Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Lessons Learnt In The First Year Of An Australian Pediatric Cardio Oncology Clinic., Claudia Toro, Ben Felmingham, Mangesh Jhadav, David S. Celermajer, Andre La Gerche, John O'Sullivan, Sanjeev Kumar, Marion K. Mateos, Joy M. Fulbright, Dinisha Govender, Lane Collier, Michael Cheung, David D. Eisenstat, Peter W. Lange, Julian Ayer, David A. Elliott, Rachel Conyers

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BACKGROUND: Modern oncological therapies together with chemotherapy and radiotherapy have broadened the agents that can cause cardiac sequelae, which can manifest for pediatric oncology patients while on active treatment. Recommendations for high-risk patients who should be monitored in a pediatric cardio-oncology clinic have previously been developed by expert Delphi consensus by our group. In 2022 we opened our first multidisciplinary pediatric cardio-oncology clinic adhering to these recommendations in surveillance and management.

OBJECTIVES: Our pediatric cardio-oncology clinic aimed to: (i) Document cardiovascular toxicities observed within a pediatric cardio-oncology clinic and. (ii) Evaluate the applicability of the Australian and New Zealand Pediatric …

Mediators And Moderators Of Active Music Engagement To Reduce Traumatic Stress Symptoms And Improve Well-Being In Parents Of Young Children With Cancer., Sheri L. Robb, Kristin Stegenga, Susan M. Perkins, Timothy E. Stump, Karen M. Moody, Amanda K. Henley, Jessica Maclean, Seethal A. Jacob, David Delgado, Paul R. Haut

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OBJECTIVE: This trial examined the effects of proximal/distal mediators and moderators of an Active Music Engagement (AME) intervention on young child/parent distress, quality of life, and family function outcomes.

METHODS: Child/parent dyads (n = 125) were randomized to AME or Audio-storybooks attention control condition. Each group received 3 sessions with a credentialed music therapist for 3 consecutive days with data collection at baseline, post-intervention (T2), and 30-days later (T3). Potential proximal mediators included within session child and parent engagement. Potential distal mediators included changes in perceived family normalcy, parent self-efficacy, and independent use of play materials. Potential moderators included parent/child …

Rare Tumors: Opportunities And Challenges From The Children's Oncology Group Perspective., Kris Ann P. Schultz, Murali Chintagumpala, Jin Piao, Kenneth S. Chen, Rachana Shah, Robyn D. Gartrell, Emily Christison-Lagay, Farzana Pashnakar, Jesse L. Berry, Allison F. O'Neill, Lauren M. Vasta, Ashley Flynn, Sarah G. Mitchell, Brittani Kn Seynnaeve, Jeremy Rosenblum, Samara L. Potter, Junne Kamihara, Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, Douglas S. Hawkins, Theodore W. Laetsch

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While all childhood cancers are rare, tumors that are particularly infrequent or underrepresented within pediatrics are studied under the umbrella of the Children's Oncology Group Rare Tumor committee, divided into the Retinoblastoma and Infrequent Tumor subcommittees. The Infrequent Tumor subcommittee has traditionally included an emphasis on globally rare tumors such as adrenocortical carcinoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, or those tumors that are rare in young children, despite being common in adolescents and young adults, such as colorectal carcinoma, thyroid carcinoma, and melanoma. Pleuropulmonary blastoma, gonadal stromal tumors, pancreatic tumors including pancreatoblastoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, nonmelanoma skin cancers, neuroendocrine tumors, and desmoplastic small …

Clinical Efficacy Of Onc201 In H3k27m-Mutant Diffuse Midline Gliomas Is Driven By Disruption Of Integrated Metabolic And Epigenetic Pathways., Sriram Venneti, Abed Rahman Kawakibi, Sunjong Ji, Sebastian M. Waszak, Stefan R. Sweha, Mateus Mota, Matthew Pun, Akash Deogharkar, Chan Chung, Rohinton S. Tarapore, Samuel Ramage, Andrew Chi, Patrick Y. Wen, Isabel Arrillaga-Romany, Tracy T. Batchelor, Nicholas A. Butowski, Ashley Sumrall, Nicole Shonka, Rebecca A. Harrison, John De Groot, Minesh Mehta, Matthew D. Hall, Doured Daghistani, Timothy F. Cloughesy, Benjamin M. Ellingson, Kevin Beccaria, Pascale Varlet, Michelle M. Kim, Yoshie Umemura, Hugh Garton, Andrea Franson, Jonathan Schwartz, Rajan Jain, Maureen Kachman, Heidi Baum, Charles F. Burant, Sophie L. Mottl, Rodrigo T. Cartaxo, Vishal John, Dana Messinger, Tingting Qin, Erik Peterson, Peter Sajjakulnukit, Karthik Ravi, Alyssa Waugh, Dustin Walling, Yujie Ding, Ziyun Xia, Anna Schwendeman, Debra Hawes, Fusheng Yang, Alexander R. Judkins, Daniel Wahl, Costas A. Lyssiotis, Daniel De La Nava, Marta M. Alonso, Augustine Eze, Jasper Spitzer, Susanne V. Schmidt, Ryan J. Duchatel, Matthew D. Dun, Jason E. Cain, Li Jiang, Sylwia A. Stopka, Gerard Baquer, Michael S. Regan, Mariella G. Filbin, Nathalie Y R Agar, Lili Zhao, Chandan Kumar-Sinha, Rajen Mody, Arul Chinnaiyan, Ryo Kurokawa, Drew Pratt, Viveka Nand Yadav, Jacques Grill, Cassie Kline, Sabine Mueller, Adam Resnick, Javad Nazarian, Joshua E. Allen, Yazmin Odia, Sharon L. Gardner, Carl Koschmann

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UNLABELLED: Patients with H3K27M-mutant diffuse midline glioma (DMG) have no proven effective therapies. ONC201 has recently demonstrated efficacy in these patients, but the mechanism behind this finding remains unknown. We assessed clinical outcomes, tumor sequencing, and tissue/cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) correlate samples from patients treated in two completed multisite clinical studies. Patients treated with ONC201 following initial radiation but prior to recurrence demonstrated a median overall survival of 21.7 months, whereas those treated after recurrence had a median overall survival of 9.3 months. Radiographic response was associated with increased expression of key tricarboxylic acid cycle-related genes in baseline tumor sequencing. ONC201 …

Characteristics And Prognostic Impact Of Idh Mutations In Aml: A Cog, Swog, And Ecog Analysis., Sara Zarnegar-Lumley, Todd A. Alonzo, Robert B. Gerbing, Megan Othus, Zhuoxin Sun, Rhonda E. Ries, Jim Wang, Amanda Leonti, Matthew A. Kutny, Fabiana Ostronoff, Jerald P. Radich, Frederick R. Appelbaum, Era L. Pogosova-Agadjanyan, Kristen O'Dwyer, Martin S. Tallman, Mark Litzow, Ehab Atallah, Todd M. Cooper, Richard A. Aplenc, Omar Abdel-Wahab, Alan S. Gamis, Selina Luger, Harry Erba, Ross Levine, E Anders Kolb, Derek L. Stirewalt, Soheil Meshinchi, Katherine Tarlock

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Somatic mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) genes occur frequently in adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and less commonly in pediatric AML. The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence, mutational profile, and prognostic significance of IDH mutations in AML across age. Our cohort included 3141 patients aged betweenChildren's Cancer Group/Children's Oncology Group (n = 1872), Southwest Oncology Group (n = 359), Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (n = 397) trials, and in Beat AML (n = 333) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (n = 180) genomic characterization cohorts. We retrospectively analyzed patients in 4 age groups (age range, n): …

Inducing Mitotic Catastrophe As A Therapeutic Approach To Improve Outcomes In Ewing Sarcoma., Soumya M. Turaga, Vikalp Vishwakarma, Stacey L. Hembruff, Benjamin K. Gibbs, Priya Sabu, Rajni V. Puri, Harsh B. Pathak, Glenson Samuel, Andrew K. Godwin

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Ewing sarcoma (EWS) is an aggressive pediatric malignancy of the bone and soft tissues in need of novel therapeutic options. To identify potential therapeutic targets, we focused on essential biological pathways that are upregulated by EWS-FLI1, the primary oncogenic driver of EWS, including mitotic proteins such as Aurora kinase A (AURKA) and kinesin family member 15 (KIF15) and its binding partner, targeting protein for Xklp2 (TPX2). KIF15/TPX2 cooperates with KIF11, a key mitotic kinesin essential for mitotic spindle orientation. Given the lack of clinical-grade KIF15/TPX2 inhibitors, we chose to target KIF11 (using SB-743921) in combination with AURKA (using VIC-1911) given …

Characterization Of An Mtbp Hypomorphic Allele In A Diethylnitrosamine-Induced Liver Carcinogenesis Model, Atul Ranjan, Elizabeth A. Thoenen, Atsushi Kaida, Stephanie Wood, Terry Van Dyke, Tomoo Iwakuma

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MTBP is implicated in cell cycle progression, DNA replication, and cancer metastasis. However, the function of MTBP remains enigmatic and is dependent on cellular contexts and its cellular localization. To understand the in vivo physiological role of MTBP, it is important to generate Mtbp knockout mice. However, complete deletion of the Mtbp gene in mice results in early embryonic lethality, while its heterozygous deletion shows modest biological phenotypes, including enhanced cancer metastasis. To overcome this and better characterize the in vivo physiological function of MTBP, we, for the first time, generated mice that carry an Mtbp hypomorphic allele (MtbpH …

Sars-Cov-2 Infections In Patients Enrolled On The Children's Oncology Group Standard-Risk B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Trial, Aall1731., Caitlin W. Elgarten, John A. Kairalla, Joel Thompson, Tamara P. Miller, Cindy Wang, Susan Conway, Mignon L. Loh, Elizabeth A. Raetz, Sumit Gupta, Rachel E. Rau, Anne Angiolillo, Karen R. Rabin, Sarah Alexander

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Hematologic malignancy is a risk factor for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in adults; however, data specific to children with leukemia are limited. High-quality infectious adverse event data from the ongoing Children's Oncology Group (COG) standard-risk B acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (ALL/LLy) trial, AALL1731, were analyzed to provide a disease-specific estimate of SARS-CoV-2 infection outcomes in pediatric ALL. Of 253 patients with reported infections, the majority (77.1%) were asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic (CTCAE grade 1/2) and there was a single COVID-19-related death. These data suggest SARS-CoV-2 infection does not confer substantial morbidity among young patients with B-lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (B-ALL/LLy).

Comprehensive Molecular And Clinical Characterization Of Nup98 Fusions In Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Eline J M Bertrums, Jenny L. Smith, Lauren Harmon, Rhonda E. Ries, Yi-Cheng J. Wang, Todd A. Alonzo, Andrew J. Menssen, Karen M. Chisholm, Amanda R. Leonti, Katherine Tarlock, Fabiana Ostronoff, Era L. Pogosova-Agadjanyan, Gertjan J L Kaspers, Henrik Hasle, Michael Dworzak, Christiane Walter, Nora Muhlegger, Cristina Morerio, Laura Pardo, Betsy Hirsch, Susana Raimondi, Todd M. Cooper, Richard Aplenc, Alan S. Gamis, Edward A. Kolb, Jason E. Farrar, Derek Stirewalt, Xiaotu Ma, Tim I. Shaw, Scott N. Furlan, Lisa Eidenschink Brodersen, Michael R. Loken, Marry M. Van Den Heuvel-Eibrink, C Michel Zwaan, Timothy J. Triche, Bianca F. Goemans, Soheil Meshinchi

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NUP98 fusions comprise a family of rare recurrent alterations in AML, associated with adverse outcomes. In order to define the underlying biology and clinical implications of this family of fusions, we performed comprehensive transcriptome, epigenome, and immunophenotypic profiling of 2,235 children and young adults with AML and identified 160 NUP98 rearrangements (7.2%), including 108 NUP98-NSD1 (4.8%), 32 NUP98-KDM5A (1.4%) and 20 NUP98-X cases (0.9%) with 13 different fusion partners. Fusion partners defined disease characteristics and biology; patients with NUP98-NSD1 or NUP98-KDM5A had distinct immunophenotypic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic profiles. Unlike the two most prevalent NUP98 fusions, NUP98-X variants are typically not …

Hlh-Like Toxicities Predict Poor Survival After The Use Of Tisagenlecleucel In Children And Young Adults With B-All., Kevin O. Mcnerney, Stephanie J. Si Lim, Kyle Ishikawa, Alexandra Dreyzin, Anant Vatsayan, John J. Chen, Christina Baggott, Snehit Prabhu, Holly L. Pacenta, Christine Philips, Jenna Rossoff, Heather E. Stefanski, Julie-An Talano, Amy Moskop, Michael Verneris, Douglas Myers, Nicole A. Karras, Patrick Brown, Challice L. Bonifant, Muna Qayed, Michelle Hermiston, Prakash Satwani, Christa Krupski, Amy K. Keating, Susanne H C Baumeister, Vanessa A. Fabrizio, Vasant Chinnabhandar, Emily Egeler, Sharon Mavroukakis, Kevin J. Curran, Crystal L. Mackall, Theodore W. Laetsch, Liora M. Schultz

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Chimeric antigen receptor-associated hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH)-like toxicities (LTs) involving hyperferritinemia, multiorgan dysfunction, coagulopathy, and/or hemophagocytosis are described as occurring in a subset of patients with cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Case series report poor outcomes for those with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) who develop HLH-LTs, although larger outcomes analyses of children and young adults (CAYAs) with B-ALL who develop these toxicities after the administration of commercially available tisagenlecleucel are not described. Using a multi-institutional database of 185 CAYAs with B-ALL, we conducted a retrospective cohort study including groups that developed HLH-LTs, high-grade (HG) CRS without HLH-LTs, or no to low-grade …

Measurable Residual Disease And Fusion Partner Independently Predict Survival And Relapse Risk In Childhood Kmt2a-Rearranged Acute Myeloid Leukemia: A Study By The International Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster Study Group, Romy E. Van Weelderen, Kim Klein, Christine J. Harrison, Yilin Jiang, Jonas Abrahamsson, Nira Arad-Cohen, Emmanuelle Bart-Delabesse, Barbara Buldini, Barbara De Moerloose, Michael N. Dworzak, Sarah Elitzur, José M. Fernández Navarro, Robert B. Gerbing, Bianca F. Goemans, Hester A. De Groot-Kruseman, Erin M. Guest, Shau-Yin Ha, Henrik Hasle, Charikleia Kelaidi, Hélène Lapillonne, Guy Leverger, Franco Locatelli, Riccardo Masetti, Takako Miyamura, Ulrika Norén-Nyström, Sophia Polychronopoulou, Mareike Rasche, Jeffrey E. Rubnitz, Jan Stary, Anne Tierens, Daisuke Tomizawa, C Michel Zwaan, Gertjan J L Kaspers

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Purpose: A previous study by the International Berlin-Frankfurt-Münster Study Group (I-BFM-SG) on childhood KMT2A-rearranged (KMT2A-r) AML demonstrated the prognostic value of the fusion partner. This I-BFM-SG study investigated the value of flow cytometry-based measurable residual disease (flow-MRD) and evaluated the benefit of allogeneic stem-cell transplantation (allo-SCT) in first complete remission (CR1) in this disease.

Methods: A total of 1,130 children with KMT2A-r AML, diagnosed between January 2005 and December 2016, were assigned to high-risk (n = 402; 35.6%) or non-high-risk (n = 728; 64.4%) fusion partner-based groups. Flow-MRD levels at both end of induction 1 (EOI1) …

Long Noncoding Rna Expression Independently Predicts Outcome In Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia., Jason E. Farrar, Jenny L. Smith, Megan Othus, Benjamin J. Huang, Yi-Cheng Wang, Rhonda Ries, Tiffany Hylkema, Era L. Pogosova-Agadjanyan, Sneha Challa, Amanda Leonti, Timothy I. Shaw, Timothy J. Triche, Alan S. Gamis, Richard Aplenc, E Anders Kolb, Xiaotu Ma, Derek L. Stirewalt, Todd A. Alonzo, Soheil Meshinchi

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Purpose: Optimized strategies for risk classification are essential to tailor therapy for patients with biologically distinctive disease. Risk classification in pediatric acute myeloid leukemia (pAML) relies on detection of translocations and gene mutations. Long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) transcripts have been shown to associate with and mediate malignant phenotypes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) but have not been comprehensively evaluated in pAML.

Methods: To identify lncRNA transcripts associated with outcomes, we evaluated the annotated lncRNA landscape by transcript sequencing of 1,298 pediatric and 96 adult AML specimens. Upregulated lncRNAs identified in the pAML training set were used to establish a regularized …

Identification Of Small Extracellular Vesicle Protein Biomarkers For Pediatric Ewing Sarcoma., Soumya M. Turaga, Mihaela E. Sardiu, Vikalp Vishwakarma, Amrita Mitra, Leonidas E. Bantis, Rashna Madan, Michael L. Merchant, Jon B. Klein, Glenson Samuel, Andrew K. Godwin

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Ewing Sarcoma (EWS) is the second most common osseous malignancy in children and young adults after osteosarcoma, while it is the fifth common osseous malignancy within adult age population. The clinical presentation of EWS is quite often non-specific, with the most common symptoms at presentation consisting of pain, swelling or general discomfort. The dearth of clinically relevant diagnostic or predictive biomarkers continues to remain a pressing clinical challenge. Identification of tumor specific biomarkers can lend towards an early diagnosis, expedited initiation of therapy, monitoring of therapeutic response, and early detection of recurrence of disease. We carried-out a complex analysis of …

Perinucleolar Compartment (Pnc) Prevalence As An Independent Prognostic Factor In Pediatric Ewing Sarcoma: A Multi-Institutional Study., Elizabeth Gonzalez, Atif A. Ahmed, Laura Mccarthy, Katherine Chastain, Sahibu Sultan M Habeebu, Marta Zapata-Tarres, Rocio Cardenas-Cardos, Liliana Velasco-Hidalgo, Celso Corcuera-Delgado, Rodolfo Rodriguez-Jurado, Lilia García-Rodríguez, Alejandro Parrales, Tomoo Iwakuma, Midhat S. Farooqi, Brian R. Lee, Scott J. Weir, Terrie Flatt

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The perinucleolar compartment (PNC) is a small nuclear body that plays important role in tumorigenesis. PNC prevalence correlates with poor prognosis and cancer metastasis. Its expression in pediatric Ewing sarcoma (EWS) has not previously been documented. In this study, we analyzed 40 EWS tumor cases from Caucasian and Hispanic patients for PNC prevalence by immunohistochemical detection of polypyrimidine tract binding protein and correlated the prevalence with dysregulated microRNA profiles. EWS cases showed staining ranging from 0 to 100%, which were categorized as diffuse (≥77%, n = 9, high PNC) or not diffuse (p= 0.017) and in patients who relapsed with …

Protocol And Biomarker Strategy For A Multi-Site Randomized Controlled Trial Examining Biological Mechanisms And Dosing Of Active Music Engagement In Children With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia And Lymphoma And Parents., Sheri L. Robb, Kristen A. Russ, Steven J. Holochwost, Kristin Stegenga, Susan M. Perkins, Seethal A. Jacob, Amanda K. Henley, Jessica A. Maclean

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BACKGROUND: Music therapy is a standard palliative care service in many pediatric and adult hospitals; however, most research has focused on the use of music to improve psychosocial dimensions of health, without considering biological dimensions. This study builds on prior work examining psychosocial mechanisms of action underlying an Active Music Engagement (AME) intervention, designed to help manage emotional distress and improve positive health outcomes in young children with cancer and parents (caregivers), by examining its effects on biomarkers of stress and immune function.

METHODS: This two-group randomized controlled trial (R01NR019190) is designed to examine biological mechanisms of effect and dose-response …

Three-Year Update Of Tisagenlecleucel In Pediatric And Young Adult Patients With Relapsed/Refractory Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia In The Eliana Trial., Theodore W. Laetsch, Shannon L. Maude, Susana Rives, Hidefumi Hiramatsu, Henrique Bittencourt, Peter Bader, André Baruchel, Michael Boyer, Barbara De Moerloose, Muna Qayed, Jochen Buechner, Michael A. Pulsipher, Douglas Myers, Heather E. Stefanski, Paul L. Martin, Eneida Nemecek, Christina Peters, Gregory Yanik, Seong Lin Khaw, Kara L. Davis, Joerg Krueger, Adriana Balduzzi, Nicolas Boissel, Ranjan Tiwari, Darragh O'Donovan, Stephan A. Grupp

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In the primary analysis of the global phase II ELIANA trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02435849), tisagenlecleucel provided an overall remission rate of 81% in pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (R/R B-ALL), with 59% of responders remaining relapse-free at 12 months. Here, we report an update on efficacy, safety, and patient-reported quality of life in 79 pediatric and young adult patients with R/R B-ALL following a median follow-up of 38.8 months. The overall remission rate was 82%. The median event-free survival was 24 months, and the median overall survival was not reached. Event-free …

Higher Doses Of Tisagenlecleucel Are Associated With Improved Outcomes: A Report From The Pediatric Real-World Car Consortium., Heather E. Stefanski, Anne Eaton, Christina Baggott, Jenna Rossoff, Michael R. Verneris, Snehit Prabhu, Holly L. Pacenta, Christine L. Phillips, Julie-An Talano, Amy Moskop, Steven P. Margossian, Douglas Myers, Nicole A. Karras, Patrick A. Brown, Muna Qayed, Michelle Hermiston, Prakash Satwani, M Christa Krupski, Amy K. Keating, Rachel Wilcox, Cara A. Rabik, Vanessa A. Fabrizio, Vasant Chinnabhandar, A Yasemin Goksenin, Kevin J. Curran, Crystal L. Mackall, Theodore W. Laetsch, Liora M. Schultz

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Remarkable complete response rates have been shown with tisagenlecleucel, a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy targeting CD19, in patients up to age 26 years with refractory/relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia; it is US Food and Drug Administration approved for this indication. Currently, patients receive a single dose of tisagenlecleucel across a wide dose range of 0.2 to 5.0 × 106 and 0.1 to 2.5 × 108 CAR T cells per kg for patients ≤50 and >50 kg, respectively. The effect of cell dose on survival and remission is not yet well established. Our primary goal was to determine if …

Preclinical Efficacy Of Azacitidine And Venetoclax For Infant Kmt2a-Rearranged Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Reveals A New Therapeutic Strategy., Laurence C. Cheung, Carlos Aya-Bonilla, Mark N. Cruickshank, Sung K. Chiu, Vincent Kuek, Denise Anderson, Grace-Alyssa Chua, Sajla Singh, Joyce Oommen, Emanuela Ferrari, Anastasia M. Hughes, Jette Ford, Elena Kunold, Maria C. Hesselman, Frederik Post, Kelly E. Faulk, Erin H. Breese, Erin M. Guest, Patrick A. Brown, Mignon L. Loh, Richard B. Lock, Ursula R. Kees, Rozbeh Jafari, Sébastien Malinge, Rishi S. Kotecha

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Infants with KMT2A-rearranged B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have a dismal prognosis. Survival outcomes have remained static in recent decades despite treatment intensification and novel therapies are urgently required. KMT2A-rearranged infant ALL cells are characterized by an abundance of promoter hypermethylation and exhibit high BCL-2 expression, highlighting potential for therapeutic targeting. Here, we show that hypomethylating agents exhibit in vitro additivity when combined with most conventional chemotherapeutic agents. However, in a subset of samples an antagonistic effect was seen between several agents. This was most evident when hypomethylating agents were combined with methotrexate, with upregulation of ATP-binding cassette transporters identified …