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Treatment and outcome of second-line therapy for POEMS syndrome after autologous stem cell transplantation

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 58, pages 1167–1169 (2023)Cite this article

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Polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, monoclonal gammopathy and skin changes (POEMS) syndrome is a rare plasma cell dyscrasia with highly heterogeneous paraneoplastic symptoms. High-dose chemotherapy (HD) with autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) has been reported to be a satisfying first-line treatment in patients eligible for HD treatment, with a high clinical response rate of 70–100% and a complete hematologic response (CRH) rate of 40–60% [1,2,3,4]. However, reports of refractory or relapsed POEMS following ASCT remain rare [2, 3]. The second-line treatment options and long-term outcomes of these patients have not been adequately discussed. Therefore, we characterized a group of patients with relapsed or refractory POEMS syndrome after first-line ASCT and retrospectively analyzed their treatment choices and clinical outcomes.

A total of 104 patients with relapsed or refractory POEMS syndrome who received ASCT as first-line therapy were enrolled in this study. All patients were diagnosed with POEMS at Peking Union Medical College Hospital between December 2004 and February 2023 based on the criteria proposed by Dispenzieri et al. [5]. The date of the last follow-up was February 28, 2023. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Peking Union Medical College Hospital and was performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (Supplementary information 1).

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Fig. 1: Kaplan-Meier survival curves.

Data availability

For original data, please contact lijian@pumch.cn.

References

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by institutional research funding provided by the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (Grant No. 2021-1-I2M-019, for LJ) and the National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding (2022-PUMCH-C-051, for LJ).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: An-an Li, Yan-ying Yu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China

    An-an Li, Yan-ying Yu, Xue-min Gao, Hao Zhao, Xin-xin Cao, Lu Zhang, Dao-bin Zhou & Jian Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Common Mechanism Research for Major Diseases, Beijing, China

    Jian Li

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Contributions

A-aL and Y-yY designed the study, collected and analyzed the data, and drafted and revised the manuscript; X-mG and HZ collected data; X-xC, LZ, and D-bZ recruited patients and collected data; and JL designed the study, recruited patients, and drafted and revised the text.

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Correspondence to Jian Li.

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Li, Aa., Yu, Yy., Gao, Xm. et al. Treatment and outcome of second-line therapy for POEMS syndrome after autologous stem cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 58, 1167–1169 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-023-02047-8

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