Linda M. Griffith

Transplantation Outcomes for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, 2000–2009

BACKGROUND The Primary Immune Deficiency Treatment Consortium was formed to analyze the results of hematopoietic-cell transplantation in children with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and other primary immunodeficiencies. Factors associated with a good transplantation outcome need to be identified in order to design safer and more effective curative therapy, particularly for children with SCID diagnosed at birth. METHODS We collected data retrospectively from 240 infants with SCID who had received transplants at 25 centers during a 10-year period (2000 through 2009). RESULTS Survival at 5 years, freedom from immunoglobulin substitution, and CD3+ T-cell and IgA recovery were more likely among recipients of grafts from matched sibling donors than among recipients of grafts from alternative donors. However, the survival rate was high regardless of donor type among infants who received transplants at 3.5 months of age or younger (94%) and among older infants without prior infection (90%) or with infection that had resolved (82%). Among actively infected infants without a matched sibling donor, survival was best among recipients of haploidentical T-cell-depleted transplants in the absence of any pretransplantation conditioning. Among survivors, reduced-intensity or myeloablative pretransplantation conditioning was associated with an increased likelihood of a CD3+ T-cell count of more than 1000 per cubic millimeter, freedom from immunoglobulin substitution, and IgA recovery but did not significantly affect CD4+ T-cell recovery or recovery of phytohemagglutinin-induced T-cell proliferation. The genetic subtype of SCID affected the quality of CD3+ T-cell recovery but not survival. CONCLUSIONS Transplants from donors other than matched siblings were associated with excellent survival among infants with SCID identified before the onset of infection. All available graft sources are expected to lead to excellent survival among asymptomatic infants. (Funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and others.).

Establishing diagnostic criteria for severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID), leaky SCID, and Omenn syndrome: The Primary Immune Deficiency Treatment Consortium experience

BACKGROUND The approach to the diagnosis of severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID) and related disorders varies among institutions and countries. OBJECTIVES The Primary Immune Deficiency Treatment Consortium attempted to develop a uniform set of criteria for diagnosing SCID and related disorders and has evaluated the results as part of a retrospective study of SCID in North America. METHODS Clinical records from 2000 through 2009 at 27 centers in North America were collected on 332 children treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT), enzyme replacement therapy, or gene therapy for SCID and related disorders. Eligibility for inclusion in the study and classification into disease groups were established by using set criteria and applied by an expert review group. RESULTS Two hundred eighty-five (86%) of the patients were determined to be eligible, and 47 (14%) were not eligible. Of the 285 eligible patients, 84% were classified as having typical SCID; 13% were classified as having leaky SCID, Omenn syndrome, or reticular dysgenesis; and 3% had a history of enzyme replacement or gene therapy. Detection of a genotype predicting an SCID phenotype was accepted for eligibility. Reasons for noneligibility were failure to demonstrate either impaired lymphocyte proliferation or maternal T-cell engraftment. Overall (n = 332) rates of testing were as follows: proliferation to PHA, 77%; maternal engraftment, 35%; and genotype, 79% (mutation identified in 62%). CONCLUSION Lack of complete laboratory evaluation of patients before HCT presents a significant barrier to definitive diagnosis of SCID and related disorders and prevented inclusion of subjects in our observational HCT study. This lesson is critical for patient care, as well as the design of future prospective treatment studies for such children because a well-defined and consistent study population is important for precision in outcomes analysis.

High-Dose Immunosuppressive Therapy and Autologous Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (HALT-MS): A 3-Year Interim Report

IMPORTANCE Most patients with relapsing-remitting (RR) multiple sclerosis (MS) who receive approved disease-modifying therapies experience breakthrough disease and accumulate neurologic disability. High-dose immunosuppressive therapy (HDIT) with autologous hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) may, in contrast, induce sustained remissions in early MS. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the safety, efficacy, and durability of MS disease stabilization through 3 years after HDIT/HCT. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (HALT-MS) is an ongoing, multicenter, single-arm, phase 2 clinical trial of HDIT/HCT for patients with RRMS who experienced relapses with loss of neurologic function while receiving disease-modifying therapies during the 18 months before enrolling. Participants are evaluated through 5 years after HCT. This report is a prespecified, 3-year interim analysis of the trial. Thirty-six patients with RRMS from referral centers were screened; 25 were enrolled. INTERVENTIONS Autologous peripheral blood stem cell grafts were CD34+ selected; the participants then received high-dose treatment with carmustine, etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan as well as rabbit antithymocyte globulin before autologous HCT. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary end point of HALT-MS is event-free survival defined as survival without death or disease activity from any one of the following outcomes: (1) confirmed loss of neurologic function, (2) clinical relapse, or (3) new lesions observed on magnetic resonance imaging. Toxic effects are reported using National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. RESULTS Grafts were collected from 25 patients, and 24 of these individuals received HDIT/HCT. The median follow-up period was 186 weeks (interquartile range, 176-250) weeks). Overall event-free survival was 78.4% (90% CI, 60.1%-89.0%) at 3 years. Progression-free survival and clinical relapse-free survival were 90.9% (90% CI, 73.7%-97.1%) and 86.3% (90% CI, 68.1%-94.5%), respectively, at 3 years. Adverse events were consistent with expected toxic effects associated with HDIT/HCT, and no acute treatment-related neurologic adverse events were observed. Improvements were noted in neurologic disability, quality-of-life, and functional scores. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE At 3 years, HDIT/HCT without maintenance therapy was effective for inducing sustained remission of active RRMS and was associated with improvements in neurologic function. Treatment was associated with few serious early complications or unexpected adverse events.

Persistence of recipient plasma cells and anti-donor isohaemagglutinins in patients with delayed donor erythropoiesis after major ABO incompatible non-myeloablative haematopoietic cell transplantation.

Delayed donor erythropoiesis and pure red‐cell aplasia (PRCA) complicate major‐ABO mismatched non‐myeloablative allogeneic stem‐cell transplantation. To characterize these events, we analysed red‐cell serology and chimaerism in lymphohaematopoietic lineages, including plasma cells and B cells, in 12 consecutive major‐ABO incompatible transplants following cyclophosphamide/fludarabine‐based conditioning. Donor erythropoiesis was delayed to more than 100 days in nine (75%) patients including six (50%) who developed PRCA. During PRCA, all patients had persistent anti‐donor isohaemagglutinins and recipient plasma cells (5–42%), while myeloid and T cells were completely donor in origin. In contrast, B‐cell chimaerism was frequently full‐donor when significant anti‐donor isohaemagglutinins persisted. Four patients with early mixed haematopoietic chimaerism and the prolonged presence of anti‐donor isohaemagglutinins and recipient plasma cells developed delayed‐onset (>100 days post‐transplant) red cell transfusion dependence and PRCA after myeloid chimaerism converted from mixed to full donor. These findings confirm that donor‐erythropoiesis is impacted by temporal disparities in donor immune‐mediated eradication of recipient lymphohaematopoietic cells during major‐ABO incompatibility and suggest that plasma cells are relatively resistant to graft‐versus‐host haematopoietic effects.

Improving cellular therapy for primary immune deficiency diseases: Recognition, diagnosis, and management

More than 20 North American academic centers account for the majority of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) procedures for primary immunodeficiency diseases (PIDs), with smaller numbers performed at additional sites. Given the importance of a timely diagnosis of these rare diseases and the diversity of practice sites, there is a need for guidance as to best practices in management of patients with PIDs before, during, and in follow-up for definitive treatment. In this conference report of immune deficiency experts and HCT physicians who care for patients with PIDs, we present expert guidance for (1) PID diagnoses that are indications for HCT, including severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID), combined immunodeficiency disease, and other non-SCID diseases; (2) the critical importance of a high degree of suspicion of the primary care physician and timeliness of diagnosis for PIDs; (3) the need for rapid referral to an immune deficiency expert, center with experience in HCT, or both for patients with PIDs; (4) medical management of a child with suspicion of SCID/combined immunodeficiency disease while confirming the diagnosis, including infectious disease management and workup; (5) the posttransplantation follow-up visit schedule; (6) antimicrobial prophylaxis after transplantation, including gamma globulin administration; and (7) important indications for return to the transplantation center after discharge. Finally, we discuss the role of high-quality databases in treatment of PIDs and HCT as an element of the infrastructure that will be needed for productive multicenter clinical trials in these rare diseases.

A prospective, randomized, controlled trial of autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation for aggressive multiple sclerosis: a position paper

Background: Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has been tried in the last 15 years as a therapeutic option in patients with poor-prognosis autoimmune disease who do not respond to conventional treatments. Worldwide, more than 600 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have been treated with HSCT, most of them having been recruited in small, single-centre, phase 1–2 uncontrolled trials. Clinical and magnetic resonance imaging outcomes from case series reports or Registry-based analyses suggest that a major response is achieved in most patients; quality and duration of response are better in patients transplanted during the relapsing–remitting phase than in those in the secondary progressive stage. Objectives: An interdisciplinary group of neurologists and haematologists has been formed, following two international meetings supported by the European and American Blood and Marrow Transplantation Societies, for the purpose of discussing a controlled clinical trial, to be designed within the new scenarios of evolving MS treatments. Conclusions: Objectives of the trial, patient selection, transplant technology and outcome assessment were extensively discussed. The outcome of this process is summarized in the present paper, with the goal of establishing the background and advancing the development of a prospective, randomized, controlled multicentre trial to assess the clinical efficacy of HSCT for the treatment of highly active MS.

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for primary immune deficiency diseases: Current status and critical needs

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) has been used for 40 years to ameliorate or cure primary immune deficiency (PID) diseases, including severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and non-SCID PID. There is a critical need for evaluation of the North American experience of different HCT approaches for these diseases to identify best practices and plan future investigative clinical trials. Our survey of incidence and prevalence of PID in North American practice sites indicates that such studies are feasible. A conference of experts in HCT treatment of PID has recommended (1) a comprehensive cross-sectional and retrospective analysis of HCT survivors with SCID; (2) a prospective study of patients with SCID receiving HCT, with comparable baseline and follow-up testing across participating centers; (3) a pilot study of newborn screening for SCID to identify affected infants before compromise by infection; and (4) studies of the natural history of disease in patients who do or do not receive HCT for the non-SCID diseases of Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome and chronic granulomatous disease. To accomplish these goals, collaboration by a consortium of institutions in North America is proposed. Participation of immunologists and HCT physicians having interest in PID and experts in laboratory methods, clinical outcomes assessment, databases, and analysis will be required for the success of these studies.

National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Project on Criteria for Clinical Trials in Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease: III. The 2014 Biomarker Working Group Report

Biology-based markers to confirm or aid in the diagnosis or prognosis of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation or monitor its progression are critically needed to facilitate evaluation of new therapies. Biomarkers have been defined as any characteristic that is objectively measured and evaluated as an indicator of a normal biological or pathogenic process, or of a pharmacologic response to a therapeutic intervention. Applications of biomarkers in chronic GVHD clinical trials or patient management include the following: (1) diagnosis and assessment of chronic GVHD disease activity, including distinguishing irreversible damage from continued disease activity; (2) prognostic risk to develop chronic GVHD; and (3) prediction of response to therapy. Sample collection for chronic GVHD biomarkers studies should be well documented following established quality control guidelines for sample acquisition, processing, preservation, and testing, at intervals that are both calendar and event driven. The consistent therapeutic treatment of subjects and standardized documentation needed to support biomarker studies are most likely to be provided in prospective clinical trials. To date, no chronic GVHD biomarkers have been qualified for use in clinical applications. Since our previous chronic GVHD Biomarkers Working Group report in 2005, an increasing number of chronic GVHD candidate biomarkers are available for further investigation. This paper provides a 4-part framework for biomarker investigations: identification, verification, qualification, and application with terminology based on Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency guidelines.

Transplantation for Autoimmune Diseases in North and South America: A Report of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research

Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is an emerging therapy for patients with severe autoimmune diseases (AID). We report data on 368 patients with AID who underwent HCT in 64 North and South American transplantation centers reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research between 1996 and 2009. Most of the HCTs involved autologous grafts (n = 339); allogeneic HCT (n = 29) was done mostly in children. The most common indications for HCT were multiple sclerosis, systemic sclerosis, and systemic lupus erythematosus. The median age at transplantation was 38 years for autologous HCT and 25 years for allogeneic HCT. The corresponding times from diagnosis to HCT were 35 months and 24 months. Three-year overall survival after autologous HCT was 86% (95% confidence interval [CI], 81%-91%). Median follow-up of survivors was 31 months (range, 1-144 months). The most common causes of death were AID progression, infections, and organ failure. On multivariate analysis, the risk of death was higher in patients at centers that performed fewer than 5 autologous HCTs (relative risk, 3.5; 95% CI, 1.1-11.1; P = .03) and those that performed 5 to 15 autologous HCTs for AID during the study period (relative risk, 4.2; 95% CI, 1.5-11.7; P = .006) compared with patients at centers that performed more than 15 autologous HCTs for AID during the study period. AID is an emerging indication for HCT in the region. Collaboration of hematologists and other disease specialists with an outcomes database is important to promote optimal patient selection, analysis of the impact of prognostic variables and long-term outcomes, and development of clinical trials.

Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation for Multiple Sclerosis: Collaboration of the CIBMTR and EBMT to Facilitate International Clinical Studies

Clinical investigation of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) as therapy for multiple sclerosis (MS) has been ongoing for over a decade. While several phase II studies have been finalized or are in progress, no definitive prospective randomized studies comparing HSCT versus alternative therapies for MS have been completed. In this conference report of North American and European experts who are involved in the care of MS patients, including neurologists and HSCT physicians, and representatives of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) and European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), we (1) critically review progress to date in HSCT for MS; (2) describe current registry based projects including long-term follow-up studies in HSCT for MS and harmonization of the MS disease-specific research forms that will be used in future by both databases; (3) discuss challenges in study design for a prospective randomized clinical trial of HSCT versus alternative therapy for MS such as feasibility, and the importance of multidisciplinary clinical teams, need for a large sample size and duration of observation required for outcomes assessment; and (4) address future directions in HSCT therapy for MS. To undertake a definitive multicenter clinical trial in autologous HSCT for MS, it will be important to begin well in advance to assemble the team, evaluate proposals for study design, and consider options for the infrastructure and logistical support that will be needed. International collaboration, including partnership with the CIBMTR and EBMT, may be desirable and may in fact be critical for successful completion of a definitive comparative study.