

Personalized drug screening (PDS) of approved drug libraries enables rapid development of specific small-molecule therapies for individual patients. With a multidisciplinary team including clinicians, researchers, ethicists, informaticians and regulatory professionals, patient treatment can be optimized with greater efficacy and fewer adverse effects by using PDS as an approach to find remedies. In addition, PDS has the potential to rapidly identify therapeutics for a patient suffering from a disease without an existing therapy. From cancer to bacterial infections, we review specific maladies addressed with PDS campaigns. We predict that PDS combined with personal genomic analyses will contribute to the development of future precision medicine endeavors.

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