Bone Marrow Transplantation News

The use of levofloxacin for neutropenic prophylaxis is associated with an increased incidence of Streptococcus viridans infection among patients with cancer, according to data presented at the 2014 European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation were less likely to experience cytomegalovirus infection when treated with letermovir compared with placebo, according to phase 2 study results.

Survival for many individuals with HIV on appropriate therapy now resembles that of the general population.

Mary Horowitz, MD, MS, the Robert A. Uihlein Jr. chair in hematologic research and chief of hematology and oncology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, received the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

The FDA today approved posaconazole injection for prophylaxis of invasive Aspergillus and Candida infections, according to the agent’s manufacturer.

In patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, a deficiency of the PTX3 gene may increase the risk for invasive aspergillosis, according to results of a recent study.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation doubled the risk for secondary solid cancers and further increased the risk for oral and esophageal cancers, according to study results.

The addition of vorinostat to standard immunoprophylaxis reduced the incidence of graft-versus-host disease in patients with hematologic malignancies who underwent related-donor, reduced-intensity conditioning allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, according to results of a single-arm, phase 1/2 trial.

Data published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases suggest that host and transplant-related factors determine the risk of progression to lower respiratory tract disease among hematopoietic cell transplant recipients with respiratory syncytial virus, whereas viral factors are less important.

Chemotherapy-induced alopecia was common among pediatric patients, with 12% of patients experiencing incomplete or no hair regrowth at 6 months posttreatment, a condition strongly associated with thiotepa use, according to recent study results.