Francesco Lauria

Minimal residual disease (MRD) following sequential administration of CHOP and rituximab was studied in previously untreated patients with follicular lymphoma. At diagnosis, the presence of Bcl-2/IgH-positive cells in the peripheral blood (PB) and/or bone marrow (BM) was demonstrated in all patients (n = 128) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis. Patients who achieved a clinical response following CHOP but remained PCR-positive were eligible for rituximab (375 mg/m(2) ...

Fludarabine plus cytarabine (Ara-C) and idarubicin (FLAI) is an effective and well-tolerated induction regimen for the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). This phase III trial compared the efficacy and toxicity of FLAI versus idarubicin plus Ara-C and etoposide (ICE) in 112 newly diagnosed AML patients <60 years. Fifty-seven patients received FLAI, as the first induction-remission course, and 55 patients received ICE. Post-induction treatment consisted of high-dose Ara-C (HDAC). ...

OBJECTIVES: Infections are the major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). They primarily occur during the first course of induction chemotherapy and may increase the risk of leukaemia relapse, due to a significant delay in consolidation therapy. The intensification of induction chemotherapy and the use of non-conventional drugs such as fludarabine are considered responsible for the increased risk of infections.

METHODS: In this study, we ...

In a phase II trial, we evaluated chlorambucil and rituximab (CLB-R) as first-line induction treatment with or without R as maintenance for elderly chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients. Treatment consisted of eight 28-day cycles of CLB (8 mg/m(2) /day, days 1-7) and R (day 1 of cycle 3, 375 mg/m(2) ; cycles 4-8, 500 mg/m(2) ). Responders were randomized to 12 8-week doses of R (375 mg/m(2) ) or observation. As per intention-to-treat analysis, 82.4% (95% CI, 74.25-90.46%) of 85 ...

BACKGROUND: The phase 3 GIMEMA-MMY-3006 trial, which compared bortezomib, thalidomide, and dexamethasone (VTD) combination therapy with thalidomide and dexamethasone (TD) as induction therapy before and consolidation therapy after double autologous haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, showed the superiority of the triplet regimen over the doublet in terms of increased complete response rate and improved progression-free survival. We report ...

We retrospectively analyzed the data of 337 patients with cytogenetically normal (CN) acute myeloid leukemia (AML), aged ≤ 65 years (training set). A prognostic index score (PIS) was calculated by totaling the score derived from the regression coefficients of each clinical variable, significantly associated with prognosis by multivariate analysis. The variables that were independent prognostic factors for event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) in the training set were: age ≥ ...

One hundred and six patients aged /= 6) vs. 75% among the MDR-Pgp-negative (neg(ve)) ones (MFI < 6) (P = 0.16). Conversely, in the controls, the CR rate was 44% among the MDR-Pgp-pos(ve) patients vs. 67% among the MDR-Pgp-neg(ve) ones (P = 0.02). The 4-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of MDR-Pgp-pos(ve) cases were significantly longer than those of MDR-Pgp-pos(ve) controls (DFS, 28.1% vs. 6.5%, P = 0.004; OS, 33.5% vs. 9.6%, P = 0.01). This difference was not ...

Standard treatment options in classic HCL (cHCL) result in high response rates and near normal life expectancy. However, the disease itself and the recommended standard treatment are associated with profound and prolonged immunosuppression, increasing susceptibility to infections and the risk for a severe course of COVID-19. The Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation (HCLF) has recently convened experts and discussed different clinical strategies for the management of these patients. The new ...