Medicine (RMH) - Research Publications

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    Ibrutinib protects T cells in patients with CLL from proliferation-induced senescence
    Davis, JE ; Sharpe, C ; Mason, K ; Tam, CS ; Koldej, RM ; Ritchie, DS (BMC, 2021-11-22)
    BACKGROUND: The development of Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitors (BTKi) for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) has provided a highly effective and relatively non-toxic alternative to conventional chemotherapy. Some studies have shown that BTKi can also lead to improvements in T cell immunity in patients despite in vitro analyses suggesting an immunosuppressive effect of BTKi on T cell function. METHODS: In this study, we examined both the in vitro effect and long-term in vivo effect of two clinically available BTKi, ibrutinib and zanubrutinib. Additional in vitro assessments were undertaken for a third BTKi, acalabrutinib. Immune subset phenotyping, cytokine secretion, T cell degranulation and proliferation assays were performed on peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from untreated CLL patients, and CLL patients on long-term (> 12 months) BTKi treatment. RESULTS: Similar to prior studies we observed that long-term BTKi treatment normalises lymphocyte subset frequency and reduces PD-1 expression on T cells. We also observed that T cells from patients taken prior to BTKi therapy showed an abnormal hyper-proliferation pattern typical of senescent T cells, which was normalised by long-term BTKi treatment. Furthermore, BTKi therapy resulted in reduced expression of the T cell exhaustion markers PD-1, TIM3 and LAG3 in late generations of T cells undergoing proliferation. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, these findings indicate that there are critical differences between the in vitro effects of BTKi on T cell function and the effects derived from long-term BTKi exposure in vivo. Overall long-term exposure to BTKi, and particularly ibrutinib, resulted in improved T cell fitness in part due to suppressing the abnormal hyper-proliferation of CLL T cells and the associated development of T cell senescence.
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    Autologous stem cell transplantation for untreated transformed indolent B-cell lymphoma in first remission: an international, multi-centre propensity-score-matched study
    Chin, CK ; Lim, KJ ; Lewis, K ; Jain, P ; Qing, Y ; Feng, L ; Cheah, CY ; Seymour, JF ; Ritchie, D ; Burbury, K ; Tam, CS ; Fowler, NH ; Fayad, LE ; Westin, JR ; Neelapu, SS ; Hagemeister, FB ; Samaniego, F ; Flowers, CR ; Nastoupil, LJ ; Dickinson, MJ (WILEY, 2020-12)
    High-dose chemotherapy (HDC) and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) are used as consolidation in first remission (CR1) in some centres for untreated, transformed indolent B-cell lymphoma (Tr-iNHL) but the evidence base is weak. A total of 319 patients with untreated Tr-iNHL meeting prespecified transplant eligibility criteria [age <75, LVEF ≥45%, no severe lung disease, CR by positron emission tomography or computed tomography ≥3 months after at least standard cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisolone with rituximab (R-CHOP) intensity front-line chemotherapy] were retrospectively identified. Non-diffuse large B-cell lymphoma transformations were excluded. About 283 (89%) patients had follicular lymphoma, 30 (9%) marginal-zone lymphoma and six (2%) other subtypes. Forty-nine patients underwent HDC/ASCT in CR1, and a 1:2 propensity-score-matched cohort of 98 patients based on age, stage and high-grade B-cell lymphoma with MYC, BCL2 and/or BCL6 rearrangements (HGBL-DH) was generated. After a median follow-up of 3·7 (range 0·1-18·3) years, ASCT was associated with significantly superior progression-free survival [hazard ratio (HR) 0·51, 0·27-0·98; P = 0·043] with a trend towards inferior overall survival (OS; HR 2·36;0·87-6·42; P = 0·1) due to more deaths from progressive disease (8% vs. 4%). Forty (41%) patients experienced relapse in the non-ASCT cohort - 15 underwent HDC/ASCT with seven (47%) ongoing complete remission (CR); 10 chimeric antigen receptor-modified T-cell (CAR-T) therapy with 6 (60%) ongoing CR; 3 allogeneic SCT with 2 (67%) ongoing CR. Although ASCT in CR1 improves initial duration of disease control in untreated Tr-iNHL, the impact on OS is less clear with effective salvage therapies in this era of CAR-T.
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    Improvement in Non-Relapse Mortality Following Allogeneic Transplantation for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia in Australia and New Zealand: An Australasian Bone Marrow Transplant Recipient Registry Study
    Barge, L ; Tran, S ; Kennedy, G ; Ritchie, DS ; Gottlieb, D ; Milliken, S ; Spencer, A ; Purtill, D ; Perera, T ; Doocey, RT ; Larsen, S ; Butler, A ; Bardy, P ; Greenwood, M ; Durrant, S ; Curley, C ; Stewart, C ; Tam, CS ; Collins, J ; Balendran, S ; Di Ciaccio, PR ; Patil, S ; Han, M-H ; Hamad, N (Elsevier BV, 2021-03)
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    T-Cell Replete Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant Is an Effective Treatment Option for Patients with TP53 mutated Mantle Cell Lymphoma
    Scheffer Cliff, ER ; Lew, TE ; Blombery, P ; Dickinson, M ; Tam, CS ; Seymour, JF ; Bajel, A ; Ritchie, DS ; Khot, A (Elsevier BV, 2021-03)
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    Immune recovery in patients with mantle cell lymphoma receiving long-term ibrutinib and venetoclax combination therapy
    Davis, JE ; Handunnetti, SM ; Ludford-Menting, M ; Sharpe, C ; Blombery, P ; Anderson, MA ; Roberts, AW ; Seymour, JF ; Tam, CS ; Ritchie, DS ; Koldej, RM (AMER SOC HEMATOLOGY, 2020-10-13)
    Combination venetoclax plus ibrutinib for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) has demonstrated efficacy in the relapsed or refractory setting; however, the long-term impact on patient immunology is unknown. In this study, changes in immune subsets of MCL patients treated with combination venetoclax and ibrutinib were assessed over a 4-year period. Multiparameter flow cytometry of peripheral blood mononuclear cells showed that ≥12 months of treatment resulted in alterations in the proportions of multiple immune subsets, most notably CD4+ and CD8+ effector and central memory T cells and natural killer cells, and normalization of T-cell cytokine production in response to T-cell receptor stimulation. Gene expression analysis identified upregulation of multiple myeloid genes (including S100 and cathepsin family members) and inflammatory pathways over 12 months. Four patients with deep responses stopped study drugs, resulting in restoration of normal immune subsets for all study parameters except myeloid gene/pathway expression, suggesting long-term combination venetoclax and ibrutinib irreversibly affects this population. Our findings demonstrate that long-term combination therapy is associated with immune recovery in MCL, which may allow responses to subsequent immunotherapies and suggests that this targeted therapy results in beneficial impacts on immunological recovery. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT02471391.