Interferon α for the Therapy of Minimal Residual Disease

Summary

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of interferon α among patients undergone unmanipulated blood and marrow transplantation following day 60 post-transplantation who were minimal residual disease positive after transplantation. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is an effective treatment option for acute leukemia and many other hematological malignancies. However, post-transplant relapse can occur in some patients, and the prognosis of these patients is usually very poor.The persistence or recurrence of minimal residual disease (MRD) in the post-transplant period is an independent risk factor of relapse. Therefore, MRD monitoring can be used to screen patients with a high risk of relapse to provide timely intervention and prevent post-transplant relapse.Interferon α-2b exerts a relatively strong immunomodulatory effect. It can kill acute leukemia (AL) cells by regulating T-cell and/or natural killer cell functions.Consequently, interferon α-2b may have potential therapeutic value for AL patients with MRD-positive after transplantation. The study hypothesis: Prevention of relapse using interferon α-2b following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with standard risk acute leukemia can reduce relapse rate.

Timeline

Start

2014-06

Primary completion

2021-06

Completion

2021-06

Publications

• Shen MZ, Zhang XH, Xu LP, Wang Y, Yan CH, Chen H, Chen YH, Han W, Wang FR, Wang JZ, Zhao XS, Qin YZ, Chang YJ, Liu KY, Huang XJ, Mo XD. Preemptive Interferon-alpha Therapy Could Protect Against Relapse and Improve Survival of Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients After Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: Long-Term Results of Two Registry Studies. Front Immunol. 2022 Jan 28;13:757002. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.757002. eCollection 2022.
• Liu S, Luo X, Zhang X, Xu L, Wang Y, Yan C, Chen H, Chen Y, Han W, Wang F, Wang J, Liu K, Huang X, Mo X. Preemptive interferon-alpha treatment could protect against relapse and improve long-term survival of ALL patients after allo-HSCT. Sci Rep. 2020 Nov 19;10(1):20148. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-77186-9.
• Chang YJ, Wang Y, Xu LP, Zhang XH, Chen H, Chen YH, Wang FR, Wei-Han, Sun YQ, Yan CH, Tang FF, Mo XD, Liu YR, Liu KY, Huang XJ. Haploidentical donor is preferred over matched sibling donor for pre-transplantation MRD positive ALL: a phase 3 genetically randomized study. J Hematol Oncol. 2020 Mar 30;13(1):27. doi: 10.1186/s13045-020-00860-y.
• Zhou YL, Wu LX, Peter Gale R, Wang ZL, Li JL, Jiang H, Jiang Q, Jiang B, Cao SB, Lou F, Sun Y, Wang CC, Liu YR, Wang Y, Chang YJ, Xu LP, Zhang XH, Liu KY, Ruan GR, Huang XJ. Mutation topography and risk stratification for de novo acute myeloid leukaemia with normal cytogenetics and no nucleophosmin 1 (NPM1) mutation or Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD). Br J Haematol. 2020 Jul;190(2):274-283. doi: 10.1111/bjh.16526. Epub 2020 Feb 26.
• Mo XD, Zhang XH, Xu LP, Wang Y, Yan CH, Chen H, Chen YH, Han W, Wang FR, Wang JZ, Liu KY, Huang XJ. IFN-alpha Is Effective for Treatment of Minimal Residual Disease in Patients with Acute Leukemia after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: Results of a Registry Study. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant. 2017 Aug;23(8):1303-1310. doi: 10.1016/j.bbmt.2017.04.023. Epub 2017 Apr 27.

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