Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a chronic B-cell lymphoproliferative clonal disease with a highly heterogeneous clinical course. In recent years, with the emerging of immunochemotherapy, bcl-2 inhibitor, B-cell receptor signal transduction kinase inhibitors and the chimeric antigen receptor-T cell (CAR-T), more and more improvements were made in CLL therapy and remission. This report addressed the progress of CLL therapy in the 57th American Society of Hematology annual meeting.

Objective To assess the value of multislice spiral computed tomography (MSCT) in diagnosing pulmonary hypertension.Methods One hundred and forty-two patients on hemodialysis were divided into the group with pulmonary artery hypertension and the group without pulmonary artery hypertension.The diagnosis of pulmonary artery hypertension (pulmonary artery systolic pressure,PASP ＞ 35 mmHg) was according to the guideline from the American Society of Echocardiography.All patients were received the check of MSCT and the diameters of the main pulmonary artery,ascending aorta and descending aorta were recorded.PASP and left ventricular ejection fraction were assessed by echocardiography.High sensitivity C-reactive protein and rumor necrosis factor were measured by automatic analyzer and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.Results There were significant differences between the two groups in systolic blood pressure,hemoglobin,serum albumin,high sensitivity C-reactive protein and TNF-α (P ＜ 0.05); There were significant differences between the two groups in diameters of the maim pulmonary artery,ratio of the diameter of the main pulmonary artery to the diameter of ascending aorta and ratio of the diameter of the main pulmonary artery to the diameter of descending aorta (P ＜ 0.05).In different heart function groups,there were significant differences in diameters of the main pulmonary artery,ratio of the diameter of the main pulmonary artery to the diameter of ascending aorta,and ratio of the diameter of the main pulmonary artery to the diameter of descending aorta,and left ventricular ejection fraction (P ＜ 0.05).Ratio of the diameter of the maim pulmonary artery to the diameter of ascending aorta was positively related to PASP (r=48.77,P ＜ 0.01),and left ventricular ejection fraction was negatively related to PASP (r=-0.40,P ＜ 0.01).In multivariate linear regression,TNF-α,ratio of the diameter of the maim pulmonary artery to the diameter of ascending aorta and ejection fraction were independent factors of PASP (P ＜ 0.01).Conclusions MSCT measurements play an important role in diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension and in evaluation of clinical prognosis in patients on hemodialysis.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the most frequent form of leukemia in Western countries, is characterized by the clonal proliferation and accumulation of neoplastic B lymphocytes in the blood,bone marrow,lymph nodes and spleen.During the past decades,important advances have been made in the understanding of the biology,pathology,diagnosis and treatment of CLL.In the 53rd ASH annual meeting,lots of new discoveries about the biology, prognosis, and treatment of CLL were introduced which lead us to further understand CLL and may provide more or better treatments for CLL patients.

Hodgkin's lymphoma(HL)is a highly curable malignancy for most patients during the recent decades.Frontline treatment is generally ABVD alone or in combination with other chemotherapy regimens or radiation. To achieve a higher control of disease, ABVD chemotherapy has been challenged by more intensive treatments, such as Stanford V and BEACOPP regimen. In the 53rd ASH annual meeting,ABVD is still widely accepted as standard regimen for HL, even in elderly people or patients with HIV infection. Relapsed or refractory HL is a challenging problem for clinician, and high dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation(HDC/ASCT)is the preferred treatment for chemoresistant patients.Many novel treatment strategies were explored for these patients.Positron emission tomography (PET) scanning provides important prognostic information in patients with HL receiving chemotherapy or pre/posttransplant,but the utility of long term surveillance radiological studies is not recommended in the meeting.

Early stage Hodgkin' s lymphoma (HL) is highly curable with abbreviated chemotherapy plus involved-filed radiotherapy or chemotherapy alone,but the role of radiation remains the subject of debate and disagreement.The management of recurrent or refractory HL remains challenging with limited effective treatments except high dose therapy with autologous stem cell transplantation.Emerging new safe and effective drugs such as brentuximab vedotin might promisingly improve the outcome of these patients in the future.The interim positron emission tomography (PET-i) scan has important prognostic value in patients with early and advanced stage HL,especially PET scan after 2 cycles.However,the PET-i guided treatment decisions are not currently recommended outside clinical trials.

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a kind of indolent Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL),which stems from follicle germinal center.A lot of research reported the latest development about treatment of FL in the 56th American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting.Effect of radiotherapy for patients at low stage was determined,while the outcomes of clinical trials in which monoclonal antibody (GA101) in combination with chemotherapy for the advanced stage FL were exciting.In rituximab era,relapsed/refractory FL patients who receive stem cell transplantation could acquire preferable remissions.Several novel drugs (inhibitor of BTK or PI3K) for relapsed/refractory FL played a role of guidepost with the progression of corresponding trials.

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is one of the most common non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).Since the appearance of rituximab,the most common first-line therapy is rituximab in combination with chemotherapy.About 70 percent of patients could achieve complete remission (CR) and be cured finally.But one third of patients could not reach CR after frontline treatment or relapse early,especially the elder patients or high risk ones.In the 56th American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting,a plenty of treatments focusing on these patients brought encouraging results,which makes it possible to further improve the CR rate.The progresses in relapse/refractory,high risk and special site DLBCL will be summarized in this paper based on the reports in the 56th ASH annual meeting.

Lenalidomide is an oral immunomodulator with multiple functions including immune regulation, anti-tumor, and regulation of tumor microenvironment. Since the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lenalidomide for the treatment of mantle cell lymphoma, recent studies have indicated that lenalidomide monotherapy or lenalidomide combinations in other types of lymphoma also has broad prospects. The treatment progress of lenalidomide in lymphoma will be summarized in this paper based on the new reports in the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting.

With the recent success of the Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, ibrutinib, and the phosphoinositide-3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitor idelalisib in the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), a number of new agents targeting the B cell receptor (BCR) pathway are in clinical development. In the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting, great interests are still focused on these two drugs, either monotherapy or combination in the treatment of CLL. On the other hand, SYK inhibitors, new BTK and PI3K antagonists are also coming to the forefront, casting a new light on the treatment of ibrutinib/idelalisb-resistant patients. The progresses of BCR pathway inhibitors in CLL will be summarized in this paper based on the reports in the 57th ASH annual meeting.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a kind of malignant B-cell chronic lymphoproliferative disorder with highly heterogeneous clinical courses. Due to the recent advances in immunology, cellular genetics and molecular biology, several prognostic markers based on genetic, phenotypic, and molecular biology characteristics of CLL cells have emerged in the past decade. This article reviews the reports from the 57th American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting on the progress of the prognosis of CLL.