Post by Dr. Adrian Gottschlich

I am very excited to see our case report now published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). In this report, we describe the use of Blinatumomab in a young patient with severe, multi-refractory Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) and Antiphospholipid Syndrome (APS). Despite exhausting all approved and multiple off-label treatment options, the patient continued to suffer from recurrent bleeding episodes and life-threatening thrombotic complications. After two cycles of blinatumomab, we observed a remarkable clinical response: stabilization of platelet counts allowing discontinuation of all platelet-stimulating agents, disappearance of both ITP and APS antibody titers, and a substantial improvement in the patient’s quality of life. We are deeply grateful to our patient for the trust placed in us to explore this novel immunotherapeutic approach. This work was made possible through generous support from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - German Research Foundation, Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung, Deutsche Krebshilfe, and Bayerisches Zentrum für Krebsforschung (BZKF) which also enabled us to perform additional translational analyses in this fascinating case. Special thanks to Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Marion Subklewe, Michael von Bergwelt and Karsten Spiekermann for their clinical and scientific guidance, and to Gerhard Zugmaier for his valuable advice. I am also very grateful to all co-authors (Veit Bücklein, Karim El-Marouk, Frank Ziemann, Thomas J., Christian Rausch, Gerulf Hänel, Christian Wichmann, Prof. Lars Lindner Sebastian Kobold) and our collaborators who have contributed to this work, including our colleagues from Medizinische Klinik I (Rainer Kaiser, Michael Schmid) and IV (Hendrik Schulze-Koops), the Department of Radiology (Michael Winkelmann) and the Department of Transfusion Medicine in Greifswald (Thomas Thiele, Stefan Handtke). P.S.: Notably, the clinical response is ongoing after >9 months of follow-up. 🔗 Link to the paper: https://lnkd.in/d_gzvJdU