Primary Nodal Epstein-Barr Virus-Positive T-Cell/NK-Cell Lymphoma: Real-World Experience.
Primary nodal Epstein-Barr virus-positive T-cell/NK-cell lymphoma (PTCL-EBV) is a disease entity newly recognized in the World Health Organization's classification of hematolymphoid tumors, 5th edition (WHO-HAEMS5) and the International Consensus Classification of Mature Lymphoid Neoplasms (ICC). Previously, it was classified as a subtype within peripheral T-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified, and was known to have a poor prognosis. However, the clinical features and treatment outcomes are not well known.
This retrospective observational study was conducted on patients diagnosed with PTCL-EBV at Samsung Medical Center through a pathology review from 2000 to 2020. We analyzed the clinical data from 14 patients, immunohistochemistry, and survival outcomes including overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) for each treatment regimen. PFS was defined as the time from the start of chemotherapy to the confirmation of disease progression on imaging, and hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) was considered a consolidation treatment. OS was defined as the time from diagnosis to the time of death.
25% (1 out of 4) were beta-F1 positive, and 67% (4 out of 6) were T-cell receptor gamma (TCRγ) positive. T-cell intracellular antigen (TIA-1) and granzyme B exhibited positive results in all cases (3 out of 3), whereas the NK-cell marker CD56 was positive in only 11% of patients (1 out of 9). CD3 was observed in all of the patients (11 out of 11). The CD4 was 43% positive (3 out of 7). The CD8 was investigated in 8 patients, with 37.5% positive (3 out of 8). Hepatosplenomegaly was observed in 55% of patients (6 out of 11), and 70% (7 out of 10) of patients displayed B symptoms at the time of diagnosis. Patients who received CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisolone) or CVP (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, prednisolone) treatment had a median PFS of 2.2 months (95% CI: 1.9-2.5 months), and patients who received other treatments had a median PFS of 5.1 months (NA). The objective response rate (ORR) for ICE/dexa (ifosfamide, carboplatin, etoposide, dexamethasone) as the first- or second-line treatment was 100% (3 out of 3). But ORR of CHOP or CVP as the first-line treatment was 33.3% (3 out of 9). The median OS for the group that received HSCT (3 out of 11) after achieving a response was 34.6 months (95% CI: 0-74.6 months), and the median OS for the group that did not receive HSCT (8 out of 11) was 5.0 months (95% CI: 2.1-7.9 months) (p = 0.04).
In conclusion, in the context of PTCL-EBV, despite a limited sample size, the ICE/Dexa regimen shows potential benefits in terms of ORR and PFS. Furthermore, the application of HSCT following the attainment of a complete response may prove advantageous.
Choi DH
,Yoon SE
,Cho J
,Kim SJ
,Kim WS
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Early T-cell reconstitution predicts risk of EBV reactivation after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
The quality of immune reconstitution (IR) is crucial for the outcome of patients who received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), and is closely connected with infection, relapse and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) which are the most important causes for transplantation failure. However, the IR pattern in the early stage after allo-HSCT, particularly haploidentical (HID) HSCT, remains unclear. In this retrospective study, we examined the T cell reconstitution of patients within the initial 30 days (n = 173) and 100 days (n = 122) after allo-HSCT with myeloablative condition (MAC), of which > 70% were HID HSCT, to assess the influence of IR on the transplant outcomes. By comparing 78 patients with good IR (GIR) to 44 patients with poor IR (PIR), we observed that GIR was associated with lower risk for Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation and cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation, but had no significant impacts on the survival outcomes (i.e., overall survival, event-free survival) and cumulative incidences of GvHD. Importantly, we found lymphocyte reconstitution pattern at day 30 after allo-HSCT would be a surrogate for IR evaluated at day 100. In the Cox proportional hazard model, early reconstitution of CD4+, CD4+CD25+, CD4+CD45RO+, CD4+CD25+CD27low, and CD8+ T cells at day 30 was reversely correlated with risk of EBV reactivation. Finally, we constructed a predictive model for EBV reactivation with CD8+ and CD4+CD45RO+ T cell proportions of the training cohort (n = 102), which was validated with a validation cohort (n = 37). In summary, our study found that the quality of IR at day 30 had a predictive value for the risk of EBV reactivation, and might provide guidance for close monitoring for EBV reactivation.
Huang J
,Pan Z
,Wang L
,Zhang Z
,Huang J
,Jiang C
,Cai G
,Yin T
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RETRACTED: Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as a treatment of COVID-19: results of an open-label non-randomized clinical trial.
Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have been found to be efficient on SARS-CoV-2, and reported to be efficient in Chinese COV-19 patients. We evaluate the effect of hydroxychloroquine on respiratory viral loads.
French Confirmed COVID-19 patients were included in a single arm protocol from early March to March 16th, to receive 600mg of hydroxychloroquine daily and their viral load in nasopharyngeal swabs was tested daily in a hospital setting. Depending on their clinical presentation, azithromycin was added to the treatment. Untreated patients from another center and cases refusing the protocol were included as negative controls. Presence and absence of virus at Day6-post inclusion was considered the end point.
Six patients were asymptomatic, 22 had upper respiratory tract infection symptoms and eight had lower respiratory tract infection symptoms. Twenty cases were treated in this study and showed a significant reduction of the viral carriage at D6-post inclusion compared to controls, and much lower average carrying duration than reported in the litterature for untreated patients. Azithromycin added to hydroxychloroquine was significantly more efficient for virus elimination.
Despite its small sample size, our survey shows that hydroxychloroquine treatment is significantly associated with viral load reduction/disappearance in COVID-19 patients and its effect is reinforced by azithromycin.
This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy). Concerns have been raised regarding this article, the substance of which relate to the articles' adherence to Elsevier's publishing ethics policies and the appropriate conduct of research involving human participants, as well as concerns raised by three of the authors themselves regarding the article's methodology and conclusions. Elsevier's Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics Team, in collaboration with the journal's co-owner, the International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (ISAC), and with guidance from an impartial field expert acting in the role of an independent Publishing Ethics Advisor, Dr. Jim Gray, Consultant Microbiologist at the Birmingham Children's and Women's Hospitals, U.K., conducted an investigation and determined that the below points constituted cause for retraction: • The journal has been unable to confirm whether any of the patients for this study were accrued before ethical approval had been obtained. The ethical approval dates for this article are stated as being 5th and 6th of March 2020 (ANSM and CPP respectively), while the article states that recruitment began in “early March”. The 17th author, Prof. Philippe Brouqui, has confirmed that the start date for patient accrual was 6th March 2020. The journal has not been able to establish whether all patients could have entered into the study in time for the data to have been analysed and included in the manuscript prior to its submission on the 20th March 2020, nor whether all patients were enrolled in the study upon admission as opposed to having been hospitalised for some time before starting the treatment described in the article. Additionally, the journal has not been able to establish whether there was equipoise between the study patients and the control patients. • The journal has not been able to establish whether the subjects in this study should have provided informed consent to receive azithromycin as part of the study. The journal has concluded that that there is reasonable cause to conclude that azithromycin was not considered standard care at the time of the study. The 17th author, Prof. Philippe Brouqui has attested that azithromycin treatment was not, at the time of the study, an experimental treatment but a possible treatment for, or preventative measure against, bacterial superinfections of viral pneumonia as described in section 2.4 of the article, and as such the treatment should be categorised as standard care that would not require informed consent. This does not fully address the journal's concerns around the use of azithromycin in the study. In section 3.1 of the article, it is stated that six patients received azithromycin to prevent (rather than treat) bacterial superinfection. All of these were amongst the patients who also received hydroxychloroquine (HCQ). None of the control patients are reported to have received azithromycin. This would indicate that only patients in the HCQ arm received azithromycin, all of whom were in one center. The recommendations for use of macrolides in France at the time the study was conducted indicate that azithromycin would not have been a logical agent to use as first-line prophylaxis against pneumonia due to the frequency of macrolide resistance amongst bacteria such as pneumococci. These two points suggest that azithromycin would not have been standard practice across southern France at the time the study was conducted and would have required informed consent. • Three of the authors of this article, Dr. Johan Courjon, Prof. Valérie Giordanengo, and Dr. Stéphane Honoré have contacted the journal to assert their opinion that they have concerns regarding the presentation and interpretation of results in this article and have stated they no longer wish to see their names associated with the article. • Author Prof. Valérie Giordanengo informed the journal that while the PCR tests administered in Nice were interpreted according to the recommendations of the national reference center, it is believed that those carried out in Marseille were not conducted using the same technique or not interpreted according to the same recommendations, which in her opinion would have resulted in a bias in the analysis of the data. This raises concerns as to whether the study was partially conducted counter to national guidelines at that time. The 17th author, Prof. Philippe Brouqui has attested that the PCR methodology was explained in reference 17 of the article. However, the article referred to by reference 17 describes several diagnostic approaches that were used (one PCR targeting the envelope protein only; another targeting the spike protein; and three commercially produced systems by QuantiNova, Biofire, and FTD). This reference does not clarify how the results were interpreted. It has also been noted during investigation of these concerns that only 76% (19/25) of patients were viral culture positive, resulting in uncertainty in the interpretation of PCR reports as has been raised by Prof. Giordanengo. As part of the investigation, the corresponding author was contacted and asked to provide an explanation for the above concerns. No response has been received within the deadline provided by the journal. Responses were received by the 3rd and 17th authors, Prof. Philippe Parola and Prof. Philippe Brouqui, respectively, and were reviewed as part of the investigation. These two authors, in addition to 1st author Dr. Philippe Gautret, 13th author Prof. Philippe Colson, and 15th author Prof. Bernard La Scola, disagreed with the retraction and dispute the grounds for it. Having followed due process and concluded the aforementioned investigation and based on the recommendation of Dr. Jim Gray acting in his capacity as independent Publishing Ethics Advisor, the co-owners of the journal (Elsevier and ISAC) have therefore taken the decision to retract the article.
Gautret P
,Lagier JC
,Parola P
,Hoang VT
,Meddeb L
,Mailhe M
,Doudier B
,Courjon J
,Giordanengo V
,Vieira VE
,Tissot Dupont H
,Honoré S
,Colson P
,Chabrière E
,La Scola B
,Rolain JM
,Brouqui P
,Raoult D
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