Aberrant CpG island methylation contributes to the pathogenesis of various malignancies. However, little is known about the association of epigenetic abnormalities with multistep tumorigenic events in adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL). To determine whether epigenetic abnormalities induce the progression of ATLL , we analyzed the methylation profiles of the SHP1 , p15 , p16 , p73 , HCAD, DAPK , hMLH-1, and MGMT genes by methylation specific PCR assay in 65 cases with ATLL patients. The number of CpG island methylated genes increased with disease progression and aberrant hypermethylation in specific genes was detected even in HTLV-1 carriers and correlated with progression to ATLL. The CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) was observed most frequently in lymphoma type ATLL and was also closely associated with the progression and crisis of ATLL. The high number of methylated genes and increase of CIMP incidence were shown to be unfavorable prognostic factors and correlated with a shorter overall survival by Kaplan-Meyer analysis. The present findings strongly suggest that the multistep accumulation of aberrant CpG methylation in specific target genes and the presence of CIMP are deeply involved in the crisis , progression , and prognosis of ATLL , as well as indicate the value of CpG methylation and CIMP for new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers.

The platelet counting performance of the PLT-F channel of the XN Series had improved accuracy and precision in the low range and in abnormal samples, avoiding the interference by nonplatelet particles.

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Key Points PD-1 blockade exacerbated GVHD by altering the homeostasis of Tregs and effector T cells after HSCT. PTCy ameliorated GVHD after PD-1 blockade by restoring the homeostatic balance of T-cell subsets.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an emerging treatment for various solid cancers. We recently reported that tumor cell lines and patient specimens from adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) are susceptible to specific cell death by visible light exposure after a short-term culture with 5-aminolevulinic acid, indicating that extracorporeal photopheresis could eradicate hematological tumor cells circulating in peripheral blood. As a bridge from basic research to clinical trial of PDT for hematological malignancies, we here examined the efficacy of ALA-PDT on various lymphoid malignancies with circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood. We also examined the effects of ALA-PDT on tumor cells before and after conventional chemotherapy. With 16 primary blood samples from 13 patients, we demonstrated that PDT efficiently killed tumor cells without influencing normal lymphocytes in aggressive diseases such as acute ATL. Importantly, PDT could eradicate acute ATL cells remaining after standard chemotherapy or anti-CCR4 antibody, suggesting that PDT could work together with other conventional therapies in a complementary manner. The responses of PDT on indolent tumor cells were various but were clearly depending on accumulation of protoporphyrin IX, which indicates the possibility of biomarker-guided application of PDT. These findings provide important information for developing novel therapeutic strategy for hematological malignancies.