This multicenter retrospective study included 101 patients (median age 62 years) with secondary plasma cell leukemia (sPCL). The median time from initial multiple myeloma diagnosis to sPCL was 31 months. Fifty-five out of 72 patients (75%) who received any therapy were treated with immunomodulators (IMiDs) and/or proteasome inhibitors (PIs), and 14/72 (19%) underwent salvage autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). The overall response rate in patients who received ASCT or PI (either alone or in combination) was higher than in those who did not (93% vs. 36% and 60% vs. 30%, respectively). The median overall survival (OS) in patients who received therapy was 4.2 months (95% CI: 1.3; 8.0) with a 1-year OS of 19%. Platelet count ≤100 × 109/L at sPCL diagnosis was the only independent predictor of a poorer OS in treated patients (HR = 3.98, p = .0001). These findings suggest that patients with sPCL may benefit from salvage ASCT- and PI-based regimens.

b Dana Farber Cancer Institute Harvard Medical School Boston MA USA

b John Theurer Cancer Center Myeloma Division Hackensack University Medical Center Hackensack NJ USA

c Tel Aviv Medical Center Tel Aviv Israel

Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases Jagiellonian University Medical College Cracow Poland

e Hospital Universitario de Salamanca Salamanca Spain

f Washington University School of Medicine Saint Louis MO USA

g Le Scotte Hospital Siena Italy

h Department of Hematology St John's Cancer Center Lublin Poland

Hematology Department and Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit Ankara University Medical School Ankara Turkey

Hematology Department Jagiellonian University Medical College Cracow Poland

i Department of Experimental Hematology Medical University of Lublin Lublin Poland

j Division of Hematology Clinical Hospital Merkur Zagreb Croatia

k Department of Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Medical University of Lublin Lublin Poland

l Department of Hematology Oncology and Internal Medicine Warsaw Medical University Warsaw Poland

m Department of Hematology Blood Neoplasms and Bone Marrow Transplantation Wroclaw Medical University Wroclaw Poland

o Ospedale A Perrino Haematology Brindisi Italy

p Department of Internal Medicine and Hematology Military Institute of Medicine Warsaw Poland

q Weill Cornell Medical College New York NY USA

r Department of Hematology Nicolaus Copernicus Hospital Torun Poland

Rutgers New Jersey Medical School Newark NJ USA

s Department of Medicine Section of Hematology Vejle Denmark

t Faculty of Medicine University Hospital Ostrava University of Ostrava Ostrava Czech Republic

u Department of Hematology UZ Leuven Leuven Belgium

v Teaching Hospital No 1 Rzeszów Poland

w Seccion Hematologia Adultos Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Argentina

x Norwegian University of Science and Technology St Olav's Hospital Trondheim Norway

y Hospital Universitario Professor Edgar Santos Salvador Brazil

z Division of Hematology and Oncology Dana Farber Cancer Institute at St Elizabeth's Medical Center Brighton MA USA

References provided by Crossref.org

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