Azacitidine frontline therapy for unfit acute myeloid leukemia patients: clinical use and outcome prediction

Hypomethylating agents are able to prolong the overall survival of some patients diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical use of azacitidine as front-line therapy in unfit acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients and to develop a clinical prediction model to identify which patients may benefit more from the drug. One hundred and ten untreated unfit AML patients received front-line azacitidine therapy in Spain, and response and survival were evaluated in them following European LeukemiaNet (ELN) guidelines. A clinical prediction rule was obtained from this population that was validated and refined in 261 patients treated in France, Austria and Italy. ELN response was achieved in 21.0% of the 371 patients (CI95% 17.0-25.5) and did not depend on bone marrow blast cell percentage. Median overall survival was 9.6 months (CI95% 8.5-10.8) and 40.6% of the patients were alive at 1 year (CI95% 35.5-45.7). European ALMA score (E-ALMA), based on performance status, white blood cell counts at azacitidine onset and cytogenetics, discriminated three risk groups with different survival and response rates. Azacitidine seems a reasonable therapeutic option for most unfit AML patients, i.e. those displaying a favorable or intermediate E-ALMA score.

Does addition of erythropoiesis stimulating agents improve the outcome of higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes treated with azacitidine?

We studied a retrospective cohort of 282 higher-risk MDS treated with azacitidine, including 32 patients who concomitantly received an ESA for a median of 5.8 months after azacitidine onset. Forty-four percent of ESA and 29% of no-ESA patients reached HI-E (p=0.07); 48% and 20% achieved transfusion independence (p=0.01). Median OS was 19.6 months in the ESA and 11.9 months in the no-ESA groups (p=0.04). Addition of an ESA significantly improved OS (p=0.03) independently of azacitidine schedule and duration, and of our proposed azacitidine risk score (Blood 2011;117:403-11). Adding an ESA to azacitidine in higher-risk MDS should be studied prospectively.