Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) from a matched sibling donor (MSD) may provide a cure for acute myeloid leukemia in first complete remission (AML/CR1), although the procedure is associated with a higher rate of treatment-related mortality (TRM) than autologous HCT, and it remains uncertain which modality is preferable as post-remission treatment. We therefore conducted a retrospective registry-based analysis to compare the outcomes of patients with AML/CR1 receiving autologous peripheral blood (PB) grafts (n=398, median age: 47, range: 17-80) and those receiving allogeneic MSD bone marrow (BM) grafts (n=633, median age: 38, range: 16-73) or allogeneic MSD PB grafts (n=475, median age: 42, range: 16-74) between 1995 and 2011. Consequently, the 5-year overall survival (OS) rates for the autologous PB, allogeneic BM and allogeneic PB recipients were 62% (95% confidence interval [CI], 57-67%), 61% (95% CI, 57-65%; P=0.90) and 54% (95% CI, 49-59%; P=0.07), respectively (Fig. 1-A), and the 5-year leukemia-free survival (LFS) rates were 57% (95% CI, 52-62%), 58% (95% CI, 54-63%; P=0.49) and 51% (95% CI, 46-56%; P=0.12), respectively(Fig. 1-B). Meanwhile, the 5-year cumulative incidence of TRM was 8% (95% CI, 5-11%), 16% (95% CI, 13-19%; P=0.009) and 19% (95% CI, 15-23%; P=0.0001), respectively, while that of relapse was 35% (95% CI, 30-40%), 26% (95% CI, 22-29%; P=0.003) and 30% (95% CI, 26-35%; P=0.08), respectively. A multivariate analysis performed with autologous PB HCT as the reference showed a hazard ratio (HR) for OS of 0.93 (95% CI, 0.73-1.18; P=0.53) for allogeneic BM HCT and 1.08 (95% CI, 0.83-1.39; P=0.57) for allogeneic PB HCT and an HR for LFS of 0.86 (95% CI, 0.69-1.09; P=0.21) and 0.98 (95% CI, 0.77-1.24; P=0.85), respectively. Stratifying the patients according to cytogenetics (favorable, intermediate and poor) and age (<50 years and ≥ 50 years) did not influence the results. Accordingly, autologous PB HCT may be a viable alternative as post-remission therapy in patients with AML/CR1 in the absence of MSD.

Disclosures

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Author notes

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Asterisk with author names denotes non-ASH members.

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