Wang D, Chen XH, Wei A, Zhou CJ, Zhang X, Ma HH, Lian HY, Zhang L, Zhang Q, Huang XT, Wang CJ, Yang Y, Liu W, Wang TY, Li ZG, Cui L, Zhang R. Clinical features and treatment outcomes of pediatric Langerhans cell histiocytosis with macrophage activation syndrome-hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.
Orphanet J Rare Dis 2022;
17:151. [PMID:
35379272 PMCID:
PMC8981711 DOI:
10.1186/s13023-022-02276-y]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2021] [Accepted: 02/27/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Background
Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare myeloid neoplasm. A few LCH patients had Macrophage activation syndrome-hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (MAS-HLH), a life-threatening, hyper-inflammatory syndrome. We retrospectively described the clinical-biological characteristics of a series of 28 pediatric LCH patients with MAS-HLH in a single center. We further analyzed the difference in treatment outcomes between second-line chemotherapy (cytarabine and cladribine) and targeted therapy (dabrafenib) for BRAF-V600E-positive patients.
Results
LCH patients with MAS-HLH were aged < 2 years, harbored high frequencies of risk organ, skin, or lymph nodes involvement, and most of them carried BRAF-V600E mutation in lesions (88.0%) or plasma (90.5%). Patients were firstly treated with the initial induction first-line therapy (vindesine-steroid combination), and most of them (26/28) failed to control the active MAS-HLH after one six-week course of induction treatment. Then they were shifted to second-line chemotherapy or targeted therapy dabrafenib. BRAF-V600E-mutant patients treated with dabrafenib had prompt resolution of MAS-HLH signs and symptoms with less toxicity than second-line chemotherapy. Moreover, the progression-free survival (PFS) rate for patients given dabrafenib was much higher than those treated with chemotherapy (4 year-PFS: 75% vs. 14.6%, P = 0.034).
Conclusions
LCH patients with MAS-HLH harbored specific clinical-biology characteristics compared to the multisystem LCH without MAS-HLH. The BRAF inhibitor dabrafenib provides a promising treatment option for LCH with MAS-HLH.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13023-022-02276-y.
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