Paul Martin

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Background: Tisagenlecleucel is an autologous CD19-directed T-cell immunotherapy indicated in the USA for treatment of patients up to 25 years (y) of age with B-cell ALL that is refractory or in second or later relapse. Overall response rate was 82% with 24 months' (mo) follow-up in the registrational ELIANA trial [Grupp et al. Blood 2018]; pooled data from ELIANA and ENSIGN revealed similar outcomes upon stratification by age (&amp;lt;18y and ≥18y) [Rives et al. HemaSphere 2018]. Early real-world data for tisagenlecleucel from the CIBMTR registry reported similar efficacy to ELIANA with no new safety signals [Pasquini et al. Blood Adv 2020]. Outcomes are reported here for patients who received tisagenlecleucel in the real-world setting, stratified by age (&amp;lt;18y and ≥18y).</jats:p> <jats:p>Methods: This noninterventional prospective study used data from the CIBMTR registry and included patients aged ≤25y with R/R ALL. Eligible patients received commercial tisagenlecleucel after August 30, 2017, in the USA or Canada. Age-specific analyses were conducted in patients aged &amp;lt;18y and ≥18y at the time of infusion. Efficacy was assessed in patients with ≥12mo follow-up at each reporting center and included best overall response (BOR) of complete remission (CR), duration of response (DOR), event-free survival (EFS), relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). Safety was evaluated in all patients who completed the first (100-day) assessment. Adverse events (AEs) of interest - including cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and neurotoxicity - were monitored throughout the reporting period. CRS and neurotoxicity were graded using the ASTCT criteria.</jats:p> <jats:p>Results: As of October 30, 2020, data from 451 patients were collected, all of whom received tisagenlecleucel. The median time from receipt of leukapheresis product at the manufacturing site to shipment was 27 days (interquartile range: 25-34). Patients aged ≥18y appeared to have greater disease burden at baseline than those aged &amp;lt;18y, indicated by lower rates of morphologic CR and minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity prior to infusion. Older patients were also more heavily pre-treated before infusion. All other patient characteristics at baseline were comparable between the two groups (Table 1).</jats:p> <jats:p>In the efficacy set (median follow-up 21.5mo; range 11.9-37.2; N=322), BOR of CR was 87.3% (95% CI 83.1-90.7); MRD status was available for 150 patients, of whom 98.7% were MRD negative. Median DOR was 23.9mo (95% CI 12.3-not estimable [NE]), median EFS was 14.0mo (9.8-24.8) and median RFS was 23.9mo (13.0-NE); 12mo EFS and RFS were 54.3% and 62.3%, respectively. For OS, the median was not reached. Efficacy outcomes were generally similar across age groups (Table 1).</jats:p> <jats:p>In the safety set (median follow-up 20.0mo; range 2.6-37.2; N=400), most AEs of interest occurred within 100 days of infusion. Any-grade CRS was observed in 58.0% of patients; Grade ≥3 in 17.8%. Treatment for CRS included tocilizumab (n=113; 28.3% of all patients) and corticosteroids (n=31; 7.8%). Neurotoxicity was observed in 27.3% of patients; Grade ≥3 in 10.0%. Treatment for neurotoxicity included tocilizumab (n=17; 4.3% of all patients) and corticosteroids (n=28; 7.0%). During the reporting period, 82 (20.5%) patients died; the most common cause of death was recurrence/persistence/progression of primary disease. CRS and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell-related encephalopathy syndrome were the primary cause of death in 2 patients and 1 patient, respectively. Overall, safety data were similar across age groups, although more patients aged ≥18y experienced any-grade CRS or neurotoxicity and were subsequently treated (Table 1).</jats:p> <jats:p>Conclusions: Updated registry data for pediatric and young adult patients with R/R ALL treated with tisagenlecleucel revealed that patients aged ≥18y had a greater disease burden and were more heavily pre-treated at baseline than patients aged &amp;lt;18y. The overall efficacy and safety profiles of commercial tisagenlecleucel reflected those observed in the clinical trial setting [Grupp et al. Blood 2018; Rives et al. HemaSphere 2018] and were broadly consistent across age groups. Some important differences between the &amp;lt;18y and ≥18y groups were identified, which may point to challenges in timely identification and/or referral of older patients for CAR-T cell therapy.</jats:p> <jats:p>Figure 1 Figure 1.</jats:p> <jats:p /> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Disclosures</jats:title> <jats:p>Pulsipher: Equillium: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Adaptive: Research Funding; Jasper Therapeutics: Honoraria. Hu: Kite/Gilead: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding. Phillips: Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Incyte: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Margossian: Cue Biopharma, Inc.: Current Employment; Novartis: Other: Ad hoc Advisory Boards. Nikiforow: Kite/Gilead: Other: Ad hoc advisory boards; Novartis: Other: Ad hoc advisory boards; Iovance: Other: Ad hoc advisory boards; GlaxoSmithKline (GSK): Other: Ad hoc advisory boards. Martin: Novartis: Other: Local PI for clinical trial; Bluebird Bio: Other: Local PI for clinical trial. Rouce: Novartis: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Tessa Therapeutics: Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy. Tiwari: Novartis Healthcare private limited: Current Employment. Redondo: Novartis: Current Employment. Willert: Novartis: Current Employment. Agarwal: Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation: Current Employment, Current holder of individual stocks in a privately-held company. Pasquini: Kite Pharma: Research Funding; GlaxoSmithKline: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Research Funding. Grupp: Novartis, Roche, GSK, Humanigen, CBMG, Eureka, and Janssen/JnJ: Consultancy; Novartis, Kite, Vertex, and Servier: Research Funding; Novartis, Adaptimmune, TCR2, Cellectis, Juno, Vertex, Allogene and Cabaletta: Other: Study steering committees or scientific advisory boards; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Other: Steering committee, Research Funding.</jats:p> </jats:sec>

Vitamin D not only plays an important role in bone metabolism but is also involved in multiple immune-mediated processes in the body which may be adversely affected in those with low levels. Most pediatric studies evaluating the association of vitamin D in patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT are single-center studies. We present the results of retrospective study at 5 centers across the United States in pediatric patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT. (VDD) and (VDI) were defined by vitamin D levels of <20 ng/ml and 21-30 ng/ml, respectively. The mean vitamin D levels pre-HSCT, day +30, and +100 were suggestive of VDI, but normalized thereafter. We compared the transplant characteristics and outcomes in 233 patients with VDD and VDI and those with normal levels and found no statistical difference in neutrophil or platelet engraftment, infections (viral, bacterial, or fungal) post-HSCT, length of hospital stay during HSCT, graft failure, acute or chronic GvHD, survival at day +100 and 1 year, or relapse of primary malignancy. We conclude that VDI or deficiency does not affect any of the common transplant variables after allogeneic HSCT in children. There is a need of a large multicenter prospective study to evaluate its role further.

Clinical trials frequently include multiple end points that mature at different times. The initial report, typically based on the primary end point, may be published when key planned co-primary or secondary analyses are not yet available. Clinical Trial Updates provide an opportunity to disseminate additional results from studies, published in JCO or elsewhere, for which the primary end point has already been reported.In the primary analysis of the global phase II ELIANA trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02435849), tisagenlecleucel provided an overall remission rate of 81% in pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (R/R B-ALL), with 59% of responders remaining relapse-free at 12 months. Here, we report an update on efficacy, safety, and patient-reported quality of life in 79 pediatric and young adult patients with R/R B-ALL following a median follow-up of 38.8 months. The overall remission rate was 82%. The median event-free survival was 24 months, and the median overall survival was not reached. Event-free survival was 44% (95% CI, 31 to 57) and overall survival was 63% (95% CI, 51 to 73) at 3 years overall (most events occur within the first 2 years). The estimated 3-year relapse-free survival with and without censoring for subsequent therapy was 52% (95% CI, 37 to 66) and 48% (95% CI, 34 to 60), respectively. No new or unexpected long-term adverse events were reported. Grade 3/4 adverse events were reported in 29% of patients > 1 year after infusion; grade 3/4 infection rate did not increase > 1 year after infusion. Patients reported improvements in quality of life up to 36 months after infusion. These findings demonstrate favorable long-term safety and suggest tisagenlecleucel as a curative treatment option for heavily pretreated pediatric and young adult patients with R/R B-ALL.

NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines) for Pediatric Aggressive Mature B-Cell Lymphomas include recommendations for the diagnosis and management of pediatric patients with primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBL) and sporadic variants of Burkitt lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. PMBL is now considered as a distinct entity arising from mature thymic B-cells accounting for 2% of mature B-cell lymphomas in children and adolescents. This discussion section includes the recommendations outlined in the NCCN Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of pediatric patients with PMBL.