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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been associated with a significant fatality rate and persistent evolution in immunocompromised patients. In this prospective study, we aimed to determine the duration of excretion of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 37 Tunisian patients with hematological malignancies (40.5% with lymphoma and 37.8% with leukemia). In order to investigate the accumulation of viral mutations, we carried out genetic investigation on longitudinal nasopharyngeal samples using RT-PCR and whole-genome sequencing. Patients' samples were collected until the RT-PCR results became negative. SARS-CoV-2 infection was symptomatic in 48.6% of cases with fever, and cough was symptomatic in 61% of cases; the mortality rate was estimated to be 13.5%. The duration of viral RNA shedding ranged from 7 to 92 days after onset; it exceeded 18 days in 79.4% of cases. An intermittent PCR positivity was observed in two symptomatic patients. Persistent PCR positivity, defined as the presence of viral RNA for more than 30 days, was found in 51.4% of cases. No significant differences were observed for age, sex, type of hematological malignancy, or COVID-19 evolution between this group and a second one characterized by non-persistent PCR positivity. Lymphopenia was an independent predictor of prolonged SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection ( p = 0.04). Three types of variants were detected; the most frequent was the Omicron. Globally, the mean intra-host variability in the SARS-CoV-2 genome was 1.31 × 10 -3 mutations per site per year; it was 1.44 × 10 -3 in the persistent group and 1.3 × 10 -3 in the non-persistent group. Three types of mutations were detected; the most frequent were nucleotide substitutions in the spike (S) gene. No statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups as to the type and mean number of observed mutations in the whole genome and the S region ( p = 0.650). Sequence analysis revealed the inclusion of one to eight amino acid-changing events in seventeen cases; it was characterized by genetic stability from the third to the twentieth day of evolution in six cases. For the two patients with intermittent PCR positivity, sequences obtained from samples before and after negative PCR were identical in the whole genome, confirming an intra-host evolution of the same viral strain. This study confirms the risk of persistent viral shedding in patients with hematological malignancies. However, persistence of PCR positivity seems to be correlated only with a continuous elimination of viral RNA debris. Additional studies based on cell culture analysis are needed to confirm these findings.

Introduction: Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a rare but potentially fatal hematological disorder that requires urgent treatment. Once the diagnosis has been made, plasma exchange (PE) must be started immediately and until a response is obtained., Aim: Evaluate PE in terms of responses and complications in the treatment of TTP., Methods: This was a monocentric, descriptive, retrospective study including patients in whom TTP was diagnosed and treated with plasmapheresis in the clinical hematology department at Aziza Othmana Hospital, between January 2010 and December 2020., Results: Our study included 26 patients. PE was initiated within a median of 1 day. The rhythm of exchanges was daily in 22 patients. Twenty PE-related complications were noted, hypocalcemia being the most frequent (30%). CR was achieved in 15 patients after PE alone. Nine patients were refractory, and six received 2nd-line treatment, with CR achieved in five patients. Relapse was noted in six patients (40%). They were treated by PE and only one patient received rituximab. Four patients had a response. The overall response rate was 69% and overall mortality was 30%. OS at 2 years was 68,3% and RFS was 84,4%. Factors associated with the achievement of CR were the fall in LDH at D5 of treatment (p=0,027,OR=0,59 ;IC 95%[0,32-1,08]) and the daily rhythm of PE (p=0,005, OR=0,35; IC 95%[0,14-0,91])., Conclusion: Our results were comparable to those of the literature, but the rate of refractory disease was higher. Rituximab may enhance our results.

Objective: In Tunisia, the management of Adult Hodgkin's Lymphoma (HL) has been standardized since 1999. We propose in this study to report the therapeutic results of the national protocol of adult HL treatment (MDH2008)., Patients and Methods: Our study is prospective multicenter interesting 444 patients followed for HL between July 2008 and June 2013 and treated according to the MDH2008 protocol. The median age of our patients was 30 years. B symptoms were present in 62.8 % of our patients. According to the Ann Arbor classification, our patients were in stages I, II, III and IV in 3 %, 42 %, 26 % and 29 %, respectively. The MDH2008 protocol is based on a strategy adapted to the therapeutic response to 2 cycles of chemotherapy., Results: Response≥75 % to 2 courses of chemotherapy was achieved in 43 % of patients and the response rate at the end of treatment was 92.1 %. Forty-eight patients (11.4 %) had primary failure. In the multi-variant study, bulky mediastinal mass (IMT≥0.35) was an independent predictive factor of primary failure (P: 0.000). Nineteen toxic deaths (4.35 %) were reported. The relapse rate was 7.8 %. Event free survival, relapse-free survival and overall survival at 5years were 75 %, 89 % and 90 %, respectively. Adaptation of the treatment to the 2 cycles response was effective in unfavorable early stages and advanced stages., Conclusion: Compared to MDH2002 (second version of Tunisian prospective protocol), the MDH2008 reduced the primary failure rate, the rate of toxic deaths with escalated BEACOPP and the rate of relapse in Tunisian patients., (Copyright © 2018 Société Française du Cancer. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

Data are limited in developing countries regarding the clinicopathologic features and response to therapy of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in the era of imatinib (IM). The objective of this study is to report on the clinicoepidemiologic features of CML in Tunisia, to evaluate the long-term outcome of patients in chronic (CP) or accelerated phase (AP) treated with IM 400 mg daily as frontline therapy, and to determine imatinib's efficacy and safety. From October 2002 to December 2014, 410 CML patients were treated with IM in six Tunisian departments of hematology. Response (hematologic, cytogenetic, and molecular responses) and outcome-overall survival (OS), event-free survival (EFS), and progression-free survival (PFS)-were evaluated. The following prognostic factors were analyzed for their impact on the European leukemia net (ELN) response, OS, EFS, and PFS at 5 years: age, sex, leukocyte count, Sokal score, European Treatment and Outcome Study (EUTOS) score, CML phase, time to starting IM, and impact of adverse events. The median age was 45 years (3-85 years). Two hundred ten (51.2%) patients were male. Splenomegaly was present in 322 of the 410 (79%). Additional cytogenetic abnormalities were encountered in 25 (6.3%) patients. At diagnosis, 379 (92.4%) patients were in CP, 31 (7.6%) were in AP. The Sokal risk was low in 87 (22.5%), intermediate in 138 (35.7%), and high in 164 patients (41.9%). The EUTOS risk was low in 217 (74%), and high in 77 (26%) patients. The rates of cumulative complete cytogenetic response (CCyR), major molecular response (MMR), and molecular response 4/5 log (MR4.5) in CP/AP-CML patients were 72, 68.4, and 46.4%, respectively. The median time to reach CCyR, MMR, and MR4.5 was 6 months (3-51), 18 months (3-72), and 24 months (3-100), respectively. According to the ELN criteria, optimal, suboptimal response, and failure were noted in 206 (51.8%), 61 (15.3%), and 125 (31.4%) patients, respectively. Five-year event-free survival (EFS), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were 81, 90, and 90%, respectively. By multivariate analysis, AP, high EUTOS risk, and baseline WBC ≥ 150G/l remained independent predictive factors of non-optimal response to IM. The adverse events (AE) of IM were moderate and tolerable. With the caveats that the monitoring of the disease was not optimal, response rates were similar to those reported in previous studies. It is clear to us that improvements should be made in treatment of AP-CML and high Sokal risk group of CP-CML. The frontline use of second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) is expected to improve the results of the first-line treatment of these high-risk Tunisian patients, but cost and accessibility of this therapy remain the problems in developing countries.

Background: bcr-abl fusion gene is the hallmark of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). RQ-PCR provides an accurate measure of the total leukemia cell mass and the degree to which bcr-abl transcripts are reduced by therapy correlates with progression free survival., Aim: We report molecular assessment of residual disease in CML Tunisian patients., Methods: Between June 2003 and December 2014 we measured bcr-abl mRNA levels in peripheral blood from all Tunisian patients by quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (RQ-PCR)., Results: A total of 708 patients with a mean age of 42 years were included in this study. Based on European Leukemia Net 2013, 80% of the patients achieved an optimal response 20% were in treatment failure. 38% of the patients achieved RM4 which corresponds to a bcr-abl/abl ratio <0.01%, 13% of the patients achieved RM4.5corresponding to bcr-abl/abl ratio of 0.0032%., Conclusion: CML patients had a good response to tyrosine kinase inhibitors treatment. RQ-PCR is helpful in detecting any residual disease and determining the depth of the treatment response.

The Tunisian adult's Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) Study Group was created in 1999. It aimed to improve the management of this curable hematologic malignancy by standardizing the diagnosis, assessment of disease, treatment management and therapeutic evaluation in different Tunisian centers (Hematology, oncology and radiotherapy).Since 1998, four versions of the prospective national protocol for treating adult Hodgkin lymphoma have succeeded (MDH99, MDH2002, MDH2008, MDH2015). Each version was based on the results of the previous version and analyzed according to new data from the literature. Due to this national study group, the number of patients lost to follow decreased significantly (30% before the creation of the group and only 3% for patients treated with MDH2008), the complete and uncertain response rates have improved (75% before the creation of the group and 92% in patients treated with MDH2008) with dramatically improved rates of overall survival from 57% to 90%. On the other hand there was an improvement of toxic death rate (13% of toxic deaths in MDH2002 to 4.37% in the MDH2008) with a decrease of the respective rate of primary failure and relapse by 17% and 12.5% in MDH2002 against the 11.4% and 7.8% in the MDH2008. This resulted in an improvement in overall survival (90%) and event-free survival at 5 years (75%). Now with the introduction of positron emission tomography in Tunisia, we hope yet to finalize the assessment of response and thus better adapt the treatment of this disease. Our objective remains the improvement of event-free survival rate to reach 80%.

Reports on childhood APL from developing countries are scarce. We treated 65 APL with two consecutive trials combining ATRA and chemotherapy. Twenty (30.7%) were aged less than 20 years including 11 girls and 9 boys, with a median age of 12 years. Fever at presentation (P=0.002) and variant APL (P=0.044) were more frequent in children, while there were no significant difference between children and adults for WBC count, Sanz's score distribution and additional cytogenetic abnormalities. The CR rate was 95% (19/20) in children and 80% (36/45) in adults (P=0.13). Differentiation syndrome (DS) was less often observed in children (1/20) than in adults (13/45) (P=0.031). Two children relapsed and died during salvage therapy, and 2 died in CR from infection and from cardiac failure attributed to anthracyclines, while other children remained alive in CR. With a median follow-up of 4 years, 4-year EFS was 75% in children and 71.1% in adults (P=0.57), while 4-year OS was 75% in children vs. 73.3% in adults (P=0.72). Our results suggest that, even in the absence of optimal socio-economic condition, ATRA combined with anthracycline-based chemotherapy gives adequate results in childhood APL, as in adults.

Pseudomonas is a clinically significant and opportunist pathogen, usually associated in causing high mortality nosocomial infections. The aim of this study was to determine the risk factors associated with septic shock in patients diagnosed with hematologic malignancies and Pseudomonas infections. A total of 80 Pseudomonas isolates (77 Pseudomonas aeruginosa) were collected from 66 patients aged 2-64 years: 52 with acute leukemia (79%), 7 with lymphoma (10.5%), and 7 with other hematologic disorders (10.5%), between 2001 and 2009. The median age of the patients was 30 years. Isolates were collected mostly from bloodstreams (45%) and skin lesions (31.5%). The median time for microbiologic documentation was 8 days (range 0-35 days) from onset of neutropenia. At least 11 patients (16.6%) had recurrent (≥2) infections. The clinical symptoms observed were skin lesions (34%), diarrhea (20%), isolated fever (18%), and respiratory symptoms (14%). The isolates tested were found resistant to piperacillin/tazobactam (43%), ceftazidime (31%), imipenem-cilastatin (26%), ciprofloxacin (25%), and amikacin (26%). Septic shock occurred in 16.2% of episodes (13/80). Crude mortality due to septic shock occurred in 19.6% of patients (13/66). The median time for response to antibiotic therapy in the remaining 80.4% of patients (53/66) was 2.5 days. Univariate analysis revealed that factors associated with septic shock were: fever for ≥3 days in patients on antibiotic therapy (P = 0.019), serum lactate >5 mmol (P = 0.05), hemoglobin level <50 g/l (P = 0.042), hypoproteinemia <50 g/l (P = 0.01), procalcitonin >10 ng/ml (P = 0.031), and hypophosphatemia (P = 0.001). Multivariate analysis revealed that hypophosphatemia (P = 0.018), hypoproteinemia (P = 0.028), and high serum lactate (P = 0.012) are significant factors, independently associated with increased risk of septic shock in patients with hematologic malignancies and Pseudomonas infections.

In Tunisia, the ATRA era began in 1998 with the use, consecutively, of two regimens combining ATRA and an anthracycline with cytarabine (APL93), and without cytarabine (LPA99). From 2004, 51 patients with confirmed APL either by t(15;17) or PML/RARA were treated according to the PETHEMA LPA 99 trial. Forty three patients achieved CR (86%). The remaining seven patients had early death (one died before treatment onset): four caused by differentiation syndrome (DS) and three died from central nervous system hemorrhage. Multivariate analysis revealed that female gender (P=0.045), baseline WBC> 10 G/L (P=0.041) and serum creatinine > 1.4mg/dl (P=0.021) were predictive of mortality during induction. DS was observed in 16 patients (32%) after a median onset time of 15 days from treatment onset (range, 2-29). Body mass index ≥ 30 (P=0.01) remained independent predictor of DS. Occurrence of hypertensive peaks significantly predicted occurrence of DS (P=0.011) and was significantly associated with high BMI (p=0.003). With a median follow-up of 50 months, 5 year cumulative incidence of relapse, event free and overall survival were 4.7%, 74% and 78%, respectively.

Background: The combination of all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) and chemotherapy has made acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) a highly curable leukemia. However, several complications are reported with this treatment the most serious and life threatening being Retinoic Acid Syndrome (RAS). We aimed at identifying factors that could predict complications caused by ATRA during induction treatment of APL., Patients: Forty-two patients with confirmed APL (by t(15;17) and/or PML/RARA) treated at our institution (University hospital of Tunis) between January 1998 and June 2006 using two consecutive protocols: European APL93 trial (24 patients) until February 2004 and Spanish PETHEMA LPA99 trial (18 patients) more recently. Induction regimen consisted of ATRA 45 mg/m(2)/d until CR combined to DNR 60 mg/m(2)/d x 3+Cytarabine 200 mg/m(2)/d x 7 (APL93) and Idarubicin 12 mg/m(2) d2, 4, 6, 8 (LPA99). Prednisone (0.5 mg/kg d1-d15) was added if WBC >10 x 10(9)/L to prevent RAS in LPA 99., Results: Median age was 36 yr (7-64 yr), M/F=16/26 (0.61), median WBC was 2.4 x 10(9)/L (range 0.6-100 x 10(9)/L). WBC >10 x 10(9)/L was noted in 14 patients (33%). Additional cytogenetic abnormalities were seen in 12/42 (28%). Median body mass index (BMI=weight/height(2):N 20-25) was 24 kg/m(2) (range 16-40 kg/m(2)), BMI >30 was noted in nine patients (8F and 1M). Thirty-three patients achieved CR (78.57%):18/24 (75%) in APL93 versus 15/18 (83%) in LPA99. Nine patients (21.42%) had early death. Causes of early death were: RAS (6) and CNS hemorrhage (3). Complications due to ATRA were: RAS (10), Scrotal ulcerations (3), Sweet syndrome (2), Perineal ulcerations (1), and Pseudotumor cerebri (1). Prognostic factors for complications of ATRA (Fisher exact test) were: BMI >35 (p=0.055), induction treatment without cytarabine (LPA99 trial) (p=0.047), whereas age (p=0.74), gender (p=0.51), initial WBC (p=0.47), and additional cytogenetic abnormalities (p=0.83) were not predictive. Retinoic Acid Syndrome was more reported in patients with initial WBC >10 x 10(9)/L (p=0.08)., Conclusion: We found high BMI (>35) in female and treatment without Cytarabine to increase the risk of developing complications with ATRA.

The diagnosis of pseudotumor cerebri (PC) is based on the triad of: (1) papilledema, (2) elevated intracranial pressure with a normal cerebrospinal constituency and (3) normal central nervous system imaging studies. It is an uncommon complication of all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) therapy in children treated for acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL). Its occurrence is rare among adult patients with APL and treated with ATRA . We report a case of an adult with APL who developed PC during induction therapy with ATRA-PC was managed with repeated lumbar punctures and corticotherapy.

Background: Acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) account for approximately 10% to 15% of all AML in most reports. Clinical features includes the presence in 80% to 90% of patients of a severe hemorrhagic syndrome, a specific balanced translocation between chromosomes 15 and 17 with a fusion of a large pert of the retinoic acid receptor a gene (RARa) on chromosome 17 to a part of the promyelocytic leukaemia (PML) gene on chromosome 15. More than 75% of patients (under 65 years of age) can be cured, with the application of a combination of anthracyclines and all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), followed by maintenance therapy., Aim: of the study was to assess of the therapeutic management of APL 93 protocol in acute promyelocytic leukemia., Methods: We present here the results of a retrospective study concerning 34 patients with APL included between 1998 and 2004 in the APL 93 protocol : 20 in group B and 14 in group C. CR was 82 %., Results: Failure is only due to toxic death (18%) Event free survival at 4 years is 63,47% with relapse rate at 14.25%. Overall survival at 4 years is 69,72%. Our results are acceptable and can be improved with reduction of failure due to toxic death, probably with omission of cytarabine from induction and consolidation adapted by the Spanish PETHEMA Group.

The present work focuses on the therapeutic efficacy and the toxicity of alpha interferon in patients younger than age 18 years. 5 patients younger than 18 years were treated and followed up between 1990 and 1999 at the department of haematology (Aziza Othmana Hospital) Hydroxyurea was given as initial treatment to all patients. After a median period of 8 months, these patients received alpha interferon (5 millions units/m2 once). Six months after the beginning of the alpha interferon a complete hematologic response was obtained in all patients. The median overall survival was of 66 months: 3 patients are still alive (2 patients in an advanced stage and one patient in chronic phase) and 2 patients died after transformation. The most common reported side effects of alpha interferon were asthenia, weight loss, fever, myalgia, chills and headaches--these toxic manifestations were mild and were noticed in all our patients. Myelosuppression was noted in two patients. Interferon is well tolerated in patients younger than age years 18 old, with CML. It may offer an alternative to bone marrow transplantation in children in the chronic phase of CML without histocompatible donor. The role of new agents such as STI 571 needs to be evaluated as well.

Cytogenetic studies were performed on 117 Tunisian patients with de novo myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). According to the French-American-British (FAB) criteria 40 patients presented with refractory anaemia (RA, 34%), eight with refractory anaemia with ringed sideroblasts (RARAS, 7%), 19 with refractory anaemia with excess of blasts (RAEB, 16%), 16 with refractory anaemia with excess of blasts in transformation (RAEB-t, 14%), 18 had chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia (CMML, 15%) and 16 unclassifiable MDS (14%). Seventy-five were men and forty-two were women. Five were children and 112 were adults with a median age of 58 years. Fifty-five per cent of the patients presented clonal chromosome abnormalities. Rates of abnormality varied from one FAB subtype to the other: 55% in RA, 75% in RARAS, 63% in RAEB, 75% in RAEB-t and 28% in CMML. The most frequent chromosome abnormalities were del(5q) (22 cases), monosomy 7 (12 cases), del(12p) (6 cases), and trisomy 8 (5 cases). Rare abnormalities were also found: ring of chromosome 12 and trisomy 15. Conventional cytogenetics remains the basic technique in identifying chromosomal abnormalities associated with MDS.