Issue Archive

In this commissioned series introduced by Associate Editor Robert Zeiser, experts contribute seminal discussions of the 3 major pitfalls following allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Through exploration of instructive real-world cases, they provide up-to-date personal recommendations for solving these common problems.

Gauthier and colleagues evaluated concomitant ibrutinib and anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in a study of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) refractory to ibrutinib monotherapy. Their data indicate a low rate of cytokine release syndrome and high rates of minimal residual disease–negative responses.

Jinnouchi and colleagues describe their generation of a highly efficient new immunocompromised mouse model for the study of human hematopoietic stem cells, leukemias, and solid tumors by humanizing the locus for the ligand of CD47 and thereby reducing phagocytosis of transplanted human cells.

Arenas and colleagues report that patients with idiopathic multicentric Castleman disease display heightened activation of the mTOR signaling pathway, suggesting a much-needed new treatment strategy for this rare but highly problematic disease.

To address whether there is an association between leukocytosis and thrombosis or disease progression in polycythemia vera, Ronner and colleagues used specialized modeling and identified a strong link between persistent leukocytosis and disease evolution, but not thrombosis.

Exactly how obesity predisposes to thrombosis remains unresolved. Applying their novel assay to measure plasmin generation, Miszta and colleagues revealed that a high-fat diet alters the balance between generation of thrombin and plasmin in mice, providing clues for future investigations in humans with obesity.