Mesa, Ruben A.

ImportanceCytokine storm due to COVID-19 can cause high morbidity and mortality and may be more common in patients with cancer treated with immunotherapy (IO) due to immune system activation.ObjectiveTo determine the association of baseline immunosuppression and/or IO-based therapies with COVID-19 severity and cytokine storm in patients with cancer.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis registry-based retrospective cohort study included 12 046 patients reported to the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) registry from March 2020 to May 2022. The CCC19 registry is a centralized international multi-institutional registry of patients with COVID-19 with a current or past diagnosis of cancer. Records analyzed included patients with active or previous cancer who had a laboratory-confirmed infection with SARS-CoV-2 by polymerase chain reaction and/or serologic findings.ExposuresImmunosuppression due to therapy; systemic anticancer therapy (IO or non-IO).Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe primary outcome was a 5-level ordinal scale of COVID-19 severity: no complications; hospitalized without requiring oxygen; hospitalized and required oxygen; intensive care unit admission and/or mechanical ventilation; death. The secondary outcome was the occurrence of cytokine storm.ResultsThe median age of the entire cohort was 65 years (interquartile range [IQR], 54-74) years and 6359 patients were female (52.8%) and 6598 (54.8%) were non-Hispanic White. A total of 599 (5.0%) patients received IO, whereas 4327 (35.9%) received non-IO systemic anticancer therapies, and 7120 (59.1%) did not receive any antineoplastic regimen within 3 months prior to COVID-19 diagnosis. Although no difference in COVID-19 severity and cytokine storm was found in the IO group compared with the untreated group in the total cohort (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.80; 95% CI, 0.56-1.13, and aOR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.41-1.93, respectively), patients with baseline immunosuppression treated with IO (vs untreated) had worse COVID-19 severity and cytokine storm (aOR, 3.33; 95% CI, 1.38-8.01, and aOR, 4.41; 95% CI, 1.71-11.38, respectively). Patients with immunosuppression receiving non-IO therapies (vs untreated) also had worse COVID-19 severity (aOR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.36-2.35) and cytokine storm (aOR, 2.32; 95% CI, 1.42-3.79).Conclusions and RelevanceThis cohort study found that in patients with cancer and COVID-19, administration of systemic anticancer therapies, especially IO, in the context of baseline immunosuppression was associated with severe clinical outcomes and the development of cytokine storm.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04354701

Abstract Bone marrow transplant (BMT) is a curative procedure for patients with hematological malignancies, hemoglobinopathies, and errors of inborn metabolism. Survivors are not without symptom burden. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of a 12-week online yoga intervention compared to an educational control group in survivors of allogenic BMT. Participants were recruited nationally. Consenting participants were assigned to online yoga or a podcast control. Yoga and control group participants were instructed to complete 12 weeks of 60 minutes/week of online yoga and podcasts, respectively. Study participants were asked to complete online questionnaires at baseline (wk 0), midpoint (wk 6), postintervention (wk 12), and follow-up (wk 20). Feasibility benchmarks included > 70% satisfied with intervention and > 70% intending to continue participating in online yoga (acceptability); > 70% of participants achieving > 42 minutes/week of online yoga (demand); > 70% completing all four questionnaires (practicality); and at least small effect sizes of the intervention on Lee Symptom Score, physical function, fatigue, anxiety, sleep disturbance, social functioning, pain interference, depression, and quality of life as compared to control group (limited efficacy). Seventy-two participants consented and enrolled in the study (yoga group n = 33; podcast group n = 39). Of the yoga group participants, 54.5% (n = 19) completed the postintervention questionnaire, with 73.7% (n = 14) indicating they were satisfied/very satisfied and 15.8% (n = 3) likely/very likely to continue online yoga. Yoga participation averaged 31.98 minutes/week across 12 weeks. Both groups experienced a significant improvement in the Lee Symptom Score (6.2%–8.7% improvement from baseline) and depressive symptoms (5.3%–6.6% improvement from baseline). The yoga group experienced a significant reduction in pain (6.1% from baseline), and the podcast group experienced a significant reduction in fatigue (6.4% improvement from baseline). Online yoga was not found to be feasible to deliver to this population of survivors of BMT. However, there was satisfaction with online yoga among the majority of survivors of BMT, and beneficial effects were experienced in the yoga group on Lee Symptom Score, depressive symptoms, and pain. Future research is needed to enhance our understanding of barriers to online yoga participation for survivors of BMT and to determine its efficacy.

e19078 Background: Patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), including polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET), and myelofibrosis (MF), experience chronic disease-related symptoms. Surveying these patients while incorporating the MPN-Symptom Assessment Form (SAF) gains valuable insight. Independent surveys evaluating symptoms among MPN patients have seen disproportionate participation among females compared to males (upwards of 4:1). Though the general MPN patient population is roughly gender balanced, epidemiological studies show the occurrence of MPN types differ between men and women (MPN [%male]: PV [65%], ET [33%], MF [50%]. Mehta, et al. Leuk & Lymph 2014). In-clinic evaluations and international MPN surveys of disease-related symptoms suggest women report higher symptom burden on average compared to men, despite MPN type [Emanuel, et al. JCO 2012. Geyer, et al. Haematol 2017]. Further, a recent study across cancer trials showed women had a 34% increased risk of reporting severe symptoms [Unger, et al. JCO 2022]. This study aimed to evaluate gender imbalance in survey participation among MPN patient surveys and investigate its potential to overestimate symptom burden if gender is ignored. Methods: Five anonymous web-based surveys were used to assess the impact of disproportionate gender participation. The MPN-10 assessing the 10 most clinically meaningful SAF items was present in these surveys and generated the Total Symptom Score (TSS). Survey responses with no self-reported gender or ≥5 missing MPN-10 symptoms were excluded. Raking weights based on expected MPN population were applied at the survey- and MPN type-level. Relative bias of mean TSS was calculated to evaluate over- and underestimation due to this participation imbalance. Relative bias <5% is commonly acceptable. Results: There were 4962 survey participants total and 74% were female (Table). Epidemiologically expected gender frequency by MPN type was not seen (MPN [%male]: PV [31%], ET [15%], MF [37%]). The gender participation imbalance accounted for a 3.1% overestimation of overall TSS. This also resulted in a 6.8% underestimation of the mean difference in TSS between genders, across MPNs. Conclusions: Overall bias due to gender participation imbalance was relatively low. However, analyses considering gender differences were more impacted. Anonymous surveys should seek to reduce participation bias during the survey design phase. More research is needed to evaluate gender and other participation biases in surveys across cancer domains.[Table: see text]

Abstract Despite much of the past 2 years being engulfed by the devastating consequences of the SAR‐CoV‐2 pandemic, significant progress, even breathtaking, occurred in the field of chronic myeloid malignancies. Some of this was show‐cased at the 15th Post‐American Society of Hematology (ASH) and the 25th John Goldman workshops on myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) held on 9th‐10th December 2020 and 7th‐10th October 2021, respectively. The inaugural Post‐ASH MPN workshop was set out in 2006 by John Goldman (deceased) and Tariq Mughal to answer emerging translational hematology and therapeutics of patients with these malignancies. Rather than present a resume of the discussions, this perspective focuses on some of the pivotal translational hematology and therapeutic insights in these diseases.

PURPOSE Targeting the BCL-XL pathway has demonstrated the ability to overcome Janus kinase inhibitor resistance in preclinical models. This phase II trial investigated the efficacy and safety of adding BCL-XL/BCL-2 inhibitor navitoclax to ruxolitinib therapy in patients with myelofibrosis with progression or suboptimal response to ruxolitinib monotherapy (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03222609 ). METHODS Thirty-four adult patients with intermediate-/high-risk myelofibrosis who had progression or suboptimal response on stable ruxolitinib dose (≥ 10 mg twice daily) were administered navitoclax at 50 mg once daily starting dose, followed by escalation to a maximum of 300 mg once daily in once in weekly increments (if platelets were ≥ 75 × 109/L). The primary end point was ≥ 35% spleen volume reduction (SVR35) from baseline at week 24. Secondary end points included ≥ 50% reduction in total symptom score (TSS50) from baseline at week 24, hemoglobin improvement, change in bone marrow fibrosis (BMF) grade, and safety. RESULTS High molecular risk mutations were identified in 58% of patients, and 52% harbored ≥ 3 mutations. SVR35 was achieved by 26.5% of patients at week 24, and by 41%, at any time on study, with an estimated median duration of SVR35 of 13.8 months. TSS50 was achieved by 30% (6 of 20) of patients at week 24, and BMF improved by 1-2 grades in 33% (11 of 33) of evaluable patients. Anemia response was achieved by 64% (7 of 11), including one patient with baseline transfusion dependence. Median overall survival was not reached with a median follow-up of 21.6 months. The most common adverse event was reversible thrombocytopenia without clinically significant bleeding (88%). CONCLUSION The addition of navitoclax to ruxolitinib in patients with persistent or progressive myelofibrosis resulted in durable SVR35, improved TSS, hemoglobin response, and BMF. Further investigation is underway to qualify the potential for disease modification.