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Should treatment be started it should address both the paraprotein level and the lymphocytic B-cells.
In 2002, a panel at the International Workshop on Waldenström's Macroglobulinemia agreed on criteria for the initiation of therapy. They recommended starting therapy in patients with constitutional symptoms such as recurrent fever, night sweats, fatigue due to anemia, weight loss, progressive symptomatic lymphadenopathy or spleen enlargement, and anemia due to bone marrow infiltration. Complications such as hyperviscosity syndrome, symptomatic sensorimotor peripheral neuropathy, systemic amyloidosis, kidney failure, or symptomatic cryoglobulinemia were also suggested as indications for therapy.
Treatment includes the monoclonal antibody rituximab, sometimes in combination with chemotherapeutic drugs such as chlorambucil, cyclophosphamide, or vincristine or with thalidomide. Corticosteroids, such as prednisone, may also be used in combination. Plasmapheresis can be used to treat the hyperviscosity syndrome by removing the paraprotein from the blood, although it does not address the underlying disease. Ibrutinib is another agent that has been approved for use in this condition.
Recently, autologous bone marrow transplantation has been added to the available treatment options.
When primary or secondary resistance invariably develops, salvage therapy is considered. Allogeneic stem cell transplantation can induce durable remissions for heavily pre-treated patients.
PTLD may spontaneously regress on reduction or cessation of immunosuppressant medication, and can also be treated with addition of anti-viral therapy. In some cases it will progress to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and may be fatal. A phase 2 study of adoptively transferred EBV-specific T cells demonstrated high efficacy with minimal toxicity.
Recent case report studies suggest that treatment regimens which include a proteasome inhibitor drug, particularly bortezomib, and/or autologous stem-cell transplantation have improved pPCL survival. For example, 28 patients treated with a bortezomib-based induction regimen followed by autologous stem-cell transplantation and then a maintenance regimen of lenaldomide (an immunosuppressant related to thalidomide), bortezomib, and dexamethasone (a corticosteroid) has a progression free survival rate of 66% at 3 years and an overall survival rate of 73% at 4 years. In one study, patients receiving intensive chemotherapy plus autologous stem-cell transplantation had a median survival of 34 months while those receiving chemotherapy alone had a median survival of 11 months. Two other studies that included bortezomib in their chemotherapy regimens likewise found that the addition of autologous stem-cell transplantation improved results. Current recommendations for treating pPCL often include induction with a three drug regimen such as borezomib-lenalidomide-dexamethasone followed by autologous stem-cell transplantion and consolidation/maintenance with of combination of immunomodulator agents (e.g. thalidomide, lenalidomide, or pomalidomide) plus a proteasome inhibitor (bortezomib, ixazomib, or carfilzomib.
Most patients with T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia require immediate treatment.
T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia is difficult to treat, and it does not respond to most available chemotherapeutic drugs. Many different treatments have been attempted, with limited success in certain patients: purine analogues (pentostatin, fludarabine, cladribine), chlorambucil, and various forms of combination chemotherapy regimens, including cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone (CHOP), etoposide, bleomycin (VAPEC-B).
Alemtuzumab (Campath), an anti-CD52 monoclonal antibody that attacks white blood cells, has been used in treatment with greater success than previous options. In one study of previously treated people with T-PLL, people who had a complete response to alemtuzumab survived a median of 16 months after treatment.
Some patients who successfully respond to treatment also undergo stem cell transplantation to consolidate the response.
People affected by the severest, often life-threatening, complications of cryoglobulinemic disease require urgent plasmapharesis and/or plasma exchange in order to rapidly reduce the circulating levels of their cryoglobulins. Complications commonly requiring this intervention include: hyperviscosity disease with severe symptoms of neurological (e.g. stroke, mental impairment, and myelitis) and/or cardiovascular (e.g., congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction) disturbances; vasculitis-driven intestinal ischemia, intestinal perforation, cholecystitis, or pancreatitis, causing acute abdominal pain, general malaise, fever, and/or bloody bowel movements; vasculitis-driven pulmonary disturbances (e.g. coughing up blood, acute respiratory failure, X-ray evidence of diffuse pulmonary infiltrates caused by diffuse alveolar hemorrhage); and severe kidney dysfunction due to intravascular deposition of immunoglobulins or vasculitis. Along with this urgent treatment, severely symptomatic patients are commonly started on therapy to treat any underlying disease; this treatment is often supplemented with anti-inflammatory drugs such as corticosteroids (e.g., dexamethasone) and/or immunosuppressive drugs. Cases where no underlying disease is known are also often treated with the latter corticosteroid and immunosuppressive medications.
Prior to the use of newly developed drugs and treatment regimens, median survival rates from the time of diagnosis for pPCL and sPCL were 8-11 months and 2-8 months, respectively, even when treated very aggressively with the VAD regimen of vincristine, doxorubicin, and dexamethasone or the VCMP regimen of vincristine, carmustine, melphalan, and prednisone alternating with vincristine, carmustine, doxorubicin, and prednisone. The treatment of PCL patients, particularly pPCL pateints, with newer methods appears to have made modest improvements in survival rates. However, the rarity of these two leukemias has limited individual studies to case reports on a small number of patients or rectrospective analyses of patient records. Randomized controlled trials on these patients have not been reported. One flaw of these methods is patient selection bias, i.e. patients selected for treatment with a new regimen may be less ill than average patients with the disease and therefore have an intrinsically less aggressive (i.e. longer overall survival time) disease.
The natural history of myeloma is of relapse following treatment. This may be attributed to tumor heterogeneity. Depending on the patient's condition, the prior treatment modalities used and the duration of remission, options for relapsed disease include re-treatment with the original agent, use of other agents (such as melphalan, cyclophosphamide, thalidomide or dexamethasone, alone or in combination), and a second autologous stem cell transplant.
Later in the course of the disease, "treatment resistance" occurs. This may be a reversible effect, and some new treatment modalities may re-sensitize the tumor to standard therapy. For patients with "relapsed disease", bortezomib is a recent addition to the therapeutic arsenal, especially as second line therapy, since 2005. Bortezomib is a proteasome inhibitor. Also, lenalidomide (Revlimid), a less toxic thalidomide analog, is showing promise for treating myeloma. The newly approved thalidomide derivative pomalidomide (Pomalyst in the U.S.) may be used for relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.
In the 21st century, more patients have survived longer, as a result of stem cell transplant (with their own or a donor's) and treatments combining bortezomib (Velcade), dexamethasone and melphalan or cyclophosphamide. This seems to maintain the monoclonal peak at a reasonable level. Survival expectancy has risen. New treatments are under development.
Kidney failure in multiple myeloma can be acute (reversible) or chronic (irreversible). Acute kidney failure typically resolves when the calcium and paraprotein levels are brought under control. Treatment of chronic kidney failure is dependent on the type of kidney failure and may involve dialysis.
Several newer options are approved for the management of advanced disease:
- ixazomib — an orally available proteasome inhibitor indicated in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone in people who have received at least one prior therapy;
- panobinostat — an orally available histone deacetylase inhibitor used in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone in people who have received at least 2 prior chemotherapy regimens, including bortezomib and an immunomodulatory agent (such as lenalidomide or pomalidomide);
- carfilzomib — a proteasome inhibitor that is indicated:
- as a single agent for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have received one or more lines of therapy;
- in combination with dexamethasone or with lenalidomide+dexamethasone for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who have received one to three lines of therapy;
- elotuzumab — an immunostimulatory humanized monoclonal antibody against SLAMF7 (also known as CD319). It is FDA-approved for the treatment of patients who have received one to three prior therapies (in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone);
- daratumumab — a monoclonal antibody against CD38 indicated for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least three prior lines of therapy including a proteasome inhibitor and an immunomodulatory agent or who are double refractory to a proteasome inhibitor and an immunomodulatory agent.
The protein electrophoresis test should be repeated annually, and if there is any concern for a rise in the level of monoclonal protein, then prompt referral to a hematologist is required. The hematologist, when first evaluating a case of MGUS, will usually perform a skeletal survey (X-rays of the proximal skeleton), check the blood for hypercalcemia and deterioration in renal function, check the urine for Bence Jones protein and perform a bone marrow biopsy. If none of these tests are abnormal, a patient with MGUS is followed up once every 6 months to a year with a blood test (serum protein electrophoresis). Although patients with MGUS have sometimes been reported to suffer from Small Fiber Neuropathy in monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance:a debilitating condition which causes bizarre sensory problems to painful sensory problems. peripheral neuropathy, no treatment is indicated.
The goals of therapy are to control symptoms, improve quality of life, improve overall survival, and decrease progression to AML.
The IPSS scoring system can help triage patients for more aggressive treatment (i.e. bone marrow transplant) as well as help determine the best timing of this therapy. Supportive care with blood products and hematopoietic growth factors (e.g. erythropoietin) is the mainstay of therapy. The regulatory environment for the use of erythropoietins is evolving, according to a recent US Medicare National coverage determination. No comment on the use of hematopoeitic growth factors for MDS was made in that document though.
Three agents have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of MDS:
1. 5-azacytidine: 21-month median survival
2. Decitabine: Complete response rate reported as high as 43%. A phase I study has shown efficacy in AML when decitabine is combined with valproic acid.
3. Lenalidomide: Effective in reducing red blood cell transfusion requirement in patients with the chromosome 5q deletion subtype of MDS
Chemotherapy with the hypomethylating agents 5-azacytidine and decitabine has been shown to decrease blood transfusion requirements and to retard the progression of MDS to AML. Lenalidomide was approved by the FDA in December 2005 only for use in the 5q- syndrome. In the United States, treatment of MDS with lenalidomide costs about $9,200 per month.
Stem cell transplantation, particularly in younger (i.e. less than 40 years of age) and more severely affected patients, offers the potential for curative therapy. Success of bone marrow transplantation has been found to correlate with severity of MDS as determined by the IPSS score, with patients having a more favorable IPSS score tending to have a more favorable outcome with transplantation.
In November 2013, ibrutinib was approved by the US FDA for treating MCL.
Other targeted agents include the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib, mTOR inhibitors such as temsirolimus, and the P110δ inhibitor GS-1101.
There is no standard therapy for multicentric Castleman disease. Treatment modalities change based on HHV-8 status, so it is essential to determine HHV-8 status before beginning treatment. For HHV-8-associated MCD the following treatments have been used: rituximab, antiviral medications such as ganciclovir, and chemotherapy.
Treatment with the antiherpesvirus medication ganciclovir or the anti-CD20 B cell monoclonal antibody, rituximab, may markedly improve outcomes. These medications target and kill B cells via the B cell specific CD20 marker. Since B cells are required for the production of antibodies, the body's immune response is weakened whilst on treatment and the risk of further viral or bacterial infection is increased. Due to the uncommon nature of the condition there are not many large scale research studies from which standardized approaches to therapy may be drawn, and the extant case studies of individuals or small cohorts should be read with caution. As with many diseases, the patient's age, physical state and previous medical history with respect to infections may impact the disease progression and outcome.
Treatment of Type I disease is generally directed towards treating the underlying pre-malignant or malignant disorder (see plasma cell dyscrasia, Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, and chronic lymphocytic leukemia). This involves appropriate chemotherapy regimens which may include bortezomib (promotes cell death by apoptosis in cells accumulating immunoglobulins) in patients with monoclonal immunoglobulin-induced renal failure and rituximab (antibody directed against CD20 surface antigen-bearing lymphocytes) in patients with Waldenstroms macroglobulonemia).
Most people, including those treated with ASCT, will relapse after initial treatment. Maintenance therapy using a prolonged course of low toxicity medications is often used to prevent relapse. A 2017 meta-analysis showed that post ASCT maintenance therapy with lenalidomide improved progression free survival and overall survival in people at standard risk. A 2012 clinical trial showed that people with intermediate and high risk disease benefit from a bortezomib based maintenance regimen.
Immune-based therapy is dominated by the use of the rituximab monoclonal antibody, sold under the trade name Rituxan (or as Mabthera in Europe and Australia). Rituximab may have good activity against MCL as a single agent, but it is typically given in combination with chemotherapies, which prolongs response duration. There are newer variations on monoclonal antibodies combined with radioactive molecules known as Radioimmunotherapy (RIT). These include Zevalin and Bexxar. Rituximab has also been used in small numbers of patients in combination with thalidomide with some effect. In contrast to these antibody-based 'passive' immunotherapies, the field of 'active' immunotherapy tries to activate a patient's immune system to specifically eliminate their own tumor cells. Examples of active immunotherapy include cancer vaccines, adoptive cell transfer, and immunotransplant, which combines vaccination and autologous stem cell transplant. Though no active immunotherapies are currently a standard of care, numerous clinical trials are ongoing.
For HHV-8-negative MCD (idiopathic MCD), the following treatments have been used: corticosteroids, rituximab, monoclonal antibodies against IL-6 such as tocilizumab and siltuximab, and the immunomodulator thalidomide.
Prior to 1996 MCD carried a poor prognosis of about 2 years, due to autoimmune hemolytic anemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma which may arise as a result of proliferation of infected cells. The timing of diagnosis, with particular attention to the difficulty of determining the cause of B symptoms without a CT scan and lymph node biopsy, may have a significant impact on the prognosis and risk of death. Left untreated, MCD usually gets worse and becomes increasingly difficult and unresponsive to current treatment regimens.
Siltuximab prevents it from binding to the IL-6 receptor, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of multicentric Castleman disease on April 23, 2014. Preliminary data suggest that treatment siltuximab may achieve tumour and symptomatic response in 34% of patients with MCD.
Other treatments for multicentric Castleman disease include the following:
- Corticosteroids
- Chemotherapy
- Thalidomide
Iron overload can develop in MDS as a result of the RBC transfusions which are a major part of the supportive care for anemic MDS patients. Although the specific therapies patients receive may alleviate the RBC transfusion need in some cases, many MDS patients may not respond to these treatments, thus may develop iron overload from repeated RBC transfusions.
Patients requiring relatively large numbers of RBC transfusions can experience the adverse effect of chronic iron overload on their liver, heart, and endocrine functions. The resulting organ dysfunction from transfusional iron overload might be a contributor to increased illness and death in early-stage MDS.
For patients requiring many RBC transfusions, serum ferritin levels, number of RBC transfusions received, and associated organ dysfunction (heart, liver, and pancreas) should be monitored to determine iron levels. Monitoring serum ferritin may also be useful, aiming to decrease ferritin levels to .
Currently, two iron chelators are available in the US, deferoxamine for intravenous use and deferasirox for oral use. These options now provide potentially useful drugs for treating this iron overload problem. A third chelating agent is available in Europe, deferiprone for oral use, but not available in the US.
Clinical trials in the MDS are ongoing with iron chelating agents to address the question of whether iron chelation alters the natural history of patients with MDS who are transfusion dependent. Reversal of some of the consequences of iron overload in MDS by iron chelation therapy have been shown.
Both the MDS Foundation and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network MDS Guidelines Panel have recommended that chelation therapy be considered to decrease iron overload in selected MDS patients. Evidence also suggests a potential value exists to iron chelation in patients who will undergo a stem cell transplant.
Although deferasirox is generally well tolerated (other than episodes of gastrointestinal distress and kidney dysfunction in some patients), recently a safety warning by the FDA and Novartis was added to deferasirox treatment guidelines. Following postmarketing use of deferasirox, rare cases of acute kidney failure or liver failure occurred, some resulting in death. Due to this, patients should be closely monitored on deferasirox therapy prior to the start of therapy and regularly thereafter.
Treatment primarily consists of reducing eosinophil levels and preventing further damage to organs. Corticosteroids, such as Prednisone, are good for reducing eosinophil levels and antineoplastics are useful for slowing eosinophil production. Surgical therapy is rarely utilised, however splenectomy can reduce the pain due to spleen enlargement. If damage to the heart (in particular the valves), then prosthetic valves can replace the current organic ones. Follow-up care is vital for the survival of the patient, as such the patient should be checked for any signs of deterioration regularly. After promising results in drug trials (95% efficiency in reducing blood eosinophil count to acceptable levels) it is hoped that in the future hypereosinophilic syndrome, and diseases related to eosinophils such as asthma and eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, may be treated with the monoclonal antibody Mepolizumab currently being developed to treat the disease. If this becomes successful, it may be possible for corticosteroids to be eradicated and thus reduce the amount of side effects encountered.
An example antibody for use in immunotherapy is Rituximab. Rituximab has specific use in treatment of NLPHL as it is a chimeric monoclonal antibody against the protein CD20. Studies indicate Rituximab offers potential in relapsed or refractory patients, and also in front-line treatment especially in advanced stages. Because of a tendency for relapse, maintenance treatment such as every 6 months for 2 years is suggested. Rituximab has been shown to improve patient outcomes after histological transformation.
Possible options such as anthracycline-containing regimens include ABVD, BEACOPP and CHOP. Results of a trial with COPP/ABV in children suggested positive results with chemotherapy alone are possible without the need for radiation therapy. Optimal chemotherapy is a topic for debate, for example there is evidence of support for treatment with R-CHOP instead of ABVD, results showing high rates (40%) of relapse after 10 years since ABVD chemotherapy. BEACOPP has higher reported toxicity risk.
There is currently minimal therapeutic intervention available for BENTA disease. Patients are closely monitored for infections and for signs of monoclonal or oligoclonal B cell expansion that could indicate B cell malignancy. Splenectomy is unlikely to reduce B cell burden; peripheral blood B cell counts rose significantly in three patients who underwent the procedure. It remains to be determined whether immunosuppressive drugs, including B cell-depleting drugs such as rituximab, could be effective for treating BENTA disease.
As described above, chloromas should always be considered manifestations of systemic disease, rather than isolated local phenomena, and treated as such. In the patient with newly diagnosed leukemia and an associated chloroma, systemic chemotherapy against the leukemia is typically used as the first-line treatment, unless an indication for local treatment of the chloroma (e.g. compromise of the spinal cord) emerges. Chloromas are typically quite sensitive to standard antileukemic chemotherapy. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation should be considered in fit patients with suitable available donor, as long term remissions have been reported.
If the chloroma is persistent after completion of induction chemotherapy, local treatment, such as surgery or radiation therapy, may be considered, although neither has an effect on survival.
Patients presenting with a primary chloroma typically receive systemic chemotherapy, as development of acute leukemia is nearly universal in the short term after detection of the chloroma.
Patients treated for acute leukemia who relapse with an isolated chloroma are typically treated with systemic therapy for relapsed leukemia. However, as with any relapsed leukemia, outcomes are unfortunately poor.
Patients with "preleukemic" conditions, such as myelodysplastic syndromes or myeloproliferative syndromes, who develop a chloroma are often treated as if they have transformed to acute leukemia.
Guidelines for management of patients up to 18 years with Langerhans cell histiocytosis has been suggested. Treatment is guided by extent of disease. Solitary bone lesion may be amenable through excision or limited radiation, dosage of 5-10 Gys for children, 24-30 Gys for adults. However systemic diseases often require chemotherapy. Use of systemic steroid is common, singly or adjunct to chemotherapy. Local steroid cream is applied to skin lesions. Endocrine deficiency often require lifelong supplement e.g. desmopressin for diabetes insipidus which can be applied as nasal drop. Chemotherapeutic agents such as alkylating agents, antimetabolites, vinca alkaloids either singly or in combination can lead to complete remission in diffuse disease.
There is no consensus regarding the best treatment protocol. Several considerations should be taken into account including age, stage, and prognostic scores (see International Prognostic Index). Patients with advanced disease who are asymptomatic might benefit from a watch and wait approach, as early treatment does not provide survival benefit. When patients are symptomatic, specific treatment is required, which might include various combinations of alkylators, nucleoside analogues, anthracycline-containing chemotherapy regimens (e.g., CHOP), monoclonal antibodies (e.g. rituximab),
radioimmunotherapy, autologous (self) and allogeneic (donor) hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Follicular lymphoma is regarded as incurable, unless the disease is localized, in which case it can be cured by local irradiation. Although allogeneic stem cell transplantation may be curative, the mortality from the procedure is too high to be a first line option.
In 2010 rituximab was approved by the European Commission for first-line maintenance treatment of follicular lymphoma. Pre-clinical evidence suggests that rituximab could be also used in combination with integrin inhibitors to overcome the resistance to rituximab mediated by stromal cells . However, follicular lymphoma which is CD20 negative will not benefit from Rituximab, which targets CD20.
Trial results released in June 2012 show that bendamustine, a drug first developed in East Germany in the 1960s, more than doubled disease progression-free survival when given along with rituximab. This combination therapy also left patients with fewer side effects than the older treatment (a combination of five drugs—rituximab, cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan), doxorubicin (Adriamycin), vincristine and prednisone, collectively called R-CHOP).
There are many recent and current clinical trials for follicular lymphoma. For example, personalised idiotype vaccines have shown promise, particularly as upfront therapy, but have still to prove their efficacy in randomized clinical trials.
Treatment is dependent if the lymphoma is causing issues in regards to the overall health of the individual. Since this a slow moving cancer, many patients start treatment when the symptoms appear. If the individual tests positive for hepatitis C, then anti-viral treatment is suggested since it will often get rid of the lymphoma as well. If further treatment is required the options include chemotherapy, monoclonal antibodies, and/or radiation. Radiation therapy is used for stage I and II nodal marginal zone NHL. Clinical trials show success in treatment when using drugs such as bendamustine and lenalidomida in combination with rituximab.