Day: June 12, 2022

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Molecular International Prognostic Scoring System Developed for Myelodysplastic Syndromes

Efficient, Accurate Risk Stratification Will Transform Patient Care

MDS Foundation logo

MDS Foundation logo

YARDVILLE, N.J., June 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, the MDS Foundation announced the development of a new prognostic scoring system, the IPSS-Molecular, that will significantly improve risk stratification upon diagnosis to better inform the way treatment plans are built for patients with Myelodysplastic Syndromes.

“By considering each patient’s genetic make up in the IPSS-M we can now truly deliver patient tailored risk stratification,” says Dr. Elli Papaemmanuil of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “This will enable optimized treatment decisions tailored to those most in need of intervention, and sets a biological framework for the design of future clinical trials.”

For more than two decades, MDS patient risk stratification at diagnosis was based on diagnostic blood counts, morphology, and cytogenetics through the International Prognostic Scoring System. In recent years, a complete catalog of the genes mutated in MDS has been discovered. However, even though patients increasingly receive panel gene testing at diagnosis, there were no guidelines as to how this information could be used clinically to guide risk stratification and treatment decisions.

The creation of an effective set of prognostic guidelines was especially important for MDS because current clinical courses are very heterogeneous. In this absence of targeted therapies, risk stratification at diagnosis is critical in guiding treatment decisions. For example, supportive care with less toxic treatments would be considered for low risk patients, while patients with high-risk disease need higher intensity treatments to mitigate the risk of leukemia progression and death.

An International Collaboration to Improve Risk Stratification

Through the efforts of the International Working Group for the Prognosis of MDS—a consortium of expert clinicians, pathologists, computational biologists, and statisticians—and under the auspices of the MDS Foundation, a total of 2,957 patient blood and marrow samples were collected from 24 centers within 13 countries. Those samples were all sequenced uniformly by a panel test at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and analyzed in the Papaemmanuil laboratory. Each sample was profiled for mutations in 152 genes and clinical and molecular variables were evaluated for associations with leukemia-free survival, leukemic transformation, and overall survival. In order to validate the IPSS-M, the study used another 754 samples derived from the Japanese MDS consortium. The results of this investigation, led by Drs Elsa Bernard, Elli Papaemmanuil and IWG colleagues, ‘Molecular International Prognostic Scoring System for MDS (IPSS-M)’, have just been published in the June 12, 2022 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine Evidence.

Determining the IPSS-M Risk Score and Risk Categories

The study found at least one driver genomic alteration in 94% of patients (41% of patients with cytogenetic alterations and 90% of patients with gene mutations). On average, the higher the number of alterations, the worse the outcomes.

Using this data, researchers developed the IPSS-Molecular which incorporates information from 31 gene mutations as well as diagnostic and clinical parameters to deliver a personalized, patient-specific risk score. The IPSS-M risk score indicates the continuum of prognostic risk observed across patients with MDS and produces six risk categories (Very Low, Low, Moderate Low, Moderate High, High, Very High) that can be used for determining clinical trial eligibility criteria, correlative studies, and treatment recommendations.

In addition to its effective prognostic categorization of primary MDS, the IPSS-M efficiently stratifies patients with therapy-related MDS, a diagnostic subtype that was considered to be uniformly high risk and therefore lacked an applicable prognostic system. Compared to the previous IPSS-R system, 46% (roughly 1 in 2) of patients were reassigned to a different risk category in the IPSS-M which led to improved prognostic discrimination. Importantly, 7% of patients were reassigned by more than one strata (e.g IPSS-R Low to IPSS-M High or vice versa).

The Future of MDS Risk Stratification

The IPSS-Molecular is set to become a new international standard for risk stratification of MDS patients at diagnosis. The IPSS-M score is personalized, interpretable, reproducible, and provides a flexible and transparent strategy to account for missing values. It also provides a list of the 31 genes that must be considered in diagnostic assay design.

To support widespread adoption and use, the research team developed a web-based calculator where clinicians can enter patient clinical and molecular data to deliver a personalized prediction of risk, outcomes, and likelihood of leukemia transformation in order to guide cost-benefit analysis on treatment decisions.

“It has been a privilege to work closely with expert MDS clinicians, pathologists, biologists, statisticians, and the broader IWG community to develop the IPSS-M, aiming to better guide and ultimately improve the care of patients with MDS,” says Dr. Elsa Bernard of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “While the IPSS-M can be calculated using a relatively simple formula, we built a web calculator and an R package to facilitate its application, which we hope will prove useful for the community.”

Explore the web-based IPSS-M calculator. 

Read the IPSS-M study. 

Study Investigators:

Elsa Bernard, Ph.D., Heinz Tuechler, Peter L. Greenberg, M.D., Robert P. Hasserjian, M.D., Juan E. Arango Ossa, M.S., Yasuhito Nannya, M.D., Ph.D., Sean M. Devlin, Ph.D., Maria Creignou, M.D., Philippe Pinel, M.S., Lily Monnier, M.S., Gunes Gundem, Ph.D., Juan S. Medina-Martinez, M.S., Dylan Domenico, B.S., Martin Jädersten, M.D., Ph.D., Ulrich Germing, M.D., Guillermo Sanz, M.D., Ph.D., Arjan A. van de Loosdrecht, M.D., Ph.D., Olivier Kosmider, M.D., Ph.D., Matilde Y. Follo, Ph.D., Felicitas Thol, M.D., Lurdes Zamora, Ph.D., Ronald F. Pinheiro, Ph.D., Andrea Pellagatti, Ph.D., Harold K. Elias, M.D., Detlef Haase, M.D., Ph.D., Christina Ganster, Ph.D., Lionel Ades, M.D., Ph.D., Magnus Tobiasson, M.D., Ph.D., Laura Palomo, Ph.D., Matteo Giovanni Della Porta, M.D., Akifumi Takaori-Kondo, M.D., Ph.D., Takayuki Ishikawa, M.D., Ph.D., Shigeru Chiba, M.D., Ph.D., Senji Kasahara, M.D., Ph.D., Yasushi Miyazaki, M.D., Ph.D., Agnes Viale, Ph.D., Kety Huberman, B.S., Pierre Fenaux, M.D., Ph.D., Monika Belickova, Ph.D., Michael R. Savona, M.D., Virginia M. Klimek, M.D., Fabio P. S. Santos, M.D., Ph.D., Jacqueline Boultwood, Ph.D., Ioannis Kotsianidis, M.D., Ph.D., Valeria Santini, M.D., Francesc Sole, Ph.D., Uwe Platzbecker, M.D., Michael Heuser, M.D., Peter Valent, M.D., Kazuma Ohyashiki, M.D., Ph.D., Carlo Finelli, M.D., Maria Teresa Voso, M.D., Lee-Yung Shih, M.S., Michaela Fontenay, M.D., Ph.D., Joop H. Jansen, Ph.D., Jose Cervera, M.D., Ph.D., Norbert Gattermann, M.D., Benjamin L. Ebert, M.D., Ph.D., Rafael Bejar, M.D., Ph.D., Luca Malcovati, M.D., Mario Cazzola, M.D., Seishi Ogawa, M.D., Ph.D., Eva Hellstrom-Lindberg, M.D., Ph.D., and Elli Papaemmanuil, Ph.D.

The MDS Foundation, Inc. is an international non-profit advocacy organization whose mission is to support and educate patients and healthcare providers with innovative research into the fields of MDS, Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and related myeloid neoplasms in order to accelerate progress leading to the diagnosis, control and cure of these diseases.

Media Contact:

Tracey Iraca, Executive Director, MDS Foundation, Inc.

Phone: (609) 298-1600 x 211

Mobile: (609) 647-2080

Email: tiraca@mds-foundation.org

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E-Learning Virtual Reality Startup GeniusX Closes $1.68M in Series Seed to Create Educational Content in the Metaverse

Introducing unique, interactive, immersive learning experiences for the future of education

Retreat VR

Retreat VR

PHOENIX, June 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In June 2022, GeniusX Inc. announced the closing of $1.68M in seed funding at a $20M market cap. As an indie development studio in the frenzied virtual reality ecosystem with a concentration in VR Education, the CEO & Co-Founder, Nick Janicki, says, “Our mission is to create experiences that have utility, longevity, and uplift the human spirit. Our first VR title, Retreat, is basically an immersive hero’s journey for tangible real-world skills.” Co-Founder, Lyle Maxson, adds, “We are creating the first social VR platform centered around educational influencers.”

Retreat is a virtual reality education application that creates interactive, immersive learning experiences with the world’s top experts in the Metaverse. With photo realistic backgrounds and real-life videos of educators, students get to choose their own virtual reality adventure through interactive learning worlds, customized group classrooms, and exquisite immersive environments.

Retreat production is fully booked through 2022 with dozens of immersive courses being created. The line-up ranges from wellness practices such as yoga, breath work, & art therapy to professional development content, including financial literacy, public speaking and career skills.

A lead investor of GeniusX and founder of ETW, Lee Benson, stated: “When I think about the future of education, VR and AR have the ability to take it to the next level.”

Retreat will be free to download and offers in-app purchases for courses and other educational content. GeniusX is actively onboarding the world’s top experts per category.

For any questions or requests, reach out to laura@geniusx.com for more information.

GeniusX Inc.

https://retreatvr.io

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Ukraine’s Leader Says His Troops Keep Defying Predictions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said no one knows how long the war in his country will last but that Ukrainian forces are defying expectations by preventing Russian troops from overrunning eastern Ukraine, where the fighting has been fiercest for weeks.

In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said he was proud of the Ukrainian defenders managing to hold back the Russian advance in the Donbas region, which borders Russia and where Moscow-backed separatists have controlled much of the territory for eight years.

“Remember how in Russia, in the beginning of May, they hoped to seize all of the Donbas?” the president said late Saturday. “It’s already the 108th day of the war, already June. Donbas is holding on.”

After failing to capture Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, early in the war, Moscow focused on seizing the parts of the largely Russian-speaking Donbas still in Ukrainian hands, as well as the country’s southern coast. But instead of securing a swift, decisive takeover, Russian forces were drawn into a long, laborious battle, thanks in part to the Ukrainian military’s use of Western-supplied weapons.

Both Ukrainian and Russian authorities said Sievierodonetsk, an eastern city with a prewar population of 100,000, remained contested. The city and neighboring Lysychansk are the last major areas of the Donbas’ Luhansk province not under the control of the pro-Russia rebels.

Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the separatist-declared Luhansk People’s Republic, said Ukrainian fighters remained in an industrial area of the city, including a chemical plant where civilians had taken shelter from days of Russian shelling.

“Sievierodonetsk is not completely 100% liberated,” Pasechnik said Saturday, alleging that the Ukrainians were shelling the city from the Azot plant. “So it’s impossible to call the situation calm in Sievierodonetsk, that it is completely ours.”

Luhansk Gov. Serhii Haidai reported Saturday that a big fire broke out at the plant during hours of Russian shelling.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, a counteroffensive pushed Russians out of parts of the southern Kherson region they took early in the war, according to Zelenskyy. Moscow has installed local authorities in Kherson and other occupied coastal areas, offering residents Russian passports, airing Russian news broadcasts and taking steps to introduce a Russian school curriculum.

Zelenskyy said that while an end to the war was not in sight, Ukraine should do everything it can so the Russians “regret everything that they have done and that they answer for every killing and every strike on our beautiful state.”

The Ukrainian leader asserted that Russia has suffered about three times as many military casualties as the number estimated for the Ukrainian side, adding: “For what? What did it get you, Russia?” There are no reliable independent estimates of the war’s death toll so far.

Speaking at a defense conference in Singapore on Sunday, Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe said Beijing continues to support peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, and hopes the U.S. and its NATO allies have discussions with Russia “to create the conditions for an early ceasefire.”

“China will continue to play a constructive role and contribute our share to easing tensions and realizing a political resolution of the crisis,” Wei said.

He suggested that nations supplying weapons to Ukraine were hindering peace by “adding fuel to the fire” and stressed that China had not provided any material support to Russia during the war.

“The growth of China-Russia relations is a partnership, not an alliance,” Wei said.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, said in its latest assessment that Ukrainian intelligence suggested the Russian military was planning “to fight a longer war.”

The institute cited the deputy head of Ukraine’s national security agency as saying that Moscow had extended its war timeline until October, with adjustments to be made depending on any successes in the Donbas.

The intelligence “likely indicates the Kremlin has, at a minimum, acknowledged it cannot achieve its objectives in Ukraine quickly and is further adjusting its military objectives in an attempt to correct the initial deficiencies in the invasion of Ukraine,” the think tank said.

The Luhansk People’s Republic’s ambassador to Russia, Rodion Miroshnik, said Saturday that 300 to 400 Ukrainian troops remained blockaded inside the Sievierodonetsk chemical plant along with several hundred civilians.

The Russians established contact with the Ukrainian troops to arrange the evacuation of the civilians, but the the troops will be allowed to leave only if they lay down their arms and surrender, Miroshnik said.

Similar conditions existed for weeks at a steel mill in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol before a civilian evacuation was arranged and the defending troops were ordered by Ukrainian military commanders to stand down. The fighters who came out of the Mariupol plant were taken prisoner by the Russians.

Pasechnik, the separatist leader of the unrecognized Luhansk republic, said the Ukrainians making a stand in Sievierodonetsk should save themselves the trouble.

“If if I were them, I would already make a decision (to surrender),” he said. “We will achieve our goal in any case. We will liberate the industrial area in any case. We will liberate Sievierodonetsk in any case. Lysychansk will be ours in any case.”

Source: Voice of America

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Malaysia and Singapore reaffirm long-standing ties

SINGAPORE, Malaysian Senior Minister for Defence Hishammuddin Hussein reaffirmed the long-standing ties during a call on Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said the republic’s Ministry of Defence (Mindef).

In a statement issued here on Saturday, Mindef said Hishammuddin is currently in Singapore to attend the 19th Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) at the Shangri-La Hotel, that began on Friday (June 10) and will wrap up on Sunday (June 12).

As part of his visit, the ministry said he called on Lee at the Istana Saturday which was also attended by the republic’s Senior Minister of State for Defence Zaqy Mohamad.

During their meeting, the ministry said Lee and Hishammuddin reaffirmed the long-standing relationship and extensive cooperation, and the strong people-to-people ties between Singapore and Malaysia.

Both leaders, Mindef said, discussed both countries’ responses to common regional security challenges such as cyber and maritime security as well as counter-terrorism.

“They reiterated the importance of strengthening existing defence cooperation through multilateral platforms such as the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM), the ADMM-Plus, the Five Power Defence Arrangements, and also underscored the effectiveness of combined co-operative measures such as the Malacca Straits Patrol and the Counter-Terrorism Information Facility in enhancing regional security and stability,” it said.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

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Chinese Defense Minister Warns of Confrontation if US Tries to Corner China

SINGAPORE — Dressed in his uniform as a general of the People’s Liberation Army, Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe on Sunday warned the U.S. against trying to corner China and interfere in its internal affairs.

These moves are damaging the U.S.-China relations, he said.

“We request the U.S. side to stop smearing and containing China. Stop interfering in China’s internal affairs. The bilateral relationship cannot improve unless the U.S. side can do that,” Wei said on the last day of the 3-day Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier security meet, in Singapore.

The Chinese minister was responding to remarks by the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who said on Saturday that the U.S. will stand by its friends as they uphold their rights.

“That’s especially important as the PRC adopts a more coercive and aggressive approach to its territorial claims,” Austin said, adding, “Now, as a part of our one-China policy, we will continue to fulfill our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act. That includes assisting Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability.”

China views assurances to stand by Taiwan and other countries in the region as “interference” by a non-Asian power.

Whatever efforts the U.S. makes, it will not deter China from its determination to oppose the independence of Taiwan, Wei said. “We will fight at all cost, and we will fight to the very end. This is the only choice for China.”

“Those who pursue Taiwanese independence in an attempt to split China will definitely come to no good end,” he added.

China regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification by force if necessary. Taiwan is a self-ruled territory with its own flag, currency and military.

China had earlier managed a leading role in the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) by turning it into an ASEAN+1 dialogue with China. It has considerable influence as the biggest trade partner for most of the region’s countries and the leading military power.

But Chinese leaders now find that the country’s influence in the region is shifting due to the active role of the U.S. Some delegates attending the Shangri-La Dialogue said the shift toward siding with the U.S. included countries such as Singapore and Indonesia, which are dependent on China’s trade.

In fact, General Wei made no bones about the fact that he was worried about the initial success of the newly crafted Indo-Pacific strategy and the American promise of extending technological assistance to the region.

“To us, the [U.S.] strategy is an attempt to build an exclusive small group in the name of a free and open Indo-Pacific, to hijack countries in our region and target one specific country,” Wei said adding, “It is a strategy to create conflict and confrontation to contain and encircle others.”

China has sent navy ships to patrol the South China Sea connected to several countries in the region, a move seen as a sign of aggression. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently accused China of harassing Canadian military jets in the skies above Asia. Australia’s department of defense said last month that a Chinese fighter jet recently intercepted one of its surveillance aircrafts in the area of the South China Sea.

However, a Chinese military official denied accusations of an aircraft maneuver of China’s military over Taiwan, at a press briefing Saturday.

“The air space where this event happened were … near China’s Xisha and Nansha Islands, not the air space of American allies,” Lieutenant General Zhang Zhenzhong, the senior Chinese military officer said. “China has to take necessary countermeasures to safeguard its sovereignty and security interests. The countermeasures we have taken are conducted in a professional and safe way. It is a natural right of a sovereign country to protect its territory.”

The Shangri-La Dialogue, which took place after a gap of two years, attracted defense ministers and officials from 42 countries. The event saw 30 different speakers including U.S. Defense Secretary Austin, Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Source: Voice of America

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aJapan, China agree to boost defence dialogue – Japan defence minister

Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said on Sunday that he agreed with his Chinese counterpart to promote dialogue and exchanges, Trend reports citing Reuters.

Japan warned against China’s attempts to change the status quo in the South and East China Sea, and said peace and security of the Taiwan Strait was important not only to Japan but to the international community, Kishi told reporters of his meeting with Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe in Singapore.

Source: Trend News Agency