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Effectiveness of azacitidine for the treatment of higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes in daily practice: the authors’ reply

Leukemia volume 30, pages 740–741 (2016)Cite this article

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There is an increasing interest on the effectiveness of azacitidine for the treatment of higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) outside clinical trials. We recently reported the lack of effect of this drug in an unselected population of 821 patients.1 In response to our work, Dinmohamed et al.2 have performed a similar retrospective analysis of a cohort including 121 patients with higher-risk MDS included in the Dutch registry and treated with either chemotherapy, azacitidine or best supportive care (BSC). Both studies are aimed to analyze the potential effect of the different treatment alternatives on overall survival (OS) in large population-based registries of higher-risk MDS patients. A common finding in both series is the lack of a survival advantage of azacitidine compared with intensive chemotherapy.

However, in contrast to our results, azacitidine-treated patients in the Dutch study showed an OS 9.3 months longer than those who received BSC. This difference was statistically significant only in those patients who were classified as responders. Interestingly, and resembling our findings, the subgroup of patients with chromosome 7 abnormalities were the subgroup of patients with an apparently more pronounced benefit. The readership of Leukemia should be aware that there are some relevant methodological differences between both studies that could explain their different results.

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References

  1. Bernal T, Martinez-Camblor P, Sanchez-Garcia J, de Paz R, Luño E, Nomdedeu B et al. Effectiveness of azacitidine in unselected high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes: results from the Spanish registry. Leukemia 2015; 29: 1875–1881.

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  2. Dinmohamed AG, van Norden Y, Visser O, Posthuma EF, Huijgens PC, Sonneveld P et al. Effectiveness of azacitidine for the treatment of higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes in daily practice: results from the Dutch population-based PHAROS MDS registry. Leukemia 2015; 29: 2449–2451.

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  3. Fenaux P, Mufti GJ, Hellstrom-Lindberg E, Santini V, Finelli C, Giagounidis A et al. Efficacy of azacitidine compared with that of conventional care regimens in the treatment of higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes: a randomised, open-label, phase III study. Lancet Oncol 2009; 10: 223–232.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Medicina, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain

    T Bernal & P Martínez-Camblor

  2. Universidad Autónoma de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Chile

    P Martínez-Camblor

  3. IMIBIC, Hospital Universitario Reina Sofía, Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain

    J Sánchez-García

  4. Hospital Universitario y Politécnico La Fe, Valencia, Spain

    G Sanz

Authors
  1. T Bernal
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  2. P Martínez-Camblor
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  3. J Sánchez-García
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  4. G Sanz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to T Bernal.

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Competing interests

TB has served as advisory board member and consultant for Celgene and has received speaker fees. GS has received honoraria and research funding from Celgene, Novartis and Amgen, and is on the advisory committee for Amgen, Böehringer-Ingelheim, Celgene, MerckSharp and Dohme, and Novartis. The Spanish Group on Myelodysplastic Syndromes is sponsored by Celgene and Novartis.

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Bernal, T., Martínez-Camblor, P., Sánchez-García, J. et al. Effectiveness of azacitidine for the treatment of higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes in daily practice: the authors’ reply. Leukemia 30, 740–741 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2015.339

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