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Biomedical subjects

H Dombret

Publications and source records attributed to H Dombret.

88 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

All-transretinoic acid followed by intensive chemotherapy gives a high complete remission rate and may prolong remissions in newly diagnosed acute promyelocytic leukemia: a pilot study on 26 cases.

We entered 26 patients with newly diagnosed acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) in a pilot study of all-transretinoic acid (ATRA) followed by intensive chemotherapy. Median age was 46 (range 25 to 63). No patient presented with leukocytes > 10 x 10(9)/L or had the microgranular APL variant. Cytogenetic analysis (25 patients) found a t(15;17) in 24 cases. Patients were scheduled to receive ATRA (45 mg/m2/d) until complete remission, followed by an intensive daunorubicin (DNR) + Ara C course ("4 + 7" course), then three "2 + 5" DNR + Ara C courses and maintenance chemotheapy. However, the "4 + 7" course was administered in emergency if hyperleukocytosis rapidly developed to prevent leukostasis. Twenty-five patients (96%) achieved CR, 14 with ATRA alone and 11 after the addition of the "4 + 7" course on day 2 to 30 of treatment, because leukocytes rapidly increased (9 cases), because of resistance to ATRA (1 case), and development of organomegaly (1 case). The remaining patient died on day 6, from CNS bleeding. Apart from hyperleukocytosis, side effects were usually moderate. In the 11 patients who could be studied in vitro, a very good correlation was found between in vivo and vitro differentiation and proliferation of APL blasts with ATRA. Three patients were allografted after the "4 + 7" course. Four patients did not receive this course but received the subsequent "2 + 5" courses and maintenance. The remaining patients followed the scheduled protocol. Three patients relapsed after 8, 11, and 15 months (including one allografted patient). Two patients died in CR, after 6 and 17 months. The other 20 patients remained in CR after 18+ to 34+ months (median 21). Actuarial disease free interval (DFI) and event free survival (EFS) were 87% and 77%, respectively, after 18 months. These results were compared to those obtained in our previous APL 84 trial with chemotherapy alone in newly diagnosed APL (after excluding patients included in this trial who presented with hyperleukocytosis). In APL 84 trial, the CR rate was 76%, the actuarial DFI and EFS were 59% and 48% after 18 months, respectively. Differences with the pilot study of ATRA followed by chemotherapy were significant for DFI (P = .02), EFS (P = .006), but not for CR rate (P = .08). Although this is a historical comparison, these results suggest that ATRA followed by chemotherapy may prove superior to chemotherapy alone in newly diagnosed APL, by slightly increasing the CR rate, but perhaps more importantly by reducing the relapse rate.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Actuarial Analysis↗

Acute lysis pneumopathy after chemotherapy for acute myelomonocytic leukemia with abnormal marrow eosinophils.

Acute respiratory failure developed in two patients with hyperleukocytic acute myelomonocytic leukemia with abnormal marrow eosinophils within 1 to 3 days after the beginning of high-dose induction chemotherapy. The presence of moderate pulmonary leukostasis before chemotherapy initiation, the simultaneous occurrence of an acute tumor lysis syndrome, the lack of evidence of any other cause of respiratory distress, and the clinical evolution lead the authors to attribute pulmonary injury to lysis of resident leukemic cells. The responsibility of eosinophilic cellular constituents for the diffuse alveolar damage is discussed.

Acute Disease↗

Autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation after high dose therapy in patients with advanced lymphomas.

Thirty-eight patients with refractory or relapsed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (19 patients) or Hodgkin's disease (19 patients) were treated with salvage therapy. The peripheral stem cell collection was performed during hematologic recovery after myeloablative chemotherapy. In eight patients with Hodgkin's disease the number of CFU-GM collected was less than 0.5 x 10(4)/kg and these patients were excluded for stem cell transplantation. In the remaining 30 patients, a median of 4 x 10(4) CFU-GM/kg was collected (range 0.8-100 x 10(4)/kg) by three leukaphereses in 25 patients and six to 11 leukaphereses in five patients. Conditioning regimens were CBV (eight), BEAM (six), BEAC (10) and cyclophosphamide + total body irradiation (TBI) (six). Without TBI, the mean time for reaching a granulocyte count greater than 0.5 x 10(9)/l was 18 days and for a platelet count greater than 50 x 10(9)/l was 19 days in 23 out of 24 patients. With TBI, in five patients the mean time for reaching a granulocyte count greater tahn 0.5 x 10(9)/l was 37 days and for a platelet count greater than 50 x 10(9)/l was greater than 100 days. Complications were minor. There was only one toxic death. The outcome in these patients was similar to that observed in patients who received autologous bone marrow transplantation for advanced lymphomas. In conclusion, we observed good hematologic recovery except when TBI was used in the conditioning regimen.

Adolescent↗

[Current data on GM-CSF (Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor) in acute myeloid leukemia].

GM-CSF (Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor) activates neutrophil, eosinophil, granular, and macrophage precursors through binding to specific receptors. GM-CSF receptor is a member of the "cytokine receptor superfamily", which displays a particular transmembrane structure. It is expressed in small amounts on normal mature blood or medullary cells, with a high affinity. On acute myeloid leukemia blasts (18 patients), our results agree with the review of the literature: GM-CSF receptors are in small amounts, of two types (high and low affinity), with no relation to the FAB classification of leukemias.

Colony-Stimulating Factors↗

Combined therapy with all-trans-retinoic acid and high-dose chemotherapy in patients with hyperleukocytic acute promyelocytic leukemia and severe visceral hemorrhage.

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is associated with a high incidence of disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and early hemorrhagic death. The risk of early fatal hemorrhage is increased when high peripheral-blood blast count and severe DIC accompanied by visceral hemorrhage are present at diagnosis. Progressive cytolysis induced by daily increased doses of chemotherapy, or differentiation all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) therapy have been proposed for initial control of DIC, but both are dangerous in hyperleukocytic APL patients. We report our results obtained in three high-risk APL patients treated with a combination of conventional chemotherapy and ATRA. All patients had documented hyperleukocytic APL [M3 or M3-variant subtype, (15, 17) translocation] with DIC, and all had critical clinical course before treatment. Patient 1 presented with cerebral hemorrhage, patients 2 and 3 had acute respiratory failure probably due to pulmonary leukemic infiltration and pulmonary hemorrhage. In order to minimize the severity of DIC during chemotherapy-induced acute cytolysis, ATRA (45 mg/m2 per day) was started on the first or second day of chemotherapy and withdrawn when complete remission (CR) was achieved. Despite adverse clinical features, CR was obtained in these three high-risk patients. Patient 1 showed no increase of cerebral bleeding during therapy. Patients 2 and 3 required transient intensive care, with mechanical ventilation from day 4 to day 11 for one of them. Differentiating granular cells were present in peripheral blood of all patients from the day 5, 12 and 8 of cytotoxic therapy. For the three patients, the number of days with white blood cell count < 1 x 10(9)/l was only 2, 7 and 11 days respectively. These results suggest that differentiation therapy with ATRA may be useful even in hyperleukocytic APL patients, when ATRA is used in combination with chemotherapy. The mechanisms of this putative beneficial effect are discussed.

Adult↗

Granulocytic colony-stimulating factors (G-CSF and GM-CSF) in the treatment of adult acute myeloid leukemia.

Large randomized trials have shown that granulocytic colony-stimulating factors (G-CSF and GM-CSF) may be interesting in vivo in promoting neutrophil recovery after high-dose myelosuppressive therapy in some clinical settings. However, any beneficial effect on survival was not yet demonstrated. Granulocytic CSFs act as growth and viability factors on myeloid leukemic cells and their use in acute myeloid leukemias (AML) is theorically not without risk. Paradoxically, these CSFs will maybe be usefull in the future as a part of AML treatment. First, the high early mortality rate in elderly AML patients after intensive chemotherapy should allow a demonstration of a CSF-induced improvement of survival. Secondly, GM-CSF should increase the efficacy of cell cycle dependent cytotoxic drugs based on recruitment of quiescent leukemic cells. Third, granulocytic CSFs should be used to induce programmed cell death in myeloid leukemic cells.

Acute Disease↗

[Adult T-cell leukemia and non-malignant adenopathies associated with HTLV I virus. Apropos of 17 patients born in the Caribbean region and Africa].

Adult T-cell leukaemia is the first blood disease caused by a retrovirus: HTLV-1. The authors report the first French series of 15 patients, of whom 9 came from the classical endemic areas--the Antilles and outer Caribbean Islands--and 6 from Africa where the serological prevalence of HTLV-1 is high but few cases of adult T-cell leukaemia have been reported. Emphasis is laid on the importance of immunodeficiency (refractory strongyloidiasis, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, polyclonal B lymphoproliferative syndrome) and of other pathologies associated with the retrovirus (polyarthritis, lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia). The authors also describe the presence of adenopathy in healthy carriers: either adenitis suggestive of retroviral infection, or Castelman's disease adenopathy. These clinical presentations are similar to those described in lymphadenopathy syndromes due to the human immunodeficiency viruses. Aggressive lymphomas require chemotherapy, but sooner or later resistance develops, and the prognosis is very poor. The indications for allogeneic bone marrow transplantation are still to be determined. The diagnosis of adult T-cell leukaemia must be considered in all patients with blood disease coming from the endemic areas.

Adult↗

Control of Ia antigen expression on phagocytic cells of the thymic reticulum by interferon-gamma and prostaglandins.

Phagocytic cells of the thymic reticulum (P-TR) spawned in the microenvironment of primary thymic stroma cultures express class II antigens on their membranes. We can show that Ia-antigen expression is regulated by the local secretion of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma): (a) early primary culture supernatants contain IFN as tested by a cytopathogenic inhibition test after concentration of IFN activity; (b) the addition of a specific anti-IFN-gamma antiserum to primary cultures reduces Ia expression on P-TR suggesting that IFN-gamma produced in situ is implicated in Ia expression; (c) the percentage of Ia+ cells declines as primary cultures age. This phenomenon parallels the disappearance of thymocytes which are the supposed candidate for IFN-gamma secretion. (d) When isolated from their stromal environment and replated in secondary cultures, P-TR lose their membrane Ia antigen which can be re-expressed in the presence of recombinant IFN-gamma, but not IFN-alpha/beta. The decline of Ia expression on P-TR during the aging of primary cultures may be delayed by the inhibition of prostaglandin secretion.

Animals↗