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Fenretinide, a synthetic retinoid, induces apoptotic cell death in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B- NHL) and acts synergistically with rituximab in preclinical models. We report results from a phase I-II study of fenretinide with rituximab for B- NHLs. Eligible diagnoses included indolent B- NHL or mantle cell lymphoma. The phase I design de-escalated from fenretinide at 900 mg/m2 PO BID for days 1-5 of a 7-day cycle. The phase II portion added 375 mg/m2 IV rituximab weekly on weeks 5-9 then every 3 months. Fenretinide was continued until progression or intolerance. Thirty-two patients were treated: 7 in phase I, and 25 in phase II of the trial. No dose-limiting toxicities were observed. The phase II component utilized fenretinide 900 mg/m2 twice daily with rituximab. The most common treatment-related adverse events of grade 3 or higher were rash ( n = 3) and neutropenia ( n = 3). Responses were seen in 6 (24%) patients on the phase II study, with a median duration of response of 47 months (95% confidence interval, 2-56). The combination of fenretinide and rituximab was well tolerated, yielded a modest overall response rate, but with prolonged remission durations. Further study should focus on identifying the responsive subset of B- NHL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: High-dose melphalan and autologous stem cell transplantation (HDM/SCT) is an effective treatment modality for immunoglobulin light-chain (AL) amyloidosis; however, its application remains restricted to patients with good performance status and limited organ involvement. In recent years, the paradigm for AL amyloidosis has changed with the introduction of novel agents such as immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) and proteasome inhibitors (PIs). We hypothesized that use of novel agent induction regimens has improved outcomes for patients with AL amyloidosis undergoing HDM/SCT at our center. Methods: All patients with AL amyloidosis, age ≥18 years who underwent HDM/SCT between 2001 and 2014 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington Medical Center were included in this study. Any regimen administered within 6 months prior to HDM/SCT including an IMiD or a PI was considered a novel induction regimen. Use of induction regimen was evaluated in a Cox proportional hazard model for association with progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: Forty-five patients with AL amyloidosis underwent HDM/SCT. The median age was 57.2 years (range 39–74.4), 15 (33.3%) were women. The median number of organs involved was 2 (range 1–5), with 20 patients having only 1 (44.4%), 10 patients having 2 (22.2%), and 15 patients (33.3%) having ≥ 3 organs involved. Novel agent induction regimens were used prior to HDM/SCT in 21 patients (46.7%); these comprised PI in 13/21 (57.1%), IMiD alone in 6/21 (28.6%), PI and cyclophosphamide (CyBorD) in 3/21 (14.3%), and IMiD and PI in 3/21 (14.3%). Use of a novel agent induction regimen was associated with improved, but not OS. The 3-year PFS for patients who received a novel agent induction was 79%, while for those who did not was 53% (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.317,p = 0.048). The 3-year OS for patients who received novel agent induction regimens was 95%, while for those who did not was 71% (HR = 0.454,p = 0.247). Discussion: Our data suggest that use of a novel agent induction regimen including an IMiD or PI prior to HDM/SCT for patients with AL amyloidosis could improve outcomes, with improvement in PFS. Although these results are limited by sample size and lack of randomization, these results support possible further investigation of novel agent induction regimens in the context of a prospective clinical trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Normalization of fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) imaging prior to high-dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) improves outcomes in relapsed and refractory (RR) Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), but many patients refractory to platinum-based salvage regimens are unable to achieve this goal. We therefore investigated whether brentuximab vedotin (BV) could normalize FDG PET in platinum-refractory HL prior to ASCT. Fifteen consecutive patients with RR HL and FDG PET positive disease after platinum-based salvage therapy were treated with a median of 4 cycles of BV. Normalization of FDG PET (Deauville ≤2) occurred in 8/15 (53%) patients but was only observed in patients that had achieved partial remission or stable disease after platinum-based salvage therapy. All patients eventually proceeded to ASCT, regardless of FDG PET status. Our data suggest that BV can normalize FDG PET in a subset of patients with platinum-refractory HL prior to ASCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) can improve outcomes for mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) patients, yet relapses are frequent. We hypothesized that high-dose anti-CD20 radioimmunotherapy (RIT)-based conditioning could improve results in this setting. We thus assessed 162 consecutive patients with MCL at our centre undergoing ASCT following high-dose RIT-based (n = 61) or standard (n = 101) conditioning. RIT patients were less likely to be in first remission (48% vs. 72%; P = 0.002), be in complete remission (CR) (26% vs. 61%; P < 0.001) and have chemosensitive disease (84% vs. 96%; P = 0.006). RIT-based conditioning was associated with a reduced risk of treatment failure [hazard ratio (HR) 0.40; P = 0.001] and mortality (HR 0.49; P = 0.01) after adjusting for these imbalances. This difference increased as disease status worsened (from CR to partial remission to stable/progressive disease), with respective HRs of 1.14, 0.53 and 0.04 for mortality, and 0.66, 0.36 and 0.14 for treatment failure. RIT-based conditioning appears to improve outcome following ASCT for MCL patients unable to achieve CR after controlling for imbalances in important risk factors. These data support the further study of RIT and radiation-based strategies in a risk-adapted approach to ASCT for persistent MCL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose CD37 is cell surface tetraspanin present on normal and malignant B cells. Otlertuzumab (TRU-016) is a novel humanized anti-CD37 protein therapeutic that triggers direct caspase independent apoptosis of malignant B cells and induces antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity. This study evaluated the safety, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy of otlertuzumab administered in combination with rituximab and bendamustine to patients with relapsed, indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL). Methods Patients with relapsed or refractory NHL received otlertuzumab (10 or 20 mg/kg) intravenously (IV) on days 1 and 15, bendamustine (90 mg/m) on days 1 and 2, and rituximab (375 mg/m) on day 1 for up to six 28 day cycles. Responses were determined using standard criteria. Results Twelve patients were treated with 6 patients at each dose level; median age was 57 years (range, 51-79), and median number of prior regimens was 3 (range, 1-4). All patients had relapsed after prior rituximab including 7 refractory to their most recent previous treatment. In the 10 and 20 mg/kg dose cohorts, the mean half-life was 8 and 10 days following the first dose, and 12 or 14 days following 12 doses of otlertuzumab, respectively. Overall response rate was 83 % (10/12) with 4 CRs (32 %). The most frequent adverse events were neutropenia, nausea, fatigue, leukopenia, and insomnia; most were grade 1 or 2. Conclusions Otlertuzumab in combination with rituximab and bendamustine was well tolerated and induced responses in the majority of patients with relapsed indolent B-NHL. NCI Clinical Trials Network registration: NCT01317901. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many patients with hematologic malignancies cannot tolerate hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), whereas others may not have a compatible human leukocyte antigen- matched donor. To overcome these limitations, we optimized a conditioning regimen employing anti-CD45 radioimmunotherapy (RIT) replacing total body irradiation (TBI) before haploidentical HCT in a murine model. Mice received 200 to 400 μCi 90Y-anti-CD45 antibody (30F11), with or without fludarabine (5 days starting day -8), with cyclophosphamide (CY; days -2 and 12) for graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis, and 1.5 × 107 haploidentical donor bone marrow cells (day 0). Haploidentical bone marrow transplantation (BMT) with 300 μCi 90Y-anti-CD45 RIT and CY, without TBI or fludarabine, led to mixed chimeras with 81.3 ± 10.6% mean donor origin CD8+ cells detected 1 month after BMT, and remained stable (85.5 ± 11% mean donor origin CD8+ cells) 6 months after haploidentical BMT. High chimerism levels were induced across multiple hematopoietic lineages 28 days after haploidentical BMT with 69.3 ± 14.1%, 75.6 ± 20.2%, and 88.5 ± 11.8% CD3+ T cells, B220+ B cells, and CD11b+ myeloid cells, respectively. Fifty percent of SJL leukemia-bearing mice treated with 400 μCi 90Y-DOTA-30F11, CY, and haploidentical BMT were cured and lived >200 days. Mice treated with 200 μCi 90Y-DOTA-30F11 had a median overall survival of 73 days, while untreated leukemic mice had a median overall survival of 34 days (P < .001, Mantel-Cox test). RIT-mediated haploidentical BMT without TBI may increase treatment options for aggressive hematologic malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relapse is least common in patients with indolent B cell (iB) malignancies (ie, iB non-Hodgkin lymphoma [NHL]) who undergo nonmyeloablative allogeneic transplantation (NMAT) in complete remission (CR). However, for the many patients unable to achieve this state, outcomes are poorly described and methods to improve results are unknown. We sought to describe the long-term follow-up and predictive factors for these poor-risk patients unable to achieve CR before NMAT. We identified and evaluated patients with iB-NHL including chronic lymphocytic leukemia treated with fludarabine/total body irradiation–based NMAT that had evidence of persistent disease before NMAT. From December 1998 to April 2009, 89 patients were identified, most commonly with small/chronic lymphocytic lymphoma (n = 62) and follicular lymphoma (n = 24). Pretransplant anti-CD20 radioimmunotherapy (RIT) using standard yttrium-90-ibritumomab tiuxetan was administered to 18 patients (20%) who more frequently had chemoresistant disease (81% versus 39%, P = .003), disease bulk > 5 cm (61% versus 15%, P < .001), thrombocytopenia < 25k/μL (33% versus 7%, P = .002), and Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Comorbidity Index scores ≥ 3 (72% versus 37%, P = .006). After adjusting for these imbalances, RIT-treated patients had improved rates of progression-free survival (PFS) (hazard ratio [HR] = .4; 95% confidence interval [CI], .2 to .9, P = .02) and overall survival (OS) (HR = .3; 95% CI, .1 to .8, P = .008) compared with the non-RIT group. The 3-year adjusted estimates of PFS and OS for the RIT and non-RIT groups were 71% and 87% versus 44% and 59%, respectively. The use of RIT was the only factor independently associated with improved PFS and OS. Rates of nonrelapse mortality and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) were similar between the 2 groups, although over 70% of patients developed clinically significant acute or chronic GVHD. In conclusion, despite relatively high rates of GVHD, patients with persistent iB-NHL can derive durable benefit from NMAT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]