Nada Hamad

University of Notre Dame Australia · Sydney Clinical School

From 2016 EBMT and JACIE developed an international risk-adapted benchmarking program of haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) outcome to provide individual EBMT Centers with a means of quality-assuring the HSCT process and meeting FACT-JACIE accreditation requirements relating to 1-year survival outcomes. Informed by previous experience from...

Lymphoma in pregnancy (LIP) presents unique clinical, social and ethical challenges; however, the evidence regarding this clinical scenario is limited. We conducted a multicentre retrospective observational study reporting on the features, management, and outcomes of LIP in patients diagnosed between January 2009 and December 2020 at 16 sites in Au...

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has improved outcomes for human immunodeficiency virus-associated non-Hodgkin lymphoma (HIV-NHL). This is an analysis of 44 patients with HIV with Burkitt lymphoma (HIV-BL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (HIV-DLBCL) treated in Australia over a 10-year period (2009-2019) during the ART and rituximab era. At HIV-NHL di...

Background: Corticosteroids (CS) have previously been incorporated into graft versus host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis regimens for bone marrow (BM) haemopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT). Aim: To assess the impact of prophylactic CS in HSCT using peripheral blood (PB) stem cells. Methods: Patients were identified from three HSCT centres recei...

Introduction: Pregnancy-associated gynecological cancer (PAGC) refers to cancers of the ovary, uterus, fallopian tube, cervix, vagina, and vulva diagnosed during pregnancy or within 12 months postpartum. We aimed to describe the incidence of, and perinatal outcomes associated with, invasive pregnancy-associated gynecological cancer. Material and...

Background: Sinusoidal obstruction syndrome/veno-occlusive disease (SOS/VOD) is an established complication in patients undergoing allogeneic haemopoietic stem cell transplantation. Defibrotide is an effective and safe pharmacological option for treating diagnosed SOS/VOD. Objective: By exploring data provided to the Australasian Bone Marrow Tra...

Grade (G) 3B follicular lymphoma (FL) is a rare FL subtype which exists on a histological continuum between 'low-grade' (Grade 1, 2 and 3A FL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) appearing to share features with each. Clinical characteristics and outcomes are poorly understood due to lack of adequate representation in prospective trials and l...

Background The incidence of pregnancy-associated cancer (PAC), comprising cancer diagnosed during pregnancy or within one year postpartum, is increasing. We investigated the obstetric management and outcomes of women with PAC and their babies. Methods A population-based observational study of all women who gave birth between 1994 and 2013 in New S...

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) remains the only curative treatment for myelofibrosis. However, the optimal conditioning regimen either with reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) or myeloablative conditioning (MAC) is not well known. Using the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research database, we identif...

Background: There is no standard front-line therapy for older patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). We analyzed the clinical presentation and front-line management of older Australian patients with cHL and explored factors associated with unplanned hospital admission and survival. Methods: Patients aged ≥ 61 years and diagnosed between...

Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors (BTKi) have an established role in the management of patients with relapsed/refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). However, scant data exist on outcomes of patients ineligible for clinical trials testing these therapies. We describe a contemporary cohort of relapsed/refractory MCL patients from the Australasian L...

Background Lymphoma is a malignancy of lymphocytes and lymphoid tissues comprising a heterogeneous group of diseases, with up to 80 entities now described. Lymphoma is the 6th most common cancer in Australia, affecting patients of all ages, with rising incidence rates. With the proliferation of efficacious novel agents, therapeutic strategies are i...

Comprehensive clinical characteristics of Australian patients with classical Hodgkin Lymphoma (cHL) have not previously been systematically collected and described. We report real‐world data of 498 eligible patients from the first five years of the Lymphoma and Related Diseases Registry (LaRDR), including baseline characteristics, histologic subtyp...

Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has an aggressive course and a historically dismal prognosis. For many patients, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) represents the best option for cure, but access, utilization and health inequities on a global scale remain poorly elucidated. Objective: To describe patterns of global HSCT use...

Patients post haematopoietic stem cell transplant or CAR‐T cell therapy face significant risk of morbidity and mortality from SARS‐CoV19, due to their immunosuppressed state. As case numbers in Australia and New Zealand continue to rise, guidance on management in this high‐risk population is needed. Whilst we have learnt much from international col...

Background While ruxolitinib is emerging as the treatment of choice for steroid refractory/dependent chronic graft vs host disease (cGVHD) based on randomized control trial data, there is relatively little real world data published on ruxolitninb for this indication. Objective to evaluate the real world efficacy and safety of ruxolitinib in cGVHD...

Cardiac light chain (AL) amyloidosis is a condition with a very poor prognosis. We report a retrospective analysis comparing the traditional melphalan and dexamethasone protocol with cyclophosphamide, bortezomib and dexamethasone in late-stage cardiac AL amyloidosis. The primary end points were overall survival and haematological response. Both reg...

Background: Vaccination is the cornerstone of the global public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Excess morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 infection is seen in people with cancer. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has been observed in this medically vulnerable population, although associated attitudes and beliefs remain poorly understood. Meth...

Myelofibrosis is a clonal myeloproliferative neoplasm characterised by inflammation, marrow fibrosis, and an inherent risk of blastic transformation. Hematopoietic allogeneic stem cell transplant is the only potentially curative therapy for this disease, however survival gains observed for other transplant indications over the past two decades have...

Background Vaccination is the cornerstone of the global public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Excess morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 infection is seen in people with cancer. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has been observed in this medically vulnerable population, although associated attitudes and beliefs remain poorly understood. Patien...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruption to health systems, with allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplant (alloHCT) services a particularly vulnerable area. Ongoing provision of alloHCT has required dynamic responses at national and local levels. In Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), a high reliance on unrelated donors from ove...

Unrelated donors (UDs) are the commonest source for allogeneic transplantation (alloSCT), with higher non-relapse mortality (NRM) than siblings. We analyzed data from the Australasian Bone Marrow Transplant Recipient Registry from adults receiving a first UD alloSCT during 2001–2015, to determine whether and how NRM has changed. Predictors of outco...

As COVID-19 vaccinations became available and were proven effective in preventing serious infection, uptake amongst individuals varied, including in medically vulnerable populations. This cross-sectional multi-site study examined vaccine uptake, hesitancy, and explanatory factors amongst people with serious and/or chronic health conditions, includi...

Objective To examine vaccine uptake, hesitancy and explanatory factors amongst people with serious and/or chronic health conditions, including the impact of underlying disease on attitudes to vaccination.Design Cross-sectional survey.Setting Ten Australian health services.Participants 4683 patients (3560 cancer, 842 diabetes and 281 multiple sclero...

This review aims to provide an expert consensus statement to address the role of gene-panel testing in the diagnosis, prognosis and management of adult myelodysplastic syndrome/myeloproliferative neoplasm overlap syndromes (MDS/MPN) in Australia. This consensus statement was developed by an expert group, actively involved in gene panel testing in t...

Objective: To report treatment patterns and survival outcomes of patients with relapsed and refractory metastatic germ cell tumours (GCTs) treated with high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) and autologous stem-cell transplantation in low-volume specialized centres within the widely dispersed populations of Australia and New Zealand between 1999 and 2019....

Background Lymphoma is a malignancy of lymphocytes and lymphoid tissues comprising a heterogeneous group of diseases, with up to 80 entities now described. Lymphoma is the 6th most common cancer in Australia, affecting patients of all ages, with rising incidence rates. With the proliferation of efficacious novel agents, therapeutic strategies are i...

Selinexor, an oral selective inhibitor of nuclear export, was evaluated in the Phase 2b SADAL study in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who previously received two to five prior systemic regimens. In post hoc analyses, we analyzed several categories of patient characteristics (age, renal function, DLBCL subtype, absolute lymphocy...

648 Background: People with cancer are at higher risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19 infection. We investigated the differences in COVID-19 vaccine uptake and attitudes in people with various solid organ and hematological malignancies. Methods: An online survey of adult patients with cancer attending eight health services across four st...

Prophylactic high-dose methotrexate (HD-MTX) is often used for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients at high risk of central nervous system (CNS) relapse, despite limited evidence demonstrating efficacy or the optimal delivery method. We conducted a retrospective, international analysis of 1,384 patients receiving HD-MTX CNS prophylaxis ei...

Biological differences between men and women are historically overlooked in medication development and clinical trials. Despite a call to action by US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1993 for inclusion of women in biomedical research, experimental design in cellular, animal, and phase 1 studies continues to neglect sex-based analyses and con...

Primary central nervous system lymphoma is a clinicopathological disease entity that accounts for 1 % of all non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Advanced patient age, adverse disease biology and complexities of diagnosis and treatment render outcomes markedly inferior to systemic NHL. Despite this, an increasing evidence base including limited randomised c...

Background Patient outcomes are poor for aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas not responding to or progressing within 12 months after first-line therapy. Tisagenlecleucel is an anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy approved for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma after at least two treatment lines. Methods We conducted an international...

Introduction: Central nervous system (CNS) relapse in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is uncommon but is associated with poor outcomes. In selected high risk patients (pts), high dose methotrexate (HDMTX) is often used as CNS prophylaxis with frontline (1L) DLBCL therapy despite uncertain efficacy, optimum dose and timing of delivery. A recen...

Background: Standard of care (SOC) for second-line (2L) therapy (tx) of relapsed/refractory aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (R/R aNHL) includes platinum-based chemotherapy (PCT) followed by autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (aHCT) in responders. Outcomes are poor for patients (pts) with R/R aNHL who experience progression during...

Patients with RR DLBCL who have received ≥ 2 lines of therapy have limited treatment options and an expected overall survival (OS) of < 6 months. The SADAL study evaluated single-agent oral selinexor in patients with RR DLBCL and demonstrated an overall response rate (ORR) of 29.1% with median duration of response (DOR) of 9.3 months. The analyses...

Background Despite a number of treatment options, patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) whose disease has become refractory to treatment have a poor prognosis. Selinexor is a novel, oral drug that is approved to treat patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large b cell lymphoma (DLBCL). In this post hoc analysis of the SADAL study,...

Background Transformation of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL) or Small Lymphocytic Lymphoma (SLL) to high-grade disease (Richter's Transformation; RT) carries a poor prognosis. Despite the advent of novel therapies, published data indicates that chemoimmunotherapy remains the standard of care for RT. This project evaluated real-world outcomes in...

Introduction Lymphoma complicates approximately 1/6000 pregnancies (Pereg, Haematologica 2007), and presents challenges for the patient, her family, and medical professionals. This rare event raises unique therapeutic, social and ethical issues, with the welfare of both mother and unborn child to consider. There are challenges regarding symptom obf...

Background: Lymphoma in pregnancy is a rare and challenging diagnosis that complicates approximately 1:6000 pregnancies. Diagnostic delay occurs frequently, as lymphoma-related symptoms may be mistakenly attributed to the pregnancy itself, and diagnostic investigations postponed or omitted. Lymphoma in pregnancy poses a series of unique therapeutic...

Background The REACH3 study has reported greater overall response and failure-free survival (FFS) with Ruxolitinib (RUX) as 2 nd line therapy for steroid-refractory chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD) in comparison to best available therapy (BAT; NEJM 2021). In addition, our Canadian retrospective study as a real-world experience has reported...

Background The REACH3 trial evaluating Ruxolitinib (RUX) treatment for steroid-refractory chronic GVHD concluded that RUX leads to significantly greater overall response and failure-free survival (FFS) than best available therapies (NEJM 2021). We reported a real-world experience of RUX in 47 chronic GVHD (cGVHD) patients, with 36% overall response...

BACKGROUND Approximately 50% of patients (pts) who receive initial cGVHD therapy are steroid refractory or dependent (SR/D); standard second-line therapy has yet to be established. Quality of life (QOL) in these pts is poor and worsens with disease severity. In the phase 3 REACH3 study in SR/D cGVHD (NCT03112603), RUX demonstrated superior efficacy...

Aim: Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma (PCNSL) [i.e. diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of the CNS] is a rare and poor-prognosis disease occurring predominantly in older patients (median age >60 years old). Prospective studies of two commonly used chemoimmunotherapy (CIT) protocols, MATRix and MPV/Ara-C (± rituximab), have reported 2-year PFS and...

Background: B-cell lineage cancers are a worldwide healthcare burden. Over 500,000 new cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and 50,000 new cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are diagnosed world-wide each year (seer.cancer.gov, Smith 2015, Solomon 2017). Despite progress in treatment, many patients diagnosed with this heterogeneous group of...

Background Modern antiretroviral therapy (ART) has reduced HIV associated morbidity and mortality, and allowed a similar treatment approach of aggressive lymphomas in PLWH to that of their HIV negative counterparts. Australia is an ethnically diverse country with a low HIV prevalence and an excellent population-wide ART coverage and adherence in PL...

Background Patients with secondary acute myeloid leukaemia (sAML), defined as AML that follows a diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome or myeloproliferative neoplasm, are known to have a poor prognosis with conventional chemotherapy alone, when compared to de novo AML (dnAML). Allogeneic stem cell transplant offers the best chance of cure due to th...

Introduction Serious infection is common in patients with multiple myeloma (MM), and associated with major morbidity and mortality. Immunoglobulin (Ig) replacement is frequently used to reduce frequency and severity of infections, however evidence is based on small trials conducted >20 years ago. Ig utilisation and associated costs in this patient...

Background: Chemotherapy is potentially harmful to the developing foetus and there is limited data on the foetal impact of immunotherapy except for rituximab. Therefore determining pregnancy status prior to initiation of chemo- and or immuno-therapy (CIT) should be standard of care. Repeat screening or testing during and after chemotherapy should b...

Background: Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare inflammatory neoplasm originating from bone marrow-derived CD207+/CD1+ clonal dendritic cells, with cells expressing BRAF V600E in around 50% of cases. Although more common in the paediatric setting, LCH is rare in adults, with an incidence of 1 to 2 cases per million. This combination of di...

Background: Haploidentical Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (Haplo-HCT) is an established therapy using alternative donors for patients with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) and Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS). There is a limited body of evidence for older patients undergoing Haplo-HCT in AML and MDS. Studies describing Haplo-HCT in older patie...

Background: Pregnant or breastfeeding women are routinely excluded from clinical trials due to fear of teratogenicity and toxicity of therapeutic agents, despite a paucity of evidence to support this practice. In response to the diethylstilbesterol (DES) and thalidomide-induced embryopathy in the mid-20 th century, the US Food and Drug Administrati...

Background: R-CHOP remains a standard frontline treatment for patients with DLBCL and high-grade B-cell lymphoma (HGBL). A significant proportion of patients will have refractory disease or subsequently relapse, particularly those with high-risk features such as an elevated IPI score or rearrangements of MYC and BCL2 and/or BCL6 (double/triple hit...

Introduction: Lymphoma (LYM) diagnosed during pregnancy is an uncommon occurrence. There are significant ethical and management challenges that involve maternal and fetal risks associated with delayed intervention vs antenatal therapy. Moreover, there are a scarcity of available data regarding relapsed/refractory LYM occurring during pregnancy, whi...

There are limited data on post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) in the era of positron emission tomography (PET) and rituximab (R). Furthermore, there is limited data on the risk of graft rejection with modern practices in reduction in immunosuppression (RIS). We studied 91 patients with monomorphic diffuse large B-cell lymphoma PTLD...

Staging using positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is standard of care in many cancers that occur most frequently in pregnancy, particularly lymphoma. While expert guidelines generally recommend against PET/CT in pregnant women, there is emerging evidence that likely absorbed foetal doses in pregnancy are relatively low, and as...

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common lymphoma subtype, accounting for 30–40% of lymphoma diagnoses. Though aggressive, cure is achievable in approximately 60% of cases with primary chemo-immunotherapy, and in a further substantial minority by salvage therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation. Despite promising activity in...

Background Changes to donor availability, collection centre capacity and travel restrictions during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic led to routine cryopreservation of most unrelated donor products for haematopoietic transplantation prior to the recipient commencing the conditioning regimen. Objective We investigated the effect of this cha...

The Worldwide Network of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (WBMT) pursues the mission of promoting hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) for instance by evaluating activities through member societies, national registries and individual centers. In 2016, 82,718 first HCTs were reported from 1662 HCT teams in 86 of the 195 World Health Organization...

The Worldwide Network of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (WBMT) pursues the mission of promoting hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) for instance by evaluating activities through member societies, national registries and individual centers. In 2016, 82,718 first HCTs were reported from 1662 HCT teams in 86 of the 195 World Health Organization...

Australia and New Zealand have achieved excellent community control of COVID‐19 infection. In light of the imminent COVID‐19 vaccination roll out in both countries, representatives of all adult and paediatric allogeneic bone marrow transplant and cellular therapy (TCT) centres as well as representatives from autologous transplant only centres in Au...

The AstraZeneca ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AZD1222) vaccine is associated with Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) in 3/100,000 vaccinations with high fatality rates reported in many countries. We conducted a risk-benefit analysis for Australians aged 18-59 years, comparing the risk of vaccination versus infection, and rate of TTS to other vaccin...

Background: The SADAL study evaluated oral selinexor in patients with relapsed and/or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) after at least 2 prior lines of systemic therapy. In this post-hoc analysis, we analyzed the outcomes of the SADAL study by DLBCL subtype to determine the effects of DLBCL subtypes on efficacy and tolerability of s...