Phase 2 Study Of Early Discharge and Outpatient Management Of Adult Patients Following Intensive Induction Chemotherapy For MDS and Non-APL AML

Adults with newly diagnosed or relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) typically receive intensive chemotherapy to achieve disease remission. Generally, these patients remain hospitalized until blood count recovery due to the risk for infections and bleeding during pancytopenia. However, a recent small pilot study at our institution suggested that early discharge (ED) following induction/salvage therapy for MDS/AML may be safe and may reduce cost. We therefore conducted a phase 2 study to test this care strategy in a larger cohort of patients (NCT01235572).

Patients aged 18-75 years with high-risk MDS or AML (other than acute promyelocytic leukemia) were enrolled before or during induction or salvage chemotherapy and provided with outpatient care teaching. Patients were considered eligible for ED if they fulfilled the following medical and logistic criteria: ECOG performance status of 0-1, adequate organ function; no active bleeding; agreeable to close outpatient follow-up; reliable caregiver; and residency within 60 minutes of the outpatient clinic. Patients who met medical but not logistic criteria served as inpatient controls. If readmitted, ED was again possible if all medical/logistic criteria were met. Patients remained on protocol until blood count recovery, additional chemotherapy was administered, or a maximum of 45 days. Our goal was to compare the number of early deaths, healthcare costs and resource utilization among ED patients versus inpatient controls. Safety was monitored with early stopping if the early death rate was >7% in the ED group, with a predefined interim analysis after 30 patients. All data are provided as median (range).

One hundred and seven eligible patients were enrolled over a 2-year period. Two patients died during chemotherapy. Twenty-seven patients failed to meet medical ED criteria after completion of chemotherapy and were taken off study, mostly due to poor performance status. Eighteen patients, age 51.4 (22-70) years, met medical but not logistic ED criteria and served as controls; they were followed for 14 (9-41) days, with 7 patients taken off study at the time of hospital discharge before blood count recovery. Sixty patients, age 51.6 (22-71) years, met all ED criteria and were discharged upon completion of induction (n=19) or salvage (n=41) chemotherapy for AML (n=50) or MDS (n=10). A median number of 1 (1-3) readmission occurred in 53 of these patients, primarily for neutropenic fever; 8 patients were readmitted twice and 3 patients were readmitted 3 times prior to coming off study. Overall, ED patients spent 12.8 (0-38) and 7.5 (0-33) days as out- and inpatients, respectively, for a total of 62.7% (0-100%) of the study time spent as outpatients. ED patients required 0.41 (0-1.9) clinic visits and 0.13 (0-0.66) physician visits per outpatient day. Duration of IV antibiotics was similar in ED and control patients (10 [0-40] vs 12 [0-40] days; p=0.38) as was number of red blood cell transfusions (0.27 [0.0-0.94] vs 0.29 [0.08-0.548] units/study day; p=0.21). In contrast, ED patients required fewer platelet transfusions (0.21 [0.09-1.25] vs 0.33 [0.21-0.80] units/ study day; p=0.02). Six patients in the ED group required between 1-6 days of intensive care unit (ICU) care (p= 0.17 for the difference in ICU days between discharges and controls). Three deaths occurred in the ED group during the study period: two of sepsis (2 and 7 days after readmission), and one of fungal sinusitis (11 days after readmission). The median daily total professional and facility charges, dated from the day of re-evaluation until removal from protocol, were significantly lower for patients discharged early compared to inpatient controls: $3,871 [$360.86-$13,361] vs $6,283 [$4,868-$11,898], p<0.001), due to significantly lower daily charges during outpatient care ($1375/outpatient day) relative to daily inpatient charges. Among readmitted patients, daily costs per inpatient-day were relatively similar to the control patients ($7,332 vs $6,282/inpatient-day, p=0.06).

With appropriate outpatient support measures, ED of patients following induction/salvage therapy for MDS/AML appears safe. Although readmission is common, a policy of ED results in a substantial reduction of the duration of inpatient stay and significantly reduces the economic burden of AML/MDS therapy.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.