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Lenalidomide-Epoetin Alfa Versus Lenalidomide Monotherapy in Myelodysplastic Syndromes Refractory to Recombinant Erythropoietin
List AF, Sun Z, Verma A, Bennett JM, Komrokji RS, McGraw K, Maciejewski J, Altman JK, Cheema PS, Claxton DF, et al
Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. 2021;:Jco2001691
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Abstract
PURPOSE Impaired response to erythropoietin underlies ineffective erythropoiesis and anemia in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). We investigated whether treatment with lenalidomide (LEN), which augments erythropoietin receptor signaling in vitro, can restore and improve hemoglobin response to epoetin (EPO) alfa in patients with lower-risk, non-del(5q) MDS who have anemia that is refractory to or have low probability of benefit from treatment with recombinant erythropoietin. METHODS In a phase III, US intergroup trial, we randomly assigned patients to receive either LEN and EPO alfa or LEN alone following stratification by serum erythropoietin concentration and prior erythropoietin treatment. RESULTS A total of 195 evaluable patients were randomly assigned: 99 patients to the LEN-EPO alfa cohort and 96 to LEN alone. After four cycles of treatment, the primary end point of major erythroid response (MER) was significantly higher (28.3%) with the combination compared with LEN alone (11.5%) (P = .004). Among 136 patients who completed 16 weeks of study treatment, 38.9% and 15.6% achieved MER, respectively (P = .004). Additionally, minor erythroid response was achieved in 18.2% and 20.8% of patients, for an overall erythroid response rate of 46.5% versus 32.3%. Among LEN nonresponders, 38 crossed over to the addition of EPO alfa with 10 patients (26.3%) achieving a MER. Responses to the combined treatment were highly durable with a median MER duration of 23.8 months compared with 13 months with LEN alone. CONCLUSION LEN restores sensitivity to recombinant erythropoietin in growth factor-insensitive, lower-risk, non-del(5q) MDS, to yield a significantly higher rate and duration of MER compared with LEN alone (funded by the National Cancer Institute; E2905 ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02048813).
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Leukapheresis for the management of hyperleukocytosis in acute myeloid leukemia-A systematic review and meta-analysis
Bewersdorf JP, Giri S, Tallman MS, Zeidan AM, Stahl M
Transfusion. 2020
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Abstract
BACKGROUND Up to 20% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) present with hyperleukocytosis, usually defined as a white blood cell (WBC) count greater than 100 × 10(9) /L. Given the high early mortality rate, emergent cytoreduction with either leukapheresis, hydroxyurea, or chemotherapy is indicated, but the optimal strategy is unknown. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS For this systematic review and meta-analysis we searched MEDLINE and EMBASE via Ovid, Scopus, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and Web of Science from inception through March 2020 for multiarm studies comparing early mortality rates of patients with AML treated with leukapheresis and those who were not. The risk ratio (RR) of early death for patients who received leukapheresis vs patients who did not was estimated using a sum of the log-ratio of individual study estimates weighted by sample size. RESULTS Among 13 two-arm, retrospective studies with 1743 patients (486 leukapheresis and 1257 nonleukapheresis patients), leukapheresis did not improve the primary outcome of early mortality compared to treatment strategies in which leukapheresis was not used (RR, 0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.69-1.13; P = .321) without statistically significant heterogeneity between studies (Cochran's Q, 18; P = .115; I(2) , 33.4%). Patients presenting with clinical leukostasis tended to be more likely to undergo leukapheresis (odds ratio, 2.01; 95% CI, 0.99-4.08; P = .052). CONCLUSION As we did not find evidence of a short-term mortality benefit and considering the associated complications and logistic burden, our results argue against the routine use of leukapheresis for hyperleukocytosis among patients with AML.