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ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIA

Interleukin-15 and -21-activated, donor-derived NK cell infusion after haploidentical HCT in high-risk AML and MDS—a cohort analysis

Leukemia volume 38, pages 451–454 (2024)Cite this article

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After HCT, 29/69 patients in the DNKI group and 35/58 in the no-DNKI group experienced disease progression (10-year cumulative incidences, 44% (95% confidence interval (CI), 32–55%) and 62% (95% CI, 48–73%), respectively; P = 0.024; Supplementary Table S1; Fig. 1C). Twenty patients in the DNKI group and 14 no-DNKI subjects died without disease progression (10-year cumulative incidence of non-relapse mortality (NRM), 29 and 24%, respectively; Fig. 1D). The causes of NRM are listed in Supplementary Table S1. Three patients in the DNKI group and 2 in the no-DNKI group experienced graft failure (cumulative incidence, 4 and 3%, respectively; Fig. 1E).

For the entire study patients, median follow-up duration of survivor was 68.6 months (range, 26.3–167.5 months). The progression-free survival (PFS) at 10 years was 25 and 12% for the DNKI and no-DNKI groups, respectively (P = 0.029; Fig. 1F). The 10-year overall survival (OS) were 29 and 12% for the DNKI and no-DNKI groups, respectively (P = 0.071; Fig. 1G). Univariate analyses showed that the DNKI reception and patient age were the significant variables for disease progression (Supplementary Table S2). Upon multivariate analyses, however, DNKI was the only independent variable predicting disease progression (hazard ratio (HR), 0.57 (95% CI, 0.36–0.93)). Univariate analyses for PFS showed that the DNKI reception, disease status, and cytogenetic risk status were the significant variables affecting PFS. Upon multivariate analyses, these variables remained to be independent variables predicting PFS. In particular, the HR for disease progression or death for DNKI vs no-DNKI was 0.57 (95% CI, 0.38–0.86).

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Fig. 1: Patient selection, treatment schema, and HCT outcomes.

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Funding

This work was supported by grants from the following bodies: 1. Korean Health Technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health and Welfare (A121934, HI12C1788), Republic of Korea. 2. R&D Convergence Program of the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) (CRC-15-02-KRIBB), Republic of Korea. 3 Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) Research Initiative Program (KGM 5502221), Republic of Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ewha Womans University Medical Center, Mokdong Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Kyoo-Hyung Lee, Sewon Lee, Young Hoon Park & Yeung-Chul Mun

  2. University of Ulsan, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Eun-Ji Choi, Yunsuk Choi, Han-Seung Park, Jung-Hee Lee & Je-Hwan Lee

  3. Ingenium Therapeutics, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Soo-Yeon Park & Inpyo Choi

  4. Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Suk Ran Yoon & Inpyo Choi

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  1. Kyoo-Hyung Lee
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Contributions

K-HL: Conceptualization, resources, study design, manuscript writing, and editing. SL: Data analysis and interpretation. YHP: Data analysis and interpretation. Y-CM: Data analysis, interpretation, and resources. E-JC: Study patient enrollment and care, data analysis and statistical analysis. YC: Clinical data analysis, statistical analysis, and interpretation. H-SP: Patient management, clinical data interpretation, and data analysis. J-HL: Clinical data analysis and interpretation. J-HL: Study patient enrollment and care and clinical data interpretation. S-YP: NK cell production, analytical experiments, and data analysis. SRY: NK cell production, analytical experiments, and data analysis. IC: Conceptualization, resources, study design, and supervision.

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Correspondence to Kyoo-Hyung Lee or Inpyo Choi.

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Competing interests

K-HL, E-JC, J-HL, J-HL, and H-SP are recipients of royalty from Ingenium Therapeutics, Daejon, Korea. The other authors declare no competing conflict of interests.

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Lee, KH., Lee, S., Park, Y.H. et al. Interleukin-15 and -21-activated, donor-derived NK cell infusion after haploidentical HCT in high-risk AML and MDS—a cohort analysis. Leukemia 38, 451–454 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-023-02121-6

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