bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Characteristics and clinical outcomes among patients receiving either ibrutinib or anti-CD20 monotherapy as first-line (1L) treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)/small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL): A retrospective analysis in community oncology practice.
Authors: Vose Julie , He Jinghua , Lu Xiaoxiao , Wu Linda , Ran Tao , Panjabi Sumeet 
Published: June 2022

e19056 Background: Ibrutinib is an oral, once daily Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor and is a targeted treatment that has demonstrated progression-free survival and overall survival benefits in multiple phase 3 trials across age, fitness, and high-risk markers for CLL/SLL. Despite ibrutinib established as a preferred first-line (1L) treatment option, anti-CD20 monotherapy (rituximab or obinutuzumab) has been prescribed as symptomatic or palliative therapy. This retrospective study compared outcomes between ibrutinib and anti-CD20 monotherapy for CLL/SLL patients who initiated a 1L of therapy in community oncology practice. Methods: The nationwide Flatiron Health Electronic Health Record-derived de-identified database (03/04/2016-08/31/2021) was used to select patients with CLL/SLL who had ≥2 clinic visits and started 1L therapy with ibrutinib or anti-CD20 monotherapy. Patient baseline characteristics prior to 1L initiation were compared between the two treatment groups. Propensity score-based inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) was used to adjust for baseline differences between treatment groups. Kaplan-Meier (KM) analysis was used to evaluate time to next treatment (TTNT) from 1L initiation. Two subgroup analyses were performed among patients with high-risk cytogenetic markers (deletion 17p or 11q, or unmutated IGHV) and those without IGHV testing. Results: Overall, 3,226 patients were included in the analysis, of whom 2,188 (67.8%) received ibrutinib and 1,038 (32.2%) received an anti-CD20 antibody. The average age was 71.4 years for ibrutinib patients and 72.9 years among anti-CD20 users. Patients treated with ibrutinib were more likely to have high-risk cytogenetic markers (42.6% vs 27.9%). Ibrutinib-treated patients overall had a significant 70% risk reduction of initiating a subsequent treatment compared with anti-CD20 group (Table). Similar results were also found in subgroups of patients with high-risk and those without IGHV testing. Conclusions: IPTW-adjusted analysis showed that in the real-world community practice setting, treatment with ibrutinib resulted in a statistically significantly lower risk of initiating subsequent treatment than the anti-CD20 group including patients with high cytogenetic risk features and without IGHV testing.[Table: see text]
Clinical outcomes and healthcare resource utilization (HCRU) in patients (pts) with lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (LR-MDS) reinitiating erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) following previous ESA treatment.
Authors: Garcia-Manero Guillermo , Matsuno Rayna K. , McBride Ali , Brown Thomas D. , Idryo Danny , Broome Ronda , Herriman Autumn , Johnson Tiffany , Wilkinson Kristiana , Walters Sheetal , Schrag Andrew , Johanson Colden , Izano Monika A. , Mukherjee Sudipto 
Published: June 2022

e19067 Background: The median survival for pts with LR-MDS is estimated to be 5–10 years. ESAs are utilized as first-line treatment for anemia in LR-MDS; however, real-world treatment patterns, clinical outcomes, and HCRU for pts with LR-MDS who reinitiated ESAs following previous discontinuation are not well-established. Methods: This was a retrospective study of pts with LR-MDS in a network of US community health systems who initiated ESAs as first-line therapy between January 1, 2016 and June 30, 2019 and were followed through June 30, 2021. Pts were required to have discontinued (had a ≥ 3-week gap between treatment with epoetin alfa, or a ≥ 6-week gap between treatment with darbepoetin alfa) and subsequently reinitiated ESA therapy at least once during follow-up. Outcomes included failure to achieve transfusion independence (TI), progression to acute myeloid leukemia (AML), overall survival (OS), number and type of health system visits, and medication use. TI was defined per IWG 2006 criteria in the subset of pts who had received ≥ 1 transfusion in the 8 weeks prior to ESA initiation. Results: There were 108 pts with confirmed LR-MDS who initiated ESA-based therapy. Pts had a median age of 79 years at diagnosis (interquartile range [IQR] 73–85), were predominantly male (58%), White (97%), and overweight or obese (52%). The median follow-up period was 17.0 months (IQR 7.2–34.7). The most used ESA was darbepoetin alfa (60%), followed by epoetin alfa (38%) and epoetin alfa-epbx (2%). Of the 33 pts who received a baseline transfusion, 52% did not achieve TI; 53% and 43% failed to achieve TI at 6 and 12 months, respectively. The majority of pts were repeatedly treated with ESAs (n = 61, 56%). Among these patients, 2% progressed to AML and 48% died during follow-up; median OS was 45 months. The median number of health system visits per patient-month was 3.2 (IQR 0.6–4.9); 89%, 62%, and 72% of pts had ≥ 1 outpatient, emergency department, or inpatient visit respectively, with median length of hospitalization of 12 days (IQR 4.8–27.8). Most pts (54%) received an antibiotic at least once during follow-up; overall, use of immunosuppressive therapy (2%) or iron chelation (3%) was rare. Conclusions: In this real-world study of community practice in the USA, reinitiation of ESA treatment after prior discontinuation in LR-MDS was prevalent. In these pts, poor clinical outcomes and frequent health system visits were observed. This study highlights the need to consider alternative treatment options for pts with LR-MDS.
Impact of imbalanced gender participation in online myeloproliferative neoplasm symptom surveys.
Authors: Langlais Blake , Mazza Gina L. , Scherber Robyn Marie , Geyer Holly , Gowin Krisstina L. , Palmer Jeanne , Kosiorek Heidi E. , Mead-Harvey Carolyn , Butterfield Richard , Mesa Ruben A. , Dueck Amylou C. 
Published: June 2022

e19078 Background: Patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), including polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET), and myelofibrosis (MF), experience chronic disease-related symptoms. Surveying these patients while incorporating the MPN-Symptom Assessment Form (SAF) gains valuable insight. Independent surveys evaluating symptoms among MPN patients have seen disproportionate participation among females compared to males (upwards of 4:1). Though the general MPN patient population is roughly gender balanced, epidemiological studies show the occurrence of MPN types differ between men and women (MPN [%male]: PV [65%], ET [33%], MF [50%]. Mehta, et al. Leuk & Lymph 2014). In-clinic evaluations and international MPN surveys of disease-related symptoms suggest women report higher symptom burden on average compared to men, despite MPN type [Emanuel, et al. JCO 2012. Geyer, et al. Haematol 2017]. Further, a recent study across cancer trials showed women had a 34% increased risk of reporting severe symptoms [Unger, et al. JCO 2022]. This study aimed to evaluate gender imbalance in survey participation among MPN patient surveys and investigate its potential to overestimate symptom burden if gender is ignored. Methods: Five anonymous web-based surveys were used to assess the impact of disproportionate gender participation. The MPN-10 assessing the 10 most clinically meaningful SAF items was present in these surveys and generated the Total Symptom Score (TSS). Survey responses with no self-reported gender or ≥5 missing MPN-10 symptoms were excluded. Raking weights based on expected MPN population were applied at the survey- and MPN type-level. Relative bias of mean TSS was calculated to evaluate over- and underestimation due to this participation imbalance. Relative bias <5% is commonly acceptable. Results: There were 4962 survey participants total and 74% were female (Table). Epidemiologically expected gender frequency by MPN type was not seen (MPN [%male]: PV [31%], ET [15%], MF [37%]). The gender participation imbalance accounted for a 3.1% overestimation of overall TSS. This also resulted in a 6.8% underestimation of the mean difference in TSS between genders, across MPNs. Conclusions: Overall bias due to gender participation imbalance was relatively low. However, analyses considering gender differences were more impacted. Anonymous surveys should seek to reduce participation bias during the survey design phase. More research is needed to evaluate gender and other participation biases in surveys across cancer domains.[Table: see text]
Risk of second primary malignancy in patients with primary myelofibrosis: A SEER database study.
Authors: Joshi Utsav , Bhattarai Adheesh , Gaire Suman , Gill Simrat , Agrawal Vishakha , Bhetuwal Uttam , Kouides Peter , Bhatt Vijaya Raj 
Published: June 2022

e19079 Background: Primary myelofibrosis (PMF) carries a poorer prognosis compared to other BCR-ABL-negative myeloproliferative diseases (MPD), and there is increased risk of early mortality due to blast transformation, thrombosis, bleeding complications, and progression of disease. Prior studies report greater incidence of second primary malignancy (SPM) among MPD patients, although the true risk in PMF has not been elucidated. We performed a large database study to evaluate the risk of SPM in PMF patients and analyzed the effects of sociodemographic factors on the risk of SPM. Methods: We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database to identify all patients with a histologic diagnosis of PMF from 2009 to 2018. SPM was defined as any subsequent malignancy that developed at least 1 year after the diagnosis of PMF. Using multiple primary standardized incidence ratio (SIR) session of the SEER*Stat software (version 8.3.9), we calculated SIR and absolute excess risk (AER) of SPM for the entire cohort of PMF and also stratified based on age, sex, race, marital status, receipt of chemotherapy, follow-up duration, and year of diagnosis. We generated the 95% confidence intervals (CI) and p-values assuming Poisson distribution of the observed incidences of SPM. Results: A total of 5,273 patients with PMF were included in the analysis, of which 342 patients (6.4%) developed SPM. SPM occurred at SIR of 1.97 (95% CI 1.77-2.18, p<0.05) and AER of 151.87 per 10,000 population. A significantly higher incidence of melanoma (SIR 1.96, 95% CI 1.14-3.14, p<0.05), lymphoma (SIR 3.45, 95% CI 2.31-4.96, p<0.05), and leukemia (SIR 26.87, 95% CI 22.69-31.59, p<0.05) was observed. There was no statistically significant difference in SIR based on sex, race, marital status, follow-up duration, and receipt of chemotherapy. The risk was significantly higher in patients ≤60 years vs patients >60 years (SIR 2.34, 95% CI 1.89-2.86 vs SIR 1.86, 95% CI 1.65-2.10, p 0.01) and for PMF diagnosed after 2009 vs ≤2009 (SIR 2.64, 95% CI 2.26-3.07 vs SIR 1.61, 95% CI 1.40-1.85, p<0.001). Conclusions: Patients with PMF are at a high risk of developing SPM, especially leukemia and lymphoma. Data suggests higher incidence of SPM in patients aged ≤60 years and in the decade after 2009. The impact of ruxolitinib, which was approved in 2011, on the incidence of SPM deserves further study. [Table: see text]
Race/ethnicity and outcomes in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN): A single institutional study.
Authors: Ananth Snegha , Shaughnessy Paul , Zoghi Behyar , Gelfond Jonathan , Mesa Ruben A. 
Published: June 2022

e19083 Background: Previous studies have demonstrated racial disparities in MPN outcomes, but there is no data regarding impact of race on outcomes of HCT in MPN. This is a retrospective study evaluating transplant related outcomes in Hispanics undergoing allogeneic HCT for MPN/MF in a large hospital in South Texas. Methods: A total of 45 patients who underwent HCT for MPN disorders from January 2008 to December 2020 at the Methodist Hospital, San Antonio were included. Race was self-reported by patients and obtained from electronic medical record along with other variables. Significance of variation in categorical outcomes were assessed with Chi-square tests. OS was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared between races using the log rank test. Results: This study analyzed 19 Non-Hispanic White (NHW) and 19 Hispanic (H) patients (7 patients were excluded due to unknown or other race). Patients primarily underwent transplantation for Myelofibrosis (n=19) followed by CMML (n=12) and MDS-MPN-U (n=7). There were no significant differences between NHW and H patients with regards to performance status, conditioning regimen, stem cell source and GvHD prophylaxis. However, H were younger at transplant with a median of 52 years (range 42-71) compared with 62 years (41-76) in NHW (p=0.50) and were more likely to have a haploidentical donor (47% vs 11%, p < 0.001). There were no significant differences in time to neutrophil (median 22 days (range 15-560) versus 25 days (range 8-48 days), p=0.7) or platelet recovery (median 24 days (range 15-636) versus 25 days (range 6-102), p=0.9) in NHW vs H patients. There were no significant differences in cumulative incidence of grade 1-2 and grade 3-4 acute GvHD between NHW (50 and 50%) vs H (40 and 60%) patients (p=0.4 and p=0.5, respectively). There was significant difference in the cumulative incidence of chronic GvHD (68% NHW compared to 37% H, p=0.03). Median OS was 6.75 years in NHW and 2.67 years in H (p=0.08). The cumulative incidence of Relapse Mortality (RM) and non-RM were not statistically significant between NHW and H, however H had higher percentage of relapse related mortality at 5 years (5.3% vs 17.5%)(Table). Among the 5 NHW and 8 H non-relapse deaths, causes of death were similar among the two groups – the most common being infection (20% and 38%, respectively), acute and chronic (40% and 25%) GvHD and graft failure (0% and 25%). Conclusions: NHW and H had comparable relapse, non-relapse and survival rates likely due to similar access to treatment and follow-up within a single institution. Larger and prospective studies are needed to further elucidate this important topic.[Table: see text]
Midostaurin in advanced systemic mastocytosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Authors: Abuhelwa Ziad , Beran Azizullah , Kahlon Navkirat , Sayeh Wasef , Khokher Waleed , Assaly Ragheb , Hamouda Danae M. 
Published: June 2022

e19084 Background: Midostaurin, an oral multikinase inhibitor including inhibition of KIT D816V, is approved for the treatment of advanced systemic mastocytosis (SM). Few studies have investigated the use of midostaurin in patients with advanced SM, but the data on its efficacy and safety in this population remains limited and uncertain. Therefore, we conducted this systematic review and meta-analysis to better assess the efficacy and safety of midostaurin in advanced SM. Methods: We systematically searched the following databases: PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane through February 02, 2022, to include all studies that assessed the effect of midostaurin on clinical outcomes of patients with advanced SM. Our primary outcome was the overall response rate (ORR). The secondary outcomes included the rates of progressive disease (PD), stable disease (SD), and treatment discontinuation due to adverse events (AEs). All statistical analyses were performed using Open Meta Analyst (CEBM, University of Oxford). Pooled rates and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using DerSimonian-Laird/Random-effects approach. Results: Four studies (two clinical trials and two observational studies) with a total of 156 patients with advanced SM were included in the pooled analysis. The mean age of the patients was 59.6±15.8 years, and males represented 64.7% of total patients. The most common subtype of advanced SM was SM associated with hematological neoplasm (59%) followed by aggressive SM (23.1%). Three studies reported the KIT D816V mutation status, and 85.2% of patients were positive for KIT D816V mutation. The mean duration of treatment with midostaurin was 10±15.3 months. The pooled ORR was 60% (95% CI 46.5%-73.5%) over a mean follow-up duration of 41.1±38.7 months. The PD and SD rates were 12.8% (95% CI 7.6%-18%) and 10.6% (5.3%-15.9%), respectively. Treatment discontinuation due to AEs occurred in 25.6% (95% CI 18.8%-32.4%). The most common hematological grade ≥3 treatment-related AE was anemia (29%), while fatigue (7.1%) was the most common non-hematological grade ≥3 treatment-related AE. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that midostaurin is very effective in patients with advanced SM with an acceptable safety profile. Our meta-analysis is hampered by a limited number of studies, a small sample size, and a lack of a control group. Future large-scale comparative studies are warranted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of midostaurin in these patients.
Network meta-analysis of progression free survival in the treatment of relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Authors: Chanan-Khan Asher , Liu Tom , Yang Keri , Cohen Aileen , Fahrbach Kyle , Campbell Joanna , Tang Boxiong 
Published: June 2022

e19514 Background: Zanubrutinib, a next-generation Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor (BTKi), demonstrated superior overall response rate and a trend toward improved progression-free survival (PFS) as compared to ibrutinib in patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in the phase 3 ALPINE trial (NCT03734016) based on interim analysis. However, its comparative efficacy with other treatments is not known. The goal of this study was to estimate the relative efficacy of zanubrutinib compared with standard treatments for R/R CLL through a network meta-analysis (NMA). Methods: The efficacy of zanubrutinib from ALPINE (study of zanubrutinib and ibrutinib in patients with R/R CLL was compared to ibrutinib, acalabrutinib, bendamustine and rituximab (BR), and venetoclax + rituximab (V+R) using data from 4 RCTs. Relevant RCTs were identified using a systematic literature review. A network was constructed that composed RCTs (ALPINE, ELEVATE-RR [NCT02477696], ASCEND [NCT02970318], and MURANO [NCT02005471]). Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA) models were used to simultaneously synthesize hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% credible intervals (CrIs) for investigator-assessed PFS and overall survival (OS) to estimate the relative efficacy of zanubrutinib versus comparators of interest. An assumption of constant hazard ratio was applied in the NMA analysis. Analyses were performed using well-established codes published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Decision Support Unit and were implemented with OpenBUGS (version 3.2.3). Results: The NMA suggested a significant improvement in PFS for zanubrutinib over acalabrutinib (HR=0.52, 95% CrI [0.30, 0.90]), ibrutinib (0.47, [0.29, 0.76]), and BR (0.13, [0.06, 0.26]). Zanubrutinib had a numerically better PFS than V+R (0.69, [0.32, 1.46]) while not reaching statistical significance. For OS, NMA results showed a trend favoring zanubrutinib over acalabrutinib (0.75, [0.35, 1.59]), ibrutinib (0.62, [0.31, 1.22]), and BR (0.52, [0.21, 1.24]). The difference was not statistically significant with wide CrIs, suggesting a high uncertainty as inherent limitation of the analysis. Conclusions: This NMA reports the first summary of comparative PFS of available treatments for R/R CLL. Indirect treatment comparisons suggest PFS on zanubrutinib may be superior to other BTKis and immunochemotherapies in R/R CLL patients.[Table: see text]
Efficacy of first-line treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia: A Bayesian network meta-analysis.
Authors: Chanan-Khan Asher , Yang Keri , Liu Tom , Cohen Aileen , Fahrbach Kyle , Wang Yunyang , Tang Boxiong 
Published: June 2022

e19526 Background: Zanubrutinib is an oral, highly selective, next-generation Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Efficacy of zanubrutinib was compared with bendamustine + rituximab (BR) in adult patients with treatment-naïve (TN) chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in the phase 3 SEQUOIA trial (NCT03336333). However, efficacy of zanubrutinib compared with other frontline CLL treatments remains unknown. The goal of this network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was to estimate the relative efficacy of zanubrutinib compared with standard frontline treatments for CLL. Methods: A total of 4 relevant RCTs were identified by a targeted literature review conducted throughout January 2022, CLL11 (NCT01010061), ALLIANCE (NCT01886872), MABLE (NCT01056510), and SEQUOIA. A feasibility assessment was performed to ensure that RCTs included within each population strata did not differ with respect to effect modifiers including presence of mutation, age, del11, and del17 status. A network was constructed for the composed 4 RCTs to compare the efficacy of zanubrutinib with bendamustine + rituximab, chlorambucil + obinutuzumab, chlorambucil + rituximab, and ibrutinib in patients with previously untreated CLL. Bayesian NMA models were conducted to simultaneously synthesize hazard ratio (HR) and 95% credible intervals (CI) for investigator-assessed progression-free survival (PFS). A constant hazard ratio was assumed in the NMA analysis. Statistical analyses were performed using codes suggested by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Results: The efficacy results of the NMA indicated a statistically significant improvement in PFS for zanubrutinib over bendamustine + rituximab (HR=0.42; [95% CI=0.27, 0.65]), chlorambucil + obinutuzumab (0.45 [0.23, 0.86]), and chlorambucil + rituximab (0.22 [0.12, 0.41]). Zanubrutinib achieved comparable PFS to ibrutinib (1.07 [0.59, 1.94]). Conclusions: This is the first NMA to compare the efficacy of zanubrutinib with all commonly utilized first-line treatment for TN CLL. Results from this indirect treatment comparison suggested that the PFS for zanubrutinib may be statistically significantly better than immunochemotherapy. Findings from this study require validation with further large scale RCTs with longer follow up time.[Table: see text]