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Venetoclax does not impair activated T-cell proliferation

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 56, pages 1740–1742 (2021)Cite this article

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Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) is the standard consolidation therapy for patients with intermediate or high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, while patients’ outcomes after allo-HCT have significantly improved over the last decade, relapse of the underlying malignancy remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Therefore, development of safe and effective therapeutic strategies to prevent or treat AML relapse is essential [1]. Donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI), a well-established treatment of relapsed AML, seems to be an effective prophylactic treatment alone or in combination with the hypomethylating agent azacytidine [2]. Furthermore, maintenance therapy with FLT3 inhibitors seems to be effective in reducing the risk of relapse of FLT3-ITD mutated AML [3].

The orally available Bcl-2 inhibitor venetoclax, combined with a hypomethylating agent has shown efficacy in newly diagnosed and relapsed or refractory AML [4]. Furthermore, Byrne et al. recently reported the use of venetoclax combined with a hypomethylating agent or low-dose aracytine in 21 patients with relapsed AML after allo-HCT [5]. Results were promising with an overall response rate of 42%, including five complete remissions and three complete remissions with incomplete count recovery, among 19 evaluable patients. Therefore, maintenance after allo-HCT with venetoclax + azacytidine is currently being evaluated in large phase 2 and phase 3 studies (NCT04128501, NCT04161885).

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Fig. 1: Effect of venetoclax on T cells and B cells.

References

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the clinical teams who provided care for the study patients, and the Tumorotheque of Saint-Antoine Hospital.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sorbonne Université, INSERM, Centre de Recherche Saint-Antoine (CRSA), Paris, France

    Lama Siblany, Béatrice Gaugler, Nicolas Stocker, Laure Ricard, Yishan Ye, Mohamad Mohty & Florent Malard

  2. AP-HP, Hôpital Saint-Antoine, Service d’Hématologie Clinique et Thérapie Cellulaire, Paris, France

    Lama Siblany, Béatrice Gaugler, Nicolas Stocker, Laure Ricard, Mohamad Mohty & Florent Malard

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  1. Lama Siblany
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Contributions

All authors listed on the manuscript have contributed substantially to this work. LS, BG, MM, and FM designed the study, LS, BG, LR, NS and YY contributed the flow cytometry data, and LS and FM performed the statistical analysis. LS, BG, and FM prepared the manuscript and figures for publication.

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Correspondence to Florent Malard.

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Conflict of interest

MM reports grants and/or lecture honoraria from Janssen, Sanofi, MaaT Pharma, JAZZ Pharmaceuticals, Celgene, Amgen, BMS, Takeda, Pfizer, and Roche. FM reports lecture honoraria from Therakos/Mallinckrodt, Biocodex, Janssen, Keocyt, Sanofi, JAZZ Pharmaceuticals, and Astellas, all outside the submitted work. The other authors did not disclose any relevant conflict of interest in relation to this work.

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Siblany, L., Gaugler, B., Stocker, N. et al. Venetoclax does not impair activated T-cell proliferation. Bone Marrow Transplant 56, 1740–1742 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-021-01245-6

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