Publications by authors named "Concetta Conticello"

: This prospective study investigated the impact of high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) on anti-COVID-19 antibody levels in previously vaccinated multiple myeloma (MM) patients with confirmed antibody response (AR). : All patients underwent at least a two-dose regimen mRNA vaccination and later received a high-dose melphalan conditioning regimen and ASCT. : Fourteen MM patients with confirmed AR underwent a total of nineteen ASCT reinfusions; their median age was 55 (34-67).

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: In the randomized, phase-3 IKEMA trial, the triplet isatuximab, carfilzomib, and dexamethasone (IsaKd) demonstrated superior clinical benefit compared to those of carfilzomib and dexamethasone alone in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma after 1-3 prior treatments. : Our real-world, AENEID study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of IsaKd in patients who relapsed after frontline lenalidomide treatment, poorly represented in the IKEMA trial. Specifically, in the present multicenter analysis, we enrolled eighty-two patients who received, between April 2022 and September 2024 and outside of clinical trials, at least one cycle of IsaKd as a second-line treatment at the first relapse after induction therapy, autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), and lenalidomide maintenance.

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Relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) research on the impact of +1q abnormalities in real-world settings is limited. This study evaluated the prognostic and predictive significance of 1q gain [gain(1q)] and amplification [ampl(1q)] in 635 RRMM patients treated with daratumumab-, elotuzumab-, and carfilzomib-based triplet regimens. Patients with +1q abnormalities had lower deep response rates [≥ CR: 9.

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This multicenter real-world analysis evaluated the efficacy of isatuximab, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone (IsaPd) in 51 patients with multiple myeloma (MM) who were refractory to daratumumab (Dara-R). The majority were under 70 years old (60.8%), predominantly female (56.

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Somatic mutations of hematopoietic cells in the peripheral blood of normal individuals refer to clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), which is associated with a 0.5-1% risk of progression to hematological malignancies and cardiovascular diseases. CHIP has also been reported in Multiple Myeloma (MM) patients, but its biological relevance remains to be elucidated.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The case study highlights a patient with relapsed-refractory EMD who initially presented with a para-osseous plasmacytoma that later evolved into a soft-tissue plasmacytoma with different immunoglobulin characteristics.
  • * The authors propose a link between immunoglobulin patterns and patient prognosis, suggesting that these biochemical markers could be integrated into overall risk assessments for the disease.
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Belantamab mafodotin is the first-in-class antibody-drug conjugates targeting B-cell maturation antigen to have demonstrated effectiveness in triple-class refractory multiple myeloma (TCR-MM) patients. We performed a retrospective study including 78 TCR patients, with at least four prior lines of therapy (LOTs), who received belantamab mafodotin within named patient program and expanded access program in Italy between 2020 and 2022. Median age was 65 years (range 42-86 years), ECOG performance status was ≥1 in 45% of patients.

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  • Daratumumab-based treatments are considered the new standard therapy for newly diagnosed AL amyloidosis patients, supported by findings from the ANDROMEDA study.
  • A prospective observational study involving 88 newly diagnosed patients explored daratumumab's efficacy and safety, revealing a low rate of serious side effects (16%) and a high overall hematologic response rate of 75%.
  • The study found that daratumumab was effective in advanced cases, with similar rates of hematologic and organ responses between patients with more severe disease stages and those with less severe stages.
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  • - The ELOQUENT-3 trial found that the combination of elotuzumab, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone (EloPd) is more effective and safer than pomalidomide and dexamethasone (Pd) for treating relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) patients who have undergone at least two prior therapies.
  • - An 18-month follow-up of 319 RRMM patients treated with EloPd in Italy revealed that 66.4% experienced disease progression or death, with median progression-free survival and overall survival recorded at 7.5 and 19.2 months, respectively.
  • - While EloPd remains a viable treatment option,
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  • Myeloma with extramedullary plasmacytomas (EMP) shows significantly worse outcomes compared to paraosseous plasmacytomas (PP), and existing treatments have been ineffective.
  • A study evaluated the effectiveness of daratumumab-based treatments in 102 myeloma patients, finding similar overall response rates for both groups at diagnosis, but lower rates at relapse.
  • Despite EMP patients having shorter median overall survival at diagnosis, there were no significant differences in treatment timelines or responses between EMP and PP patients during relapse, suggesting daratumumab may be beneficial even in difficult cases.
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Multiple myeloma is a chronic hematologic malignancy that obstinately tends to relapse. Basic research has made giant strides in better characterizing the molecular mechanisms of the disease. The results have led to the manufacturing of new, revolutionary drugs which have been widely tested in clinical trials.

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Background: Gaucher disease (GD) is a rare autosomal recessive inherited disorder caused by the lysosomal enzyme acid β-glucosidase deficiency. Many patients experience a critical delay in the diagnosis of up to 8-10 years due to its rarity and variability in signs and symptoms, with the consultation of several specialists.

Patients And Methods: This prospective observational study analyzed the prevalence of GD in 600 patients with monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance (MGUS) from January 2018 until February 2022.

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Background: Managing SARS-CoV-2 infection in frail and immunosuppressed patients still represents an open challenge, but, starting from the phase 3 PROVENT study, prophylaxis with tixagevimab-cilgavimab has improved the approach in this category of patients, guaranteeing a better outcome and inferior mortality. Real-life data in a heterogeneous cohort are few.

Methods: The aim of this study is to evaluate the benefit of prophylaxis with tixagevimab-cilgavimab in a cohort of 202 patients affected by different hematological diseases (lymphoproliferative, myeloproliferative, autoimmune, patients recently receiving a bone marrow transplant), active (with ongoing treatment), or in watch-and-wait strategy, followed in our center, during a median follow-up of 249 (45-325) days.

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Based on the results obtained in clinical trials, the use of the combination of lenalidomide and dexamethasone (Len/Dex) has become a potential therapeutic choice for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) ineligible for autologous stem cell transplantation. This study evaluated 89 frail NDMM patients treated with first-line oral association. At the last follow-up, 34 out of 89 patients (38.

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Article Synopsis
  • - In the ELOQUENT-3 trial, the combination therapy of elotuzumab, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone (EloPd) showed better results for treating relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) compared to pomalidomide and dexamethasone alone, leading to its approval for specific patients.
  • - A real-world study of 200 RRMM cases in Italy confirmed similar effectiveness and manageable side effects for EloPd, with a 55.4% overall response rate and a median progression-free survival of 7 months, though these were lower than results from the ELOQUENT-3 trial.
  • - Factors like the number of previous
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The concomitant presence of Castleman disease (CD) with other hematological pathology is an event described in the literature with increasing frequency, able to modify the diagnostic and curative approach in such patients. Very few studies in the literature describe the association of CD with concomitant neoplastic diseases; the most frequent are Kaposi's sarcomas (especially in HIV and human herpes virus-8-positive patients) and lymphoproliferative disorders, such as lymphomas. Instead, since the association with plasma cell diseases such as multiple myeloma and plasmacytoma is infrequent, there is a lack of literature.

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Introduction: Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) frequently reported immune impairment with an increased risk for infection-related mortality. We aimed to evaluate the immune response in MM patients vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2 during active treatment.

Methods: We enrolled 158 patients affected by active MM or smoldering MM (SMM) and 40 healthy subjects.

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The present study aimed to develop two survival risk scores (RS) for overall survival (OS, SRS ) and progression-free survival (PFS, PRS ) in 919 relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) patients who received carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (KRd)/elotuzumab, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (EloRd). The median OS was 35.4 months, with no significant difference between the KRd arm versus the EloRd arm.

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The treatment scenario for newly-diagnosed transplant-ineligible multiple myeloma patients (NEMM) is quickly evolving. Currently, combinations of proteasome inhibitors and/or immunomodulatory drugs +/- the monoclonal antibody Daratumumab are used for first-line treatment, even if head-to-head comparisons are lacking. To compare efficacy and safety of these regimens, we performed a network meta-analysis of 27 phase 2/3 randomized trials including a total of 12,935 patients and 23 different schedules.

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In combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone (KRd), Carfilzomib has been approved for the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) on ASPIRE trial. Efficacy and safety of the triplet are still the object of investigation by many groups to confirm ASPIRE results in the setting of RRMM treated in real-life who don't meet trial restrictive inclusion criteria. Therefore, we report a retrospective multicenter analysis of 600 RRMM patients treated with KRd between December 2015 and December 2018.

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The combination of elotuzumab, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (EloRd) enhanced the clinical benefit over Rd with a manageable toxicity profile in the ELOQUENT-2 trial, leading to its approval in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). The present study is a 3-year follow-up update of a previously published Italian real-life RRMM cohort of patients treated with EloRd. This revised analysis entered 319 RRMM patients accrued in 41 Italian centers.

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