Impact of Pretransplantation Risk Factors on Post Transplantation Outcome of Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in Remission after Haploidentical Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation

The impact of risk-related parameters has not been defined in transplantation settings. We wondered whether the currently recognized predictors could be used to categorize acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients who underwent transplantation during remission into risk groups. We analyzed the data of 255 consecutive patients (median age, 26) with AML in their first or second remission (CR1 or CR2) after haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Three parameters were found to be predictive of outcome: response after induction therapy, white blood cell count at diagnosis, and cytogenetics. These three factors were combined to yield two risk groups. The 2-year cumulative incidences of relapse for patients at low and high risk were 8% and 36% (P = .001), respectively. The 3-year probabilities of leukemia-free survival for these two groups were 80% and 52% (P = .001), respectively. Multivariate analysis for relapse and for leukemia-free survival showed that not achieving CR after two courses of therapy was the strongest independent prognostic factor (P = .001 and P = .028, respectively). In addition, in a subgroup of patients with quantification of minimal residual disease at the time of HSCT, positive minimal residual disease at this time point was correlated with a poor outcome. Our results suggest that the pretransplantation risk factors influence posttransplantation outcomes of patients with AML in CR after haploidentical HSCT and might be applicable to assist with risk-directed posttransplantation therapy.