15 Jun HIV Lymphoma Patients Now Candidates For Stem Cell Transplants
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Joseph Alvarnas
Joseph Alvarnas, MD
Associate clinical professor
Department of hematology and Director of value-based analytics
City of Hope National Medical Center
Duarte, CA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Alvarnas: Patients with HIV infection have a significantly increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and Hodgkin lymphoma. Prior to the availability of effective anti-retroviral therapy, HIV-infected patients with lymphoma had very poor treatment outcomes. Following the availability of effective anti-HIV therapy, patient outcomes for HIV-infected patients now parallel those of non-infected patients. Historically, however, HIV infection has been used as a criterion for not offering patients autologous blood stem cell transplantation outside of centers with unique expertise. The purpose of this trial was to evaluate outcomes, complication rates, and immunological reconstitution of HIV-infected patients following autologous blood stem cell transplantation.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Dr. Alvarnas: The study demonstrated that patients with HIV-related lymphomas who otherwise meet standard transplant criteria have outcomes comparable to those of patients without HIV infection. There is no evidence of increased infection risk post transplant. There is no evidence of loss of control of HIV infection following transplant.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Dr. Alvarnas: Patients with HIV-related lymphomas who otherwise meet standard transplant criteria should be routinely offered blood stem cell transplantation.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Dr. Alvarnas: We are in the process of evaluating the role of allogeneic stem cell transplantation in HIV infected patients with blood cancers.
Also, patients with HIV infection who undergo autologous transplant, should be offered participation in transplant-related clinical trials without discrimination related to their underlying HIV infection.
MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Dr. Alvarnas: These findings should be broadly generalizable across the united states.
MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.
Citation:
Joseph C. Alvarnas, Jennifer Le Rademacher, Yanli Wang, Richard F. Little, Gorgun Akpek, Ernesto Ayala, Steven Devine, Robert Baiocchi, Gerard Lozanski, Lawrence Kaplan, Ariela Noy, Uday Popat, Jack Hsu, Lawrence E. Morris, Jason Thompson, Mary H. Horowitz, Adam Mendizabal, Alexandra Levine, Amrita Krishnan, Stephen J. Forman, Willis H. Navarro, Richard F. Ambinder. Autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation for HIV-related lymphoma: results of the (BMT CTN) 0803/(AMC) 071 Trial. Blood, June 2016 DOI: 10.1182/blood-2015-08-664706
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Last Updated on June 15, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD