Abstract
Allocating patients with acute myeloid leukemia and high-risk cytogenetic abnormalities (HR-AML) for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is part of the standard treatment protocol; however, whether allo-HSCT truly improves the outcomes in these patients is debatable. Data on 169 children and adolescents with HR-AML who received their first allo-HSCT in first or second remission between 2000 and 2015 were extracted from a nationwide, Japanese HSCT registry. The 3-year disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 55.2% (95% CI, 46.8–62.9%) and 69.6% (61.4–76.3%), respectively, for all the HR-AML patients. In univariate analysis, the cytogenetic subgroup had a significant impact on both the DFS (P = 0.011) and OS (P < 0.001) rates. In particular, 14 patients with t(16;21) showed an extremely poor outcome. Additionally, older age at allo-HSCT (10–19 years old, P = 0.025), myeloablative conditioning with total-body irradiation (P = 0.019), and grade II–IV acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD, P = 0.049) were associated with inferior OS. The donor type and occurrence of chronic GVHD did not affect the outcome. Multivariate analysis revealed t(16;21) to be associated with increased overall mortality (hazard ratio = 4.416, P < 0.001). Because the outcome of patients with certain HR-AML subgroups, such as t(16;21)-positive cases, is extremely poor even with allo-HSCT in remission, a novel therapy is urgently required.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank all the members of the hospitals and centers who contributed valuable data to the JSHCT registry. The authors also thank Mr. JR Valera of the Department of Education for Clinical Research, National Center for Child Health and Development, for his assistance in editing this manuscript. This work was supported by a grant for Practical Research for Innovative Cancer Control from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) and a grant from the National Center for Child Health and Development (30-1).
Author contributions
DT, MY, TK, TM, TT, SA, and HI participated actively in the study conception and design; DT conducted the data analysis and interpretation and was the main author of the study; KK, MN, HK, KW, YC, TF, MK, NS, HG, JH, and MI provided patient data; MI, YH, YA, and HI contributed to the administrative support of the study; and all the authors contributed to carrying out the study, were involved in the review of the results, and gave their final approval of the manuscript.
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Tomizawa, D., Yoshida, M., Kondo, T. et al. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for children and adolescents with high-risk cytogenetic AML: distinctly poor outcomes of FUS-ERG-positive cases. Bone Marrow Transplant 54, 393–401 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-018-0273-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-018-0273-7
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