Pediatric molecular profiling is feasible, with more than a third of patients being eligible to receive targeted therapy, yet only a small proportion were treated with these therapies. Analysis at diagnosis may be useful for children with very poor prognosis tumsors.

No abstract

Pediatric-onset Evans syndrome (pES) is defined by both immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) before the age of 18 years. There have been no comprehensive long-term studies of this rare disease, which can be associated to various immunopathological manifestations (IMs). We report outcomes of the 151 patients with pES and more than 5 years of follow-up from the nationwide French prospective OBS’CEREVANCE cohort. Median age at final follow-up was 18.5 (6.8–50.0) years and the median follow-up period was 11.3 (5.1–38.0) years. At 10 years, ITP and AIHA were in sustained complete remission in 54.5% and 78.4% of patients, respectively. The frequency and number of clinical and biological IMs increased with age: at 20 years old, 74% had at least one clinical cIM. A wide range of cIMs occurred, mainly lymphoproliferation, dermatological, gastrointestinal/hepatic and pneumological IMs. The number of cIMs was associated with a subsequent increase in the number of second-line treatments received (other than steroids and immunoglobulins; hazard ratio, 1.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.15–1.60; p = 0.0002, Cox proportional hazards method). Survival at 15 years after diagnosis was 84%. Death occurred at a median age of 18 (1.7–31.5) years, and the most frequent cause was infection. The number of second-line treatments and severe/recurrent infections were independently associated with mortality. In conclusion, longterm outcomes of pES showed remission of cytopenias but frequent IMs linked to high secondline treatment burden. Mortality was associated to drugs and/or underlying immunodeficiencies, and adolescents-young adults are a high-risk subgroup.

Splenectomy is effective in ~70-80% of pediatric chronic immune thrombocytopenia (cITP) and few data exist in autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) and Evans syndrome (ES). Because of the irreversibility of the procedure and the lack of predictor of long-term outcomes, splenectomy decision is difficult to take in children. We report here factors associated with splenectomy outcomes from the OBS'CEREVANCE cohort, which prospectively includes French children with autoimmune cytopenia (AIC) since 2004. The primary outcome was failure-free survival (FFS), defined as the time from splenectomy to the initiation of a second-line treatment (other than steroids and intravenous immunoglobulins) or death. We included 161 patients (cITP n = 120, AIHA n = 19, ES n = 22) with a median (min-max) follow-up of 6.8 years (1.0-33.3) after splenectomy. AIC subtype was not associated with FFS. We found that immunopathological manifestations (IMs) were strongly associated with unfavorable outcomes. Diagnosis of an IM before splenectomy was associated with a lower FFS (hazard ratio [HR] 0.39, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.21-0.72, p = 0.003, adjusted for AIC subtype). Diagnosis of an IM at any timepoint during follow-up was associated with an even lower FFS (HR 0.22, 95% CI 0.12-0.39, p = 2.8x10-7, adjusted for AIC subtype) as well as with higher risk of recurrent or severe bacterial infections and thrombosis. In conclusion, our results support the search for associated IMs when considering a splenectomy to refine the risk-benefit ratio. After the procedure, monitoring IMs helps to identify patients with higher risk of unfavorable outcome.

and the staff of the cellular biology laboratory for excellent technical assistance. The authors also thank the French Intergroup for Myeloproliferative neoplasms for insightful discussions. L.B. is a "CCA-INSERM Bettencourt," an "Association Laurette Fugain," a "F ederation Leuc emie Espoir," an "Oncosph ere-Pfizer," and an LNCC grant recipient, a "GILEAD hematology/oncology international research scholar," and an "EHA physician-scientist" grant recipient.

Pediatric chronic immune thrombocytopenia (cITP) is a heterogeneous condition in terms of bleeding severity, second‐line treatment use, association with clinical and/or biological immunopathological manifestations (IMs), and progression to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). No risk factors for these outcomes are known. Specifically, whether age at ITP diagnosis, sex, or IMs impact cITP outcomes is unknown. We report the outcomes of patients with pediatric cITP from the French nationwide prospective cohort OBS'CEREVANCE. We used multivariate analyses to investigate the effect of age at ITP diagnosis, sex, and IMs on cITP outcomes. We included 886 patients with a median (min‐max) follow‐up duration of 5.3 (1.0–29.3) years. We identified an age cutoff that dichotomized the risk of the outcomes and defined two risk groups: patients with ITP diagnosed <10 years (children) and ≥ 10 years (adolescents). Adolescents had a two to four‐fold higher risk of grade ≥3 bleeding, second‐line treatment use, clinical and biological IMs, and SLE diagnosis. Moreover, female sex and biological IMs were independently associated with higher risks of biological IMs and SLE diagnosis, second‐line treatment use, and SLE diagnosis, respectively. The combination of these three risk factors defined outcome‐specific risk groups. Finally, we showed that patients clustered in mild and severe phenotypes, more frequent in children and adolescents, respectively. In conclusion, we identified that age at ITP diagnosis, sex, and biological IMs impacted the long‐term outcomes of pediatric cITP. We defined risk groups for each outcome, which will help clinical management and further studies.

Using a rapid, clinically compliant culture system, we show that autologous BK virus-specific T cell lines can be reliably generated from viremic KTR. Our results pave the way for the treatment or prevention of PVAN with adoptive immunotherapy.

Infant acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL) are rare hematological malignancies occurring in children younger than 1 year of age, most frequently associated with KMT2A rearrangements (KMT2A‐r). The smaller subset without KMT2A‐r, which represents 20% of infant ALL cases, is poorly characterized. Here we report two cases of chemotherapy‐sensitive non‐KMT2A‐r infant ALL. Transcriptome analyses revealed identical ACIN1‐NUTM1 gene fusions in both cases, derived from cryptic chromosomal rearrangements undetected by standard cytogenetic approaches. Two isoforms of the gene fusion, joining exons 3 or 4 of ACIN1 to exon 3 of NUTM1, were identified. Both fusion transcripts contained the functional DNA‐binding SAP (SAF‐A/B, Acinus, and PIAS) domain of ACIN1 and most of NUTM1. The detection of the ACIN1‐NUTM1 fusion by RT‐PCR allowed the molecular monitoring of minimal residual disease in a clinical setting. Based on publicly available genomic datasets and literature review, we predict that NUTM1 gene fusions are recurrent events in infant ALL. As such, we propose two clinically relevant assays to screen for NUTM1 rearrangements in bone marrow cells, independent of the fusion partner: NUMT1 immunohistochemistry and NUTM1 RNA expression. In sum, our study identifies ACIN1‐NUTM1 as a recurrent and possibly cryptic fusion in non‐KMT2A‐r infant ALL, provides clinical tools to screen for NUTM1‐rearranged leukemia and contributes to the refinement of this new subgroup.