Blood Podcast

In this week’s episode, we’ll discuss the effects of iron repletion on the quality of donated red blood cells and donor well-being, learn more about the long-term outcomes of patients with relapsed/refractory hairy cell leukemia after vemurafenib monotherapy, and discuss the use of off-the-shelf cryopreserved platelets for detecting heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia.

In this week’s episode, research shows that in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS, the frequency of pathogenic or likely pathogenic germline variants is relatively high across all age groups, not just younger patients. Based on these results, it may be time to expand genetic testing to all patients.  Next, we'll review primary results of a prospective, multicenter study of children with acute leukemias or MDS who underwent T-cell receptor αβ+ and CD19+ cell-depleted haploidentical HCT with reduced-toxicity conditioning. Finally, an emerging unmet need related to CAR T cell therapy: patients who progress after receiving CAR T cells have poor outcomes and no agreed upon standard of care. We’ll review findings from a large registry study demonstrating infrequent responses to post-CAR T cell treatment and short survival times, highlighting a need for novel strategies.

In this week’s episode we’ll discuss the newly developed PRISM score for risk prediction of venous thromboembolism in multiple myeloma, learn more about relapse-promoting effects of azithromycin after allogeneic stem cell transplantation, and discuss the efficacy of off-the-shelf natural killer cells in preventing antigen escape in lymphoma and leukemia.

In this week’s episode we discuss encouraging results of a phase 2 study using a sequential ibrutinib-venetoclax treatment approach driven by MRD findings in individual patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL. Next, we examine new research demonstrating that donor natural killer cells trigger release of beta-2 microglobulin by host dendritic cells, greatly accelerating donor-derived immune reconstitution after allogeneic bone marrow transplant in mice. We’ll look at the therapeutic implications of this as well. Lastly, we review a study of retinoic acid resistance in a mouse model of variant acute promyelocytic leukemia. Resistance was driven by the epigenetic regulator EZH2, which suggests the potential for an EZH2-targeted therapeutic approach.

In this week’s episode, we’ll discuss patient-reported outcomes in the phase 3 ZUMA-7 trial of CAR T-cell therapy in second-line relapsed/refractory large B-cell lymphoma, learn more about the association between the loss of α4A- and β1-tubulin and severe platelet spherocytosis, and discuss the interaction between prebiotic galactooligosaccharides and mouse gut microbiota in graft-versus-host disease.

In this week’s episode we discuss the role of allogeneic transplant in adult patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. In a retrospective study, transplant provided no survival benefit in patients with rapid and deep responses to induction therapy that included BCR-ABL1 inhibitors. Up next, we discuss the evidence for an increased risk of ventricular arrythmias with use of acalabrutinib, which has emerged as a class effect of Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Lastly, we examine a novel, alloantigen-specific model to test the efficacy of a prophylactic treatment strategy for preventing fetal/neonatal alloimmune thrombocytopenia.

In this week’s episode, we’ll learn more about the impact of dietary methionine restriction on the progression of AML, discuss transferrin upregulation as a cause of high-altitude-induced hypercoagulability, and learn more about the protective effects of leukemia inhibitory factor against graft-versus-host disease.

In this week’s episode, we will review a study that cell-free hemoglobin S was found to induce high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine production in monocytes. The effect is mediated by Toll-like receptor 4, or TLR4, suggesting intriguing therapeutic possibilities for sickle cell disease.  Secondly, germinal center B cells with aberrant expression profiles undergo independent clonal evolution in the microenvironment of angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma. New findings published in Blood elucidate mechanisms of disease pathogenesis and uncover a new potential target for treatment. Finally, an upfront combination of three immunosuppressive agents was highly effective and well tolerated in patients with acquired hemophilia A. Although prospective studies are needed, the triple regimen could be an attractive treatment option, particularly for elderly and frail patients.

In this week’s episode we’ll discuss the role of epigenetic regulator genes in lineage switching in MLL/AF4 leukemia, learn more about the efficacy of ibrutinib in mantle cell lymphoma with central nervous system relapse, and discuss the findings from a phase 3 trial of gilteritinib plus azacitidine in patients with newly diagnosed FLT3-mutated AML.