Faculty Opinions recommendation of Chemotherapy versus allogeneic transplantation for very-high-risk childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in first complete remission: comparison by genetic randomisation in an international prospective study.

Background and Objectives: Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) carrying t(9;22) or t(4;11) genetic abnormalities represents a very high risk subtype of disease (VHR-ALL). Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) still remains the only curative option also in the Imatinib era. In the last years low molecular level of minimal residual disease (MRD) before HSCT was reported as one of the best favourable indexes for survival in ALL. Here we observed that even these patients can show a favourable outcome, if submitted to HSCT with very low MRD. Methods: We considered 18 consecutive VHR-ALL patients eligible to HSCT. 16 of them were transplanted upon first remission, as soon as possible, employing myelo-ablative conditioning regimens. Molecular MRD has been evaluated before and after HSCT.Results: Immediately before HSCT MRD revealed: complete molecular remission (MRDneg) for 5 patients and a level <1x10-3 for 7 patients; 100 days after HSCT we had: MRDneg for 7 patients and a decrease for all the others after HSCT. After tapering of immunosuppressive drugs, 13 patients reached the MRDneg in a median time of 8 months (range 3-16); Based on intention to treat analysis: 14/18 patients are alive and disease free at the time of analysis, overall survival and event free survival is of 78% and 66% respectively, with an average follow-up of 45 months (range 6-84) since HSCT. Conclusion: Early transplantation with low MRD level seems to be correlated with a favourable outcome also in VHR-ALL

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Prognostic Impact of Different High Risk Features in Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in First Complete Remission.

Blood ◽

10.1182/blood.v114.22.2303.2303 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 114 (22) ◽

pp. 2303-2303

Author(s):

Theis Terwey ◽

Philipp Hemmati ◽

Gero Massenkeil ◽

Bernd Dörken ◽

Renate Arnold

Keyword(s):

Overall Survival ◽

Stem Cell ◽

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia ◽

High Risk ◽

Complete Remission ◽

Lymphoblastic Leukemia ◽

High Dose ◽

Prognostic Impact ◽

Very High ◽

First Complete Remission

Abstract Abstract 2303 Poster Board II-280 Introduction: In acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) specific clinical and biological features confer high relapse risk and inferior overall survival (OS) after treatment with conventional chemotherapy alone. The differential prognostic impact of these high risk features after treatment with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) has not been well studied. Patients and Methods: 79 adult ALL patients in first complete remission (CR) received allogeneic HCT at our center between 1995 and 2008. All patients were high or very high risk according to German Multicenter Study Group for Adult ALL (GMALL) criteria. Median age was 36 years (range: 17-68). Patients received high-dose conditioning consisting of 12 Gy total body irradiation ± etoposide ± cyclophosphamide (n=69, 87%) or reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) consisting of fludarabine/busulfan/ATG (n=10, 13%) and HSCT from related (n=34, 43%) or unrelated (n=45, 57%) donors. Bone marrow (n=17, 22%) or peripheral blood stem cells (n=62, 78%) were given. Graft-versus-host-disease prophylaxis was CSA/MTX for high-dose conditioning or CSA/MMF for RIC. Results: Patients were classified as high risk or very high risk due to Philadelphia chromosome-positive disease (Ph+) (n=30, 38%), leukocytosis>30/nl at diagnosis in B-ALL (n=25, 23%), late response to induction therapy in B-ALL (>week 4) (n=13, 16%), early or mature T-ALL (n=13, 16%), pro-B-ALL/t(4;11) (n=8, 10%), persistence of minimal residual disease (MRD) (>week 16) (n=8, 10%) or complex aberrant karyotype (n=6, 8%). 57 patients (72%) presented with one high risk feature, whereas 20 patients (25%) and 2 patients (3%) presented with two or three features, respectively. Currently, after a median follow-up of 56 months (7-169) 49 patients (62%) remain alive. Projected OS of the whole cohort at 1, 2 and 5 years was 78%, 70% and 55% and leukemia-free survival was 77%, 66% and 55%. Cumulative incidence of non-relapse mortality (NRM) and relapse mortality (RM) at 5 years was 23% and 18%, respectively. In multivariate Cox regression analysis, a non-significant trend for inferior OS was seen for patients with early or mature T-ALL (hazard ratio (HR): 2.03 (95%CI: 0.92-4.52), p=0.082), whereas no differential effect on OS, NRM or RM was seen for any other high risk feature (Table 1). In additional analyses, inferior OS (HR 1.81 (95%CI: 1.02-3.29), p=0.043) and increased RM (HR 2.17 (95%CI 1.16-4.05), p=0.015) was observed for patients with more than one high risk feature. Conclusions: In summary, this single center study on allogeneic HCT in high risk ALL found a negative prognostic trend for early or mature T cell immunophenotype. No differential prognostic impact on OS, NRM and RM was seen for other high risk features as defined by GMALL criteria, however this conclusion is limited by the low patient number in some of the subgroups. Overall survival for the whole cohort was 55% at 5 years, with inferior OS and higher RM being observed in patients with more than one high risk feature. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

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