Objectives: Patients with hematologic malignancies have a high risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality. This study aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on mortality rates in patients with various hematologic malignancies and to determine risk factors associated with all-cause mortality. Methods: A multi-center, observational retrospective analysis of patients with hematologic malignancies infected with COVID-19 between July 2020 and December 2021 was performed. Demographic data, clinical characteristics, and laboratory parameters were recorded. Patients were grouped as non-survivors and survivors. All-cause mortality was the primary outcome of the study. Results: There were 569 patients with a median age of 59 years. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (22.0%) and multiple myelomas (18.1%) were the two most frequent hematologic malignancies. The all-cause mortality rate was 29.3%. The highest mortality rates were seen in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (44.3%), acute lymphoid leukemia (40.5%), and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (36.8%). The non-survivors were significantly older (p<0.001) and had more comorbidities (p<0.05). There were significantly more patients with low lymphocyte percentage (p<0.001), thrombocytopenia (p<0.001), and high CRP (p<0.001) in the non-survived patients. Cardiac comorbidities, (p=0.016), cytotoxic chemotherapy (p=0.024), low lymphocyte percentage (p=0.025), thrombocytopenia (p<0.0001), and high CRP values (p=0.017) were the independent risk factors for the prediction of mortality. Conclusions: In patients with hematologic malignancies, coexistent COVID-19 leads to a higher mortality rate in elderly patients with more comorbidities. Acute myeloid and lymphoid leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma have the highest mortality rates. Cardiac diseases, cytotoxic chemotherapy, lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia, and high CRP are the independent risk factors for mortality in hematologic malignancy patients with COVID-19. Keywords: Covid; Hematologic Malignancy; Cytotoxic chemotherapy.

Objective: Myeloid malignancies are heterogeneous disorders due to defective hematopoiesis and myeloid differentiation of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell. The molecular landscape of the diseases is complex. Molecular alterations are used for classification and evaluation of prognosis and treatment. We aimed to evaluate the advantages of the next-generation sequencing panel testing in myeloid malignancies and clinical outcomes. Materials and Methods: We evaluated the results of 54 patients who underwent next-generation sequenc- ing myeloid panel testing, with fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), polymerase chain reaction results and the clinical outcomes. Target genes in the panel were ASXL1, CALR, CBL, CEBPA, CSF3R, DNMT3A, EZH2, FLT3, IDH1, IDH2, JAK2, KIT, KRAS, MPL, NPM1, NRAS, RUNX1, SETBP1, SF3B1, SH2B3, SRSF2, TET2, TP53, U2AF1, and ZRSR2. Results: Diagnoses were acute myeloid leukemia, essential thrombocytosis, polistemia vera, primary myelo- fibrosis, hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES), chronic myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. Twenty-eight missense, 8 frameshift, 5 stop gain, and 3 in-frame mutations were detected. A double mutation was detected in JAK-2 with next-generation sequencing in the patient who was given a false negative result due to polymerase chain reaction limitation. Conclusion: Screening multiple mutations simultaneously, is time and cost-effective. With the panel test, it is possible to determine the diagnosis, prognosis and targeted treatment options with a single test. Next- generation sequencing myeloid panel tests might be a powerful guide for clinicians. Cite this article as: Yuce Kahraman C, Sincan G, Tatar A. Next-generation sequencing panel test in myeloid neoplasms and evaluation with the clinical results. Eurasian J Med 2022;54(2):181-185.

This study aimed to identify factors that influence the mortality rate of patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA). In this cross-sectional study, data from 23 centers across 15 countries, spanning the period of March 2020 to December 2021, were retrospectively collected. The study population comprised patients who developed invasive pulmonary aspergillosis while being treated for COVID-19 in the intensive care unit. Cox regression and decision tree analyses were used to identify factors associated with mortality in patients with CAPA. A total of 162 patients (males, 65.4 %; median age: 64 [25th–75th: 54.0–73.8] years) were included in the study, of whom 113 died during the 90-day follow-up period. The median duration from CAPA diagnosis to death was 12 (25th–75th: 7–19) days. In the multivariable Cox regression model, an age of ≥65 years (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.05, 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 1.37–3.07), requiring vasopressor therapy at the time of CAPA diagnosis (HR: 1.80, 95 % CI: 1.17–2.76), and receiving renal replacement therapy at the time of CAPA diagnosis (HR: 2.27, 95 % CI: 1.35–3.82) were identified as predictors of mortality. Decision tree analysis revealed that patients with CAPA aged ≥65 years who received corticosteroid treatment for COVID-19 displayed higher mortality rates (estimated rate: 1.6, observed in 46 % of patients). This study concluded that elderly patients with CAPA who receive corticosteroids are at a significantly higher risk of mortality, particularly if they experience multiorgan failure.

Objective: We aimed to compare laboratory features, histopathological types, response to treatment of patients with non hodgkin lymphoma in our department and other regions. Methods: A total of 80 patients nonhodgkin lymphoma were evaluated. Because we had only 80 patients with complete data, we used T test for comparison of groups. We evaluated the parameters affecting surveillance with cox regression analysis. Results: The most common histological types of nonhodgkins lymphoma was diffuse large b cell lymphoma (n: 63, 78.75%). Thirty-nine percent of all patients had anemia, 32% had hypoalbunemia, 71.25% had elevated serum LDH, 32.5% had elevated serum ß2 microglobulin value. Advanced age, the presence of bulky disease, elevated Ki-67 level, IPI score, refractory to first line treatment were found to be correlated with shorter survival time. We treated 77 (96.25%) patients with doxorubicin containing regimen. Complete and partial remission rates of first line treatment were 77.5% and 10%, respectively. Seven (8.75%) patients died because of disease progression and 1 (1.25%) patient died due to sepsis. Conclusion: The frequency of lymphoma subtypes, clinical characteristics, treatment outcomes and survival rate vary from region to region. Therefore it is important to determine dissimilarity of these parameters for improve of survey. How to cite this:Yildirim R, Sincan G. The clinicopathologic features and response to treatment of patients with Nonhodgkin Lymphoma; A single-center experiment in Turkey. Pak J Med Sci. 2019;35(1):82-85. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.35.1.415 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.