Improved Outcome of a Pediatric-Inspired Protocol for High-Risk Adolescent and Young Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Patients Using Peg-Asparaginase and Escalating Dose of Methotrexate: Tolerability and Outcome

Art Unfolds Words: Expressing Hope Through Creative Art Among Adolescents and Young Adults Who Have Advanced Cancer

Hope's role in the care of adolescents and young adults (AYAs) who have advanced cancer (AC) is not well understood. This study aimed to conceptualize the essence of hope among AYAs who have AC based on their lived experiences and illustrate hope through verbal and artistic depictions of the AYA's lived experiences. Fifteen AYAs, aged 12 to 21 years, diagnosed with AC completed two semistructured interviews to share their lived experiences of hope perspectives in the form of a descriptive narrative and a creative-art outcome. Participants who chose to draw pictures narrated the conceptual meanings based on elements of each picture. A board-certified art therapist performed a post hoc analysis of the drawings and participants' verbatim descriptions of their meanings. Five of the 15 AYA participants created drawings depicting their lived experiences of hope. The artistic process of mapping their cancer journey revealed distinct views of hope through nature landscapes and metaphors. Participants provided titles for their drawings such as "Over the Rainbow," "Growth in the Valley," and "The Light at the End of the Tunnel." The pictures embodied the AYAs' thoughts, perceptions, and lived experiences related to hope and its role during their cancer journey. Drawing is one simple art form that can facilitate an AYA's expression of well-being (including hope) beyond what may be verbally articulated. Creative art should be further researched as a screening tool to assess how AYAs with AC cope with an uncertain future and psychological and/or existential distress symptoms.

Allogeneic transplant compared to pediatric-inspired therapy for Philadelphia chromosome-negative adolescent and adult ALL in first complete remission

BACKGROUND

Pediatric-inspired non-transplant regimens for adolescent and adult ALL patients are becoming standard in many institutions. We aimed to compare a cohort of patients receiving a pediatric-inspired protocol to a cohort of patients treated with adult type ALL therapy followed by allografting after achieving CR1.

METHOD

Eighty-five adolescent and adult ALL patients treated with CALGB 19802 protocol who received MSD transplant in CR1 were retrospectively compared to a matched cohort of 72 adolescent and adult ALL patients treated with a modified version of Children's Cancer Group (CCG) 1900 protocol.

RESULTS

The five years OS in the allo-HCT cohort was 63.1% compared to 80.2% in the pediatric-inspired chemotherapy arm (P = 0.03). The five years EFS in the allo-HCT arm was 58.8% compared to 61.6% in the pediatric-inspired chemotherapy arm (P = 0.07). The five years DFS in the allo-HCT arm was 58.8% as compared to 71.9% in the pediatric-inspired chemotherapy arm (P = 0.07). The relapse rate in the allo-HCT cohort was 30.58% compared to 21.68% in the pediatric-inspired chemotherapy arm (P = 0.16). The NRM in the allo-HCT cohort was 10.59 as compared to 6.45 in the pediatric-inspired chemotherapy arm (P = 0.3).

CONCLUSION

For adolescent and adult patients with Ph-negative ALL, pediatric-inspired chemotherapy resulted in higher OS compared to allo-HCT.

Improved survival in adolescents and young adults (AYA) patients aged 14-55 years with acute lymphoblastic leukemia using pediatric-inspired protocol - a retrospective analysis of a real-world experience in 79 of patients treated at a national tertiary care referral center

Background

Treating adolescents and young adults (AYA) patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) using pediatric-inspired protocols have shown improvement in outcomes. Most data available in the literature of such protocols is derived from well-controlled clinical trials. This report aims to provide a real-world experience from using a pediatric-inspired protocol in ALL-AYA population in larger number of patients treated at a national tertiary care referral center.

Methods

Newly diagnosed Philadelphia negative ALL-AYA patients ages between 14 and 55 years of age were treated on an institutional protocol (AYA-15 protocol) adopted from a modified version of Children's Cancer Group (CCG) 1900 protocol. At the time of this publication, a total of 79 patients were treated using the AYA-15 protocol between 2015 and 2020). Event-free survival (FFS), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) were analyzed using cumulative incidence and Kaplan-Meier methods.

Results

The median age at diagnosis was 18 years (14–51 years) with 63% male patients. Complete remission (CR) at day 28 of induction was achieved in 88.6% of which 73.4% were minimal residual disease (MRD) negative. At a median follow up of 5 years, EFS, DFS and OS were 57.5%, 69.2% and 75.8% respectively. Toxicities were within the expected range with infections and transaminitis being the most common adverse events.

Conclusion

Our single-center experience real-world data in treating AYA-ALL patients with pediatric-inspired protocol demonstrates encouraging results of high survival rate and excellent tolerability for patients aged 18–55 years.

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant overcomes the poor prognostic value of CDKN2 deletion in adult B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Emerging evidence suggested that CDKN2 deletion was a poor prognosis predictor in adult B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). Here, we investigated the effect of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (allo-HCT) on adult B-ALL with CDKN2 deletion. The patients with adult B-ALL underwent more than two courses of chemotherapy were enrolled in the multicenter retrospective study. Relapse and survival were analyzed. A total of 1336 adult B-ALL, including 295 patients with CDKN2 deletion and 1041 wild-type (WT), from five institutes were enrolled. The complete remission (CR) rates were 86.8% and 91.1% (P = 0.229) after two cycles of chemotherapy in patients with CDKN2 deletion and WT, respectively. The 5-year cumulative relapse post-CR were 56% (95% CI, 52-68) and 43% (95% CI, 40-51) (P < 0.001), 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) were 30% (95% CI, 24-36) and 41% (95% CI, 39-46) (P < 0.001), and 5-year overall survival (OS) were 35% (95% CI, 28-39) and 47% (95% CI, 44-49) (P < 0.001) in the two groups, respectively. Subgroup analysis revealed that the 5-year relapse were 89.3% (95% CI, 83.0-96.5) and 68.4% (95% CI, 60.2-72.5) (P < 0.001), 5-year DFS were 4.9% (95% CI, 1.8-10.4) and 22.7% (95% CI, 18.0-27.7) (P < 0.001), and 5-year OS were 6.9% (95% CI, 3.1-12.9) and 23.4% (95% CI, 18.7-28.6) (P < 0.001) in CDKN2 deletion and WT groups undergoing chemotherapy alone, respectively, while there were not different in terms of 5-year relapse (38.1% vs 34.3%, P = 0.211), DFS (48.4% vs 52.2%, P = 0.325) and OS (54.5% vs 56.3%, P = 0.483) between those with CDKN2 deletion and WT undergoing allo-HCT. Multivariate analysis showed that CDKN2 deletion and high-risk stratification both were the risk factors for relapse, DFS and OS, while allo-HCT was a protective factor. CDKN2 deletion might be a poor prognostic predictor of adult B-ALL. Adult B-ALL with CDKN2 deletion might benefit from allo-HCT.

How Does Creative Arts Therapy Reduce Distress for Children With Cancer? A Metasynthesis of Extant Qualitative Literature [Formula: see text]

Introduction: As more children survive cancer, attention must be paid to their quality of life (QOL). Integrative therapies are an ideal modality for nurses to advocate for reducing distress and improving QOL for children with cancer. Creative arts therapy is a type of integrative health that may improve QOL in this population. Therefore, the research question was asked, "For children with cancer, what opportunities exist for creative arts therapy to reduce distress?" Method: A metasynthesis of the extant qualitative research was conducted to answer the research question. Seven qualitative studies were identified, which included 162 participants. New themes were identified through rigorous analyzation by the study team of each study as individual data. Results: Four derived analytic themes emerged through the analysis: (a) connection is established through creative expression, (b) coping is facilitated by creative arts, (c) communication is enabled by creative arts interventions, and (d) continuance (the concept of time) is experienced through creative arts. Examples of each theme with subthemes are delineated, including expressive quotes. Summary: Through this qualitative synthesis of studies with creative arts therapy, evocative opportunities to reduce the distress associated with the disease experience are revealed. Nurses are called now to promote creative arts therapy to improve the symptoms in children with cancer.