Publications by authors named "Luana Fianchi"

A real-life study on CPX-351 and the standard arm ('7 + 3') of the CPX-351 registrative trial in adults with secondary Acute Myeloid Leukemia were compared by an unanchored Matching-adjusted indirect comparison (MAIC), in order to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of CPX-351. Results of this study are important to confirm the role of CPX-351 in significantly improving survival and remission rates compared with '7 + 3' with a good safety profile in AML patients with high-risk features, a target group traditionally with a very poor prognosis. Moreover, this pilot analysis underlines the potentiality of the statistical method to compare studies with strong differences.

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Community-acquired respiratory viral infections (CARV) significantly impact patients with hematological malignancies (HM), leading to high morbidity and mortality. However, large-scale, real-world data on CARV in these patients is limited. This study analyzed data from the EPICOVIDEHA-EPIFLUEHA registry, focusing on patients with HM diagnosed with CARV during the 2023-2024 autumn-winter season.

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Article Synopsis
  • iTTP is a serious blood disorder caused by antibodies that affect clotting, and caplacizumab is a new treatment approved for acute cases, used alongside plasma exchange and immunosuppression.
  • A study involving 38 iTTP patients across six Italian medical centers showed that caplacizumab led to rapid normalization of platelet counts, with a median recovery time of just 2 days.
  • The use of caplacizumab resulted in fewer exacerbations and relapses, shorter hospital stays, and no severe side effects, highlighting its effectiveness compared to traditional treatments.
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CPX-351 has been approved for patients with therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (t-AML) or AML with myelodysplasia-related changes (MRC-AML). No extensive data are available on measurable residual disease (MRD) and long-term clinical outcome using CPX-351 in AML in real life. We retrospectively collected data from 168 patients in 36 centers in France and Italy who had received 1 or 2 cycles of induction with CPX-351.

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Concern has emerged about the prevalence of second cancers among patients with hairy cell leukemia (HCL) treated with purine analogs. We investigated 513 patients with HCL treated with cladribine over the last 30 years at 18 Italian centers and calculated their standardized incidence ratios (SIRs). We identified 24 patients with a second cancer diagnosed at a median time from treatment with cladribine of 59.

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The therapeutic management of immune-mediated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (iTTP) has recently benefited from the introduction of caplacizumab, an agent directed at the inhibition of platelet aggregation. This real-world analysis investigated the epidemiology and the demographic and clinical characteristics of iTTP patients in Italy before and after caplacizumab introduction in 2020. Hospitalized adults with iTTP were included using the administrative databases of healthcare entities covering 17 million residents.

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Article Synopsis
  • CPX-351 is a special medicine approved for adults with a type of leukemia called acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that helps them live longer and do better after getting a stem cell transplant.
  • It protects the gut (our digestive system) from getting damaged during treatment, unlike another treatment called "7 + 3."
  • The study showed that CPX-351 works well because it helps our body's defenses and changes the gut bacteria in a positive way, which might help doctors treat AML more effectively in the future.
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Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is an important goal of therapy for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS); however, little is known about HRQoL of these patients at clinical presentation. We report HRQoL profile of newly diagnosed patients with MDS across both the the International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) and IPSS-Revised (IPSS-R) classifications, stratified by sex and age group categories, aiming to also establish European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) reference values for these patients. Analysis was based on 927 patients with a median age of 73.

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In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the absolute risk of infection in the real-life setting of AML patients treated with CPX-351. The study included all patients with AML from 30 Italian hematology centers of the SEIFEM group who received CPX-351 from July 2018 to June 2021. There were 200 patients included.

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Only few studies have analyzed the efficacy of tixagevimab/cilgavimab to prevent severe Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and related complications in hematologic malignancies (HM) patients. Here, we report cases of breakthrough COVID-19 after prophylactic tixagevimab/cilgavimab from the EPICOVIDEHA registry). We identified 47 patients that had received prophylaxis with tixagevimab/cilgavimab in the EPICOVIDEHA registry.

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Infections represent one of the most frequent complications during the treatment of patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL): of these, almost half develop an infectious event in the majority of cases in induction. The new monoclonal and bispecific antibodies and CAR-T, besides offering new perspectives in the overall survival and disease-free survival of patients, may also transform the epidemiology of infections in ALL by improving the toxicity of treatments. In this review, we examined studies published in the literature over the past 12 years and described the infectious complications of therapy with Blinatumomab, Inotuzumab, Rituximab and CAR-T in adult and pediatric patients with ALL.

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Background: Venetoclax in combination with hypomethylating agents (HMA) is revolutionizing the therapy of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, evidence on large sets of patients is lacking, especially in relapsed or refractory leukemia.

Methods: AVALON is a multicentric cohort study that was conducted in Italy on patients with AML who received venetoclax-based therapies from 2015 to 2020.

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Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is a rare disease with a range of clinical presentations, and the vast majority of patients have a KIT D816V mutation that results in a gain of function. The multikinase/KIT inhibitor midostaurin inhibits the D816V mutant and has a well-established role in treating advanced SM. Even if considered the standard of therapy, some open questions remain on optimizing midostaurin management in daily practice.

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Elderly patients represent the most challenging and hard-to-treat patient population due to dismal characteristics of the disease, such as secondary-acute myeloid leukemia (AML), enrichment of unfavorable molecular genes () and comorbidities. We conducted a multicentric retrospective study to evaluate activity and safety in a real-life setting of hypomethylating drugs (HMAs) in patients older than 75 years with AML. Between September 2010 and December 2021, 220 patients were treated, 164 (74.

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COVID-19 continues to be a relevant issue among patients with haematological malignancies (HM). Vaccines are frequently not effective in subjects on active treatment. In this multicentre retrospective study of Gruppo Italiano Malattie EMatologiche dell'Adulto (GIMEMA), we collected data from 91 paucisymptomatic HM patients treated with anti-spike neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (nMoAbs) to determine time to viral clearance, referencing it to the expected value of 28 days from an historical group of untreated paucisymptomatic patients.

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Article Synopsis
  • Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is a rare cancer that has a high success rate when treated with cladribine (2CDA), though some patients may experience relapse later on.
  • A study analyzed data from 513 HCL patients treated with 2CDA between 1991 and 2019, showing an overall response rate of 91.8% and a median follow-up of 6.83 years, indicating long-term effectiveness of the treatment.
  • The study found that factors like hemoglobin levels and spleen normalization were linked to better treatment outcomes, with a major takeaway that about 80% of patients are expected to survive 15 years post-diagnosis.
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The potential drug-drug interactions of midostaurin may impact the choice of antifungal (AF) prophylaxis in FLT3-positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. To evaluate the incidence of invasive fungal diseases (IFD) during the treatment of FLT3-mutated AML patients and to correlate it to the different AF prophylaxis strategies, we planned a multicenter observational study involving 15 SEIFEM centers. One hundred fourteen patients treated with chemotherapy + midostaurin as induction/reinduction, consolidation or both were enrolled.

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  • The study analyzed 69 patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) who have a deletion in the long arm of chromosome 20 (del20q), comparing their data to 502 MDS patients with a normal karyotype.
  • Findings show that del20q patients were older, predominantly male, had lower platelet counts, and a higher incidence of low-risk classifications according to the IPSS score.
  • The results suggest that MDS with isolated del20q may be a unique biological entity with specific clinical and prognostic characteristics, and further molecular research is needed to understand the mechanisms behind this chromosome deletion.
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Patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are at high risk of dying from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The optimal management of AML patients with COVID-19 has not been established. Our multicenter study included 388 adult AML patients diagnosed with COVID-19 between February 2020 and October 2021.

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Invasive fungal infection (IFI) remains the major complication in patients with either acute leukemia, allogeneic stem cell transplantation setting, or both, especially regarding pulmonary localization. We report an experience of a 74-year-old Caucasian male with a Philadelphia-positive (BCR-ABL p190) Common B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who developed a pulmonary infection due to . Furthermore, we describe the management of this complication and the results of microbiological tests useful to guide the treatment.

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