Posted on December 08, 2014
Source: Business Wire
HIV-positive patients with lymphoma were previously excluded from receiving autologous blood stem cell transplants as treatment, because of concern that these patients’ compromised immune systems would have a higher risk of infection and poor graft function due to their need for HIV medications. Results from the clinical trial, presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meetings on December 8 at 4:45 p.m. PST, show the concern of additional risk is unfounded. Patients with HIV-associated lymphoma (HAL) who meet standard eligibility criteria should receive an autologous blood stem cell transplant as standard of care or be enrolled in a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded clinical trial.
The single-arm, multi-institutional clinical trial—conducted by the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN) in collaboration with the AIDS Malignancy Clinical Trials Consortium (AMC)—followed the progress of 40 patients with treatable HIV-1 infection 15 years of age and older who underwent autologous blood stem cell transplantation for lymphoma. The trial found an estimated one-year progression-free survival rate of 82.3 percent in these patients, all of whom had failed prior therapy.
“This trial confirms that HAL patients may successfully undergo autologous transplants with favorable outcomes,” Joseph Alvarnas, M.D., lead study author and director of medical quality at the City of Hope.
Alvarnas—who will present trial findings at the 56th ASH Annual Meeting on December 8—continued, “These results are an important advancement for patients and their physicians seeking access to effective treatments. Payers should also recognize that this treatment may now be the best standard of care for these patients.”
“This BMT CTN study is unique in that it was a collaborative study conducted in 16 transplant centers, all using a consistent protocol, but few with extensive experience in transplantation for HIV-positive patients,” explained Richard Ambinder, M.D., Ph. D., director of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies, Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, and leader of the Johns Hopkins AMC site and the Translational Science Working Group. “Other single-center studies with HAL patients have been conducted previously, as well as a study through the AMC, but those studies were limited to a few centers specialized in treating patients with HIV and AIDS.”
