Predictors of outcome following myeloablative allo-SCT for therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome and AML

Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation In Therapy-Related Myeloid Neoplasms (t-MN) of the Adult: Monocentric Observational Study and Review of the Literature

Background

Therapy related myeloid neoplasms (t-MN) occur due to direct mutational events of chemotherapeutic agents and radiotherapy. Disease latency, mutational events and prognosis vary with drugs categories.

Methods

We describe a cohort of 30 patients, 18 females and 12 males, with median age of 52.5 years (range, 20 to 64), submitted to allogeneic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in our department between September 1999 and March 2017. Patients had a history of solid tumour in 14 cases, haematological disease in 15 cases and both of them in one case. After a median of 36.5 months (range, 4 to 190) from first neoplasm, patients developed t-AML in 19 cases and t-MDS in 11 cases. Molecular abnormalities were detected in 5 patients, while karyotype aberrations were found in 17 patients. Patients received conventional chemotherapy in 14 cases, azacitidine in 10 cases and both of them in one case. Five patients were submitted to HSCT without previous treatment except for supportive therapy.

Results

Seventeen patients obtained sustained CR after SCT, while 8 patients showed resistant or relapsed disease. The remaining five patients died early after SCT. At follow up time (May 2017) 13 patients were alive with a median OS of 48 months (range 3–195), while 17 patients died after a median of 4 months (range 1–27) by relapse mortality in 6 cases and non-relapse mortality in the other 11 patients.

Conclusions

Global OS was 43%. After SCT, 72.2% of patients with t-MN maintained a sustained CR.

Favorable impact of allogeneic stem cell transplantation in patients with therapy-related myelodysplasia regardless of TP53 mutational status

Therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome is a long-term complication of cancer treatment in patients receiving cytotoxic therapy, characterized by high-risk genetics and poor outcomes. Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation is the only potential cure for this disease, but the prognostic impact of pre-transplant genetics and clinical features has not yet been fully characterized. We report here the genetic and clinical characteristics and outcomes of a relatively large cohort of patients with therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome (n=67) who underwent allogeneic transplantation, comparing these patients to similarly treated patients with de novo disease (n=199). The 5-year overall survival was not different between patients with therapy-related and de novo disease (49.9% versus 53.9%; P=0.61) despite a higher proportion of individuals with an Intermediate-2/High International Prognostic Scoring System classification (59.7% versus 43.7%; P=0.003) and high-risk karyotypes (61.2% versus 30.7%; P<0.01) among the patients with therapy-related disease. In mutational analysis, TP53 alteration was the most common abnormality in patients with therapy-related disease (n=18: 30%). Interestingly, the presence of mutations in TP53 or in any other of the high-risk genes (EZH2, ETV6, RUNX1, ASXL1: n=29: 48%) did not significantly affect either overall survival or relapse-free survival. Allogeneic stem-cell transplantation is, therefore, a curative treatment for patients with therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome, conferring a similar long-term survival to that of patients with de novo disease despite higher-risk features. While TP53 alteration was the most common mutation in therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome, the finding was not detrimental in our case-series.

Platelet recovery before allogeneic stem cell transplantation predicts posttransplantation outcomes in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome

Complete remission (CR) is the gold standard for assessing outcomes following chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). "CRp," a response criterion defined as fulfillment of all criteria for CR except platelet count recovery to ≥100 × 10(9)/L, is associated with inferior outcomes following chemotherapy. The prognostic importance of CRp before allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) remains unknown. We analyzed a cohort of AML (n = 334) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS; n = 10) patients to determine the prognostic significance of achieving CR versus CRp before allo-SCT. At time of transplantation, 266 patients were in CR (CR1 and ≥CR2) and 78 in CRp (CR1p and ≥CR2p). Median follow-up was 38 months (3-131 months). Overall survival, progression-free survival, and nonrelapse mortality (NRM) were most favorable in patients transplanted in CR (CR1 or ≥CR2) compared with CRp (CR1p or ≥CR2p). Achieving CR is therefore associated with improved posttransplantation outcomes compared with achieving CRp and is a significant prognostic factor that needs to be considered when evaluating AML/MDS patients for clinical trials and allo-SCT.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome and acute leukemia: a single-center analysis of 47 patients

The prognosis of therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome and acute leukemia (t-MDS/AL) remains poor. We retrospectively analyzed the data of 47 patients (31 AL and 16 MDS) who were treated at our institute. Thirty-three patients received disease-adapted chemotherapy, with a response rate of 73%, while 14 received no interventions due to an indolent course, such as MDS. The median follow-up of surviving patients was 1.9 years (range 0.1-10.5) after the diagnosis of t-MDS/AL, and the estimated 3-year overall survival (OS) for all patients was 55%. Twenty-seven patients underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT), and the 3-year non-relapse mortality was 17%. Twenty patients did not undergo HCT due to various reasons including advanced age or comorbidities. The 3-year OS was better in patients who received HCT than in those who did not (71 vs. 31%; p = 0.018). A multivariate analysis revealed that HCT was associated with a better OS. Although this study has several limitations, including a potential selection bias due to the retrospective nature of the analysis and a small number of patients, the results show that modern HCT may be useful for inducing long-term survival in a fraction of patients suffering from t-MDS/AL. The present findings warrant future prospective studies.

Favorable outcomes in patients surviving 5 or more years after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for hematologic malignancies

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a curative treatment for some hematologic malignancies. As the overall number of survivors continues to increase, studies systematically examining outcomes in long-term survivors are needed. We studied the clinical and quality-of-life outcomes in HSCT recipients surviving 5 or more years from HSCT. Since 1993, 262 patients with hematologic malignancies received a T cell-depleted myeloablative HSCT from an HLA-identical sibling at a single center. Ninety-two survived beyond 5 years from HSCT (median follow-up 9.4 years, range: 5.1-15.3). Median age at transplantation was 35 years (range: 10-56). Twenty-two (24%) received a bone marrow transplant, and 70 (76%) received a peripheral blood HSCT. Of the 92 survivors, 60 completed quality-of-life measures. The main outcomes examined were chronic graft-versus-host-disease, disease relapse, survival, health-related quality-of-life (HRQL) (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General), physical and mental health (SF-36), and symptom experience (Rotterdam Symptom Checklist). Seventy-five (82%) of 92 survivors no longer required systemic immunosuppressive treatment. Four (4.3%) relapsed with leukemia at a median of 8.5 years (range: 6.2-14.0) after HSCT. Four (4.3%) died between 7.4 and 13.4 years post-HSCT (1 relapse, 1 lung cancer, 1 pneumonia, 1 brain hemorrhage). Most survivors beyond 5 years had an excellent performance status with no difference in physical and mental health and higher HRQL scores (P = .02) compared with population norms. Although physical and psychologic symptom distress was low, those with higher symptom distress experienced inferior HRQL. These results show that 5 or more years after T cell-depleted HSCT for hematologic malignancy most individuals survive disease free with an excellent performance status, preserved physical and psychological health, and excellent HRQL.

Diagnosis and management of acute myeloid leukemia in adults: recommendations from an international expert panel, on behalf of the European LeukemiaNet

In 2003, an international working group last reported on recommendations for diagnosis, response assessment, and treatment outcomes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Since that time, considerable progress has been made in elucidating the molecular pathogenesis of the disease that has resulted in the identification of new diagnostic and prognostic markers. Furthermore, therapies are now being developed that target disease-associated molecular defects. Recent developments prompted an international expert panel to provide updated evidence- and expert opinion–based recommendations for the diagnosis and management of AML, that contain both minimal requirements for general practice as well as standards for clinical trials. A new standardized reporting system for correlation of cytogenetic and molecular genetic data with clinical data is proposed.