In this week's episode, we’ll learn more about social determinants of health that impact access to allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation in patients with acute myeloid leukemia, or AML; use of megakaryocyte growth factor receptor-based stem cell depletion as part of pretransplant conditioning in ex vivo autologous gene therapy; and identification of an eight-protein risk signature as well as a novel single protein biomarker, soluble oncostatin M receptor, for risk stratification in AML.

Featured Articles:

• Social Determinants of Health and Access to Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Acute Myeloid Leukemia
• cMPL-Based Purification and Depletion of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells: Implications for Pretransplant Conditioning
• Blood-Based Proteomic Profiling Identifies OSMR as a Novel Biomarker of AML Outcomes

Blood editor Dr. Laurie Sehn discusses the topic of "Aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma: defining and managing high-risk subsets" featuring Drs. Mark Roschewski, Grzegorz Nowakowski, and Neha Mehta-Shah, who each contributed to the articles featured in the review series on high-risk aggressive lymphoma.

See the full review series on high risk lymphoma in volume 144, issue 25 of Blood.

In this week's episode, we' ll learn about how TET3 has a key role in GVHD. In mice, a deficiency of Tet3 in donor T cells inhibited pathogenic immunoglobulin class switching and suppressed lung fibrosis. Accordingly, TET3 may be a new therapeutic target in chronic GVHD. After that: rilzabrutinib, a BTK inhibitor for ITP. In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial, treatment produced rapid and durable platelet responses, with acceptable safety, in adults with immune thrombocytopenia who had failed multiple previous therapies. Finally: exploring pre-TCR surface expression patterns in T-cell ALL. Co-inhibition of the interleukin-7 receptor and pre-T cell receptor pathways may play a therapeutic role for a subset of T-lymphoblastic leukemias.

Featured Articles:

• Deficiency of T follicular helper cell Tet3 DNA demethylation inhibits pathogenic IgG2c class switching and chronic GVHD
• Safety and efficacy of rilzabrutinib vs placebo in adults with immune thrombocytopenia: the phase 3 LUNA3 study
• Surface pTα expression predicts LCK activation and preclinical synergy of LCK and JAK coinhibition in adult T-ALL

In this special episode, Dr. Shaji Kumar from the Mayo Clinic speaks with Blood editor Dr. Laurie Sehn on a paper recently published in Blood, "Eliminating the Need for Sequential Confirmation of Response in Multiple Myeloma". The findings demonstrate eliminating the need for sequential confirmation of response in multiple myeloma. The study, involving 583 episodes of progression, found that simultaneous confirmation of disease progression using two different markers (e.g., serum protein electrophoresis and serum free light chain assay) was 98% accurate, compared to 82% for sequential confirmation. This suggests that simultaneous confirmation could improve clinical trial accuracy and reduce false censoring. The International Myeloma Working Group is set to revise its response criteria to incorporate these findings, potentially simplifying disease assessment and reducing the need for multiple blood draws.

In this How I Treat Series episode Dr. Thomas Ortel leads a discussion with author Dr. Patrick Foy on his paper “How I diagnose and treat thrombocytopenia in geriatric patients”.

See the full How I Treat series on geriatric hematology in volume 143 issue 3 of Blood Journal.

In this week's episode, we’ll learn more about the identification and characterization of stem cell-like leukemia blasts using single cell multi-omics, cyclophosphamide as a treatment for non-immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity in patients treated with B-cell maturation antigen, or BCMA, targeted CAR T-cell therapies, and how differences in glycosylation affect the clearance of human plasma-derived and recombinant von Willebrand factor concentrates.

Featured Articles:

• Single-cell panleukemia signatures of HSPC-like blasts predict drug response and clinical outcome
• Cyclophosphamide mitigates non-ICANS neurotoxicities following ciltacabtagene autoleucel treatment
• Enhanced α2-3–linked sialylation determines the extended half-life of CHO-rVWF

In this week's episode, we'll hear about new insights into PU.1-mutated agammaglobulinemia. Researchers show that haploinsufficiency of the master transcriptional regulator PU.1 causes agammaglobulinemia and dendritic cell deficiencies. These patients experience an array of infectious and non-infectious complications, but not leukemia. After that: venetoclax-based induction therapy in younger patients with AML. Venetoclax plus decitabine was associated with superior safety and non-inferior response rates compared to intensive chemotherapy. Is it time to consider lower-intensity therapy beyond older and unfit patients? Finally, a focus on venous thromboembolism. Researchers link BGAT, an enzyme pivotal to determining blood type, to risk of future VTE. They say high plasma levels of BGAT contribute to risk above and beyond what can be explained by von Willebrand factor and Factor VIII.

Featured Articles:

• One hundred thirty-four germ line PU.1 variants and the agammaglobulinemic patients carrying them
• Venetoclax and decitabine vs intensive chemotherapy as induction for young patients with newly diagnosed AML
• Histo–blood group ABO system transferase plasma levels and risk of future venous thromboembolism: the HUNT study

In part two of the How I Treat Series on Transfusion Medicine Dr. Erica Wood interviews the "How I Manage Major Hemorrhage" author group: Drs. Jeannie Callium, Keyvan Karkouti, and Ron George.

Find the full published review series in Volume 145 Issue 20 of Blood Journal.