01.12.2017 | Research | Ausgabe 1/2017
Open Access
Impact of in vivo T cell depletion in HLA-identical allogeneic stem cell transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia in first complete remission conditioned with a fludarabine iv-busulfan myeloablative regimen: a report from the EBMT Acute Leukemia Working Party
Marie Thérèse Rubio, Maud D’Aveni-Piney, Myriam Labopin, Rose-Marie Hamladji, Miguel A. Sanz, Didier Blaise, Hakan Ozdogu, Etienne Daguindeau, Carlos Richard, Stella Santarone, Giuseppe Irrera, Ibrahim Yakoub-Agha, Moshe Yeshurun, Jose L. Diez-Martin, Mohamad Mohty, Bipin N Savani, Arnon Nagler
Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) with myeloablative conditioning (MAC) regimen remains the treatment of choice for intermediate or poor-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in first complete remission (CR1) [
1]. The standard conditioning regimen including myeloablative dose of intravenous (iv) busulfan and cyclophosphamide is however associated with substantial toxicities in adults above 40 years of age [
2]. The association of fludarabine to myeloablative dose of iv busulfan (Flu-ivBu4), developed in the past two decades, has been shown to preserve significant anti-leukemic activity with reduced toxicity mortality in both retrospective [
3–
8] and prospective randomized studies [
9,
10], in particular, in adults above 40 years. This so-called reduced toxicity conditioning (RTC) regimen is therefore being widely used in allo-SCT for patients with AML in CR1.
The Flu-ivBu 4 regimen is usually performed with peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) to favor engraftment and enhance the graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect [
11,
12]. However, use of PBSC from HLA-matched related (MRD) or unrelated (MUD) donors with MAC increases the risk of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) [
11–
13]. Prospective randomized studies have shown that in vivo T cell depletion with anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) reduces the incidence of cGVHD without increasing the risk of relapse in allo-SCT performed with PBSC from MRD or MUD after conventional cyclophosphamide-based MAC regimens for AML [
14–
16]. These results raise the question of the impact of use of ATG in the Flu-ivBu4 RTC, in which the balance between the GVH and GVL effects of allo-SCT might be more sensitive to T cell depletion. Very scarce data exist on the potential effect of ATG in this transplant context. Russel et al. reported reduced non-relapse mortality (NRM) due to lower incidence of cGVHD in a retrospective study of patients transplanted with MRD after Flu-Bu-based MAC and ATG compared to conventional cyclophosphamide-based MAC without ATG but a trend towards higher relapse incidence [
17]. A Korean study comparing the outcomes of 16 patients receiving Flu-ivBu for 3 or 4 days and ATG to 45 patients receiving the same type of conditioning without ATG for various hematological malignancies transplanted with MRD did not observe any benefit of adding ATG, with also concerns about its possible negative impact on relapse [
18]. Heterogeneity in terms of conditioning between groups or of types of disease limits the interpretation of these data. With the objective to explore the impact of the use of ATG in the Flu-ivBu4 RTC, we chose to retrospectively analyze a cohort of 566 adult patients given hematopoietic stem cells from HLA-identical sibling donors for AML in CR1 following Flu-ivBu4 conditioning regimen. In this homogeneous cohort of patients, we compared post-transplant outcomes of 145 of those who received ATG for GVHD prophylaxis to the 421 patients who did not.
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Methods
Study design and data collection
This is a retrospective multicenter analysis using the data set of the Acute Leukemia Working Party (ALWP) of the European Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) group registry. The EBMT is a voluntary working group of more than 500 transplant centers that are required to report all consecutive stem cell transplantations and follow-ups once a year. Audits are routinely performed to determine the accuracy of the data. The study was planned and approved by the ALWP of the EBMT. In addition, the study protocol was approved by the institutional review board at each site and complied with country-specific regulatory requirements. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and Good Clinical Practice guidelines. Since 1990, patients provide informed consent authorizing the use of their personal information for research purposes. Eligibility criteria for this analysis included adult patients above 18 years of age with AML who underwent a first allo-SCT from an HLA-matched related donor following fludarabine and 4 days of intravenous busulfan (Flu-ivBu4) regimen between 2006 and 2013. Exclusion criteria were previous allogeneic or cord blood transplantation and ex vivo T cell-depleted stem cell graft. Variables collected included recipient and donor characteristics (age, gender, CMV serostatus), disease characteristics and status at transplant, year of transplantation and interval from diagnosis to transplantation, transplant-related factors including conditioning regimen, use and dose of thymoglobulin as pre-transplant in vivo T cell depletion, stem cell source (bone marrow (BM) or peripheral blood (PB)), post-transplant GVHD prophylaxis. GVHD prophylaxis regimens were dependent on centers’ protocols. Grading of acute GVHD was performed using established criteria [
19]. Chronic GVHD was classified as limited or extensive according to published criteria [
20]. For the purpose of this study, all necessary data were collected according to the EBMT guidelines, using the EBMT minimum essential data forms. The list of institutions reporting data included in this study is provided in the supplemental data (Additional file
1: Table S1).
Statistical analysis
Study end points were engraftment, incidences and severity of acute and chronic GVHD, incidence of primary disease relapse (RI), NRM, leukemia-free survival (LFS), overall survival (OS), and GVHD and relapse-free survival (GRFS). Start time was date of transplant for all end points. LFS was defined as survival without relapse or progression, NRM as death without relapse/progression, and GRFS as survival with no evidence of relapse/progression, grade III to IV acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD), or severe cGVHD as defined by Ruggeri et al. for registry-based studies [
21]. Cumulative incidence functions (CIF) were used to estimate RI and NRM in a competing risk setting, because death and relapse compete with each other. For estimating the cumulative incidence of chronic GVHD, we considered relapse and death to be competing events. Groups were compared by the chi-square method for qualitative variables, whereas the Mann-Whitney test was applied for continuous parameters. Univariate comparisons were done using the log-rank test for OS, LFS, and GRFS and the Gray’s test for RI, NRM, and GVHD cumulative incidences. Multivariate analyses were performed using Cox proportional hazards model for all end points. Factors differing in terms of distribution between the groups and all factors known as potentially risk factors were included in the final model. In order to test for a center effect, we introduced a random effect or frailty for each center into the model [
22]. All tests were two-sided. The type I error rate was fixed at 0.05 for the determination of factors associated with time to event outcomes. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS 22.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) and R 3.2.3 software packages (R Development Core Team, Vienna, Austria).
Results
Patient, transplant, and disease characteristics
Between 2006 and 2013, 566 patients with AML transplanted with a sibling donor following a Flu-ivBu4 myeloablative conditioning regimen with or without ATG were included in the study. Patient and disease characteristics are summarized in Table
1. Among the total population of patients, 421 (74.4%) did not receive ATG within the conditioning regimen (no-ATG group), while 145 (25.6%) received ATG (ATG group). Thymoglobulin was the main ATG brand used (95.2%). Median dose of thymoglobulin was 5 mg/kg (range, 2.5–15.8), and a majority of patients (73.7%) received a total dose below 6 mg/kg. Apart from ATG, GVHD prophylaxis was mainly based on the association of cyclosporine (CsA) and methotrexate (MTX) in the no-ATG group (88.4%), while most of the patients in the ATG group received CsA alone (29%) or CsA and MTX (40%). The choice of GVHD prophylaxis was dependent on the centers’ protocols.
Table 1
Patient and disease characteristics
Patient characteristics
No-ATG
ATG
p value
Number of patients
421
145
Recipient age at SCT (years, range)
43.7 (18–68)
48.8 (20–69)
0.002
Recipient gender,
n (%)
0.24
Male
215 (51.3%)
82 (56.9%)
Female
204 (48.7%)
62 (43.1%)
Year of SCT (median), year (%)
2011 (2006–2013)
2012 (2006–2013)
<10
−5
Interval from diagnosis to SCT (median days)
156
156
0.79
Median follow-up
a (months, range)
16 (1.5–93)
21 (1–106)
0.81
Donor age (years, range)
41 (8–70)
47 (10–65)
0.003
Donor gender,
n (%)
Male
236 (56.3%)
70 (48.6%)
0.11
Female
183 (43.7%)
74 (51.4%)
Female donor to male recipient,
n (%)
96 (23%)
44 (30.8%)
0.06
Diagnosis,
n (%)
0.05
De novo AML
391 (92.9%)
127 (87.6%)
Secondary AML
30 (7.1%)
18 (12.4%)
Cytogenetics in de novo AML,
n (% of available data)
0.60
Good
18 (16.2%)
6 (9%)
Intermediate
76 (68.5%)
50 (74.6%)
Poor
17 (15.3%)
11 (16.4%)
Not available/failed
280
60
Source of SC,
n (%)
<10
−4
BM
84 (20%)
10 (6.9%)
PB
337 (80%)
135 (93.1%)
In vivo T cell depletion,
n (%)
Thymoglobuline
0
138 (95.2%)
ATG Fresenius
4 (2.8%)
Missing brand of ATG
3 (2%)
Mean dose of thymoglobuline (mg/kg) (range)
5 (2.5–15.8)
Thymo ≤ 6 mg/kg
98 (73.7%)
Thymo > 6 mg/kg
35 (26.3%)
Unknown dose of thymoglobuline
12
Post-transplant GVHD prophylaxis
<10
−4
CsA
4 (1%)
42 (29%)
CsA + MTX
372 (88.4%)
57 (39.3%)
CsA/FK 506 + MMF
35 (8.3%)
17 (11.7%)
Other
10 (2.4%)
29 (20%)
Patient positive CMV serology,
n (%)
362 (87%)
107 (74.3%)
<10
−4
Donor positive CMV serology,
n (%)
330 (80.1%)
104 (72.7%)
0.07
CMV risk,
n (%)
0.008
Low
33 (8%)
22 (15.5%)
Intermediate
328 (77.9%)
103 (71%)
High
49 (12%)
17 (12%)
CMV risk low = negative recipient and donor serology, high positive recipient and negative donor serology, intermediate: all other combinations
AML acute myeloid leukemia,
ATG anti-thymocyte globulin,
BM bone marrow,
CMV cytomegalovirus,
CsA cyclosporine A,
MMF mycophenolate mofetil,
MTX methotrexate,
PB peripheral blood,
SC stem cells,
SCT stem cell transplantation
aFor alive patients
In comparison to the no-ATG group, patients in the ATG group were older (median age of 48.8 vs. 43.7 years,
p = 0.002), had been transplanted more recently (median year of transplantation 2012 vs. 2011,
p < 10
−5), with older donors (median age of 47 vs. 41 years,
p = 0.003), and were more frequently transplanted with PBSC graft (93 vs. 80%,
p < 10
−4) for secondary AML (12 vs. 7%,
p = 0.05). There was no difference in terms of cytogenetic risk between the two groups in patients with available cytogenetics. Significantly higher proportions of CMV seropositive patients were transplanted in the no-ATG group (87 vs. 74%,
p < 10
−4) resulting in different distributions of transplant CMV risk with increased low risk in the ATG group (15.5 vs. 8%,
p = 0.008) (Table
1).
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Impact of ATG on engraftment and GVHD
Engraftment and incidences of acute and chronic GVHD are shown in Table
2. There was no difference in terms of engraftment between the no-ATG and ATG groups (98.6 and 100%, respectively,
p = 0.15). Median time for absolute nuclear cells (ANC) > 0.5 × 10
9/L was longer in the no-ATG group (15 and 14 days, respectively,
p = 0.001) (Table
2).
In univariate analysis, we did not observe any impact of the use of ATG on the incidences of grade II–IV and grade III–IV aGVHD. Day 100 cumulative incidences of grade II–IV and III–IV aGVHD were similar between the no-ATG and ATG groups (21.8 vs. 15.3%,
p = 0.10 and 7.7 vs. 4.4%,
p = 0.19, respectively) (Table
2). By contrast, 2-year incidences of overall and extensive chronic GVHD were significantly reduced in the ATG group in comparison to the no-ATG group (30.8 vs. 52% for overall cGVHD,
p = 0.0002 and 7.6 vs. 26.3% for extensive cGVHD,
p < 10
−4) (Tables
2 and
3 and Fig.
1). As shown in Table
4, GVHD-related deaths represented 22.2% (
n = 32) and 17.1% (
n = 6) of all causes of death in the no-ATG and ATG groups, respectively.
Table 3
Post-transplant 2-year outcomes
NRM
RI
Extensive GVHD
GRFS
LFS
OS
No-ATG
17.3% [13.3–21.7]
27.2% [22.4–32.1]
26.3% [21.2–31.6]
39.6% [34–45.1]
55.4% [49.8–61]
58.9% [53.2–64.6]
ATG
10.7% [7.7–14.2]
22.5% [15.1–30.8]
7.6% [3.5–13.7]
60.1% [51–69.3]
66.8% [58.1–75.6]
71.8% [63.4–80.2]
p value
0.149
0.226
4.7 × 10
−5
0.00016
0.044
0.049
ATG anti-thymocyte globulin,
GRFS GVHD and relapse-free survival,
LFS leukemia-free survival,
NRM non-relapse mortality,
OS overall survival,
RI relapse incidence
Fig. 1
Cumulative incidence of chronic GVHD according to the use of ATG.
a Overall incidence of chronic GVHD and
b incidence of extensive chronic GVHD in the ATG and no-ATG groups as mentioned
In multivariate analyses, the use of ATG was associated with a reduced risk of chronic GVHD development (hazard ratio (HR) = 0.46, 95% CI, 0.31–0.68;
p = 0.0001) (Table
5). Factors associated with an increased risk of developing chronic GVHD were secondary AML (HR = 1.68, 95% CI, 1.04–2.72;
p = 0.033) and the use of a female donor for a male recipient (HR = 1.75, 95% CI, 1.27–2.43;
p = 0.001). We observed a center effect on the incidence cGVHD (
p = 0.0007) (Table
5).
Table 5
Multivariate analyses
Chronic GVHD
NRM
Relapse
LFS
OS
GRFS
p value
OR (95% CI)
p value
HR (95% CI)
p value
HR (95% CI)
p value
HR (95% CI)
p value
HR (95% CI)
p value
HR (95% CI)
In vivo T cell depletion
0.0001
0.46 (0.31–0.68)
0.094
0.59 (0.32–1.09)
0.149
0.72 (0.46–1.12)
0.027
0.67 (0.46–0.95)
0.027
0.65 (0.44–0.95)
4 × 10
−5
0.51 (0.37–0.70)
Age at SCT >50 years
0.447
1.13 (0.82–1.57)
0.012
1.83 (1.14–2.94)
0.083
1.39 (0.96–2.00)
0.004
1.53 (1.15–2.05)
0.026
1.42 (1.04–1.93)
0.037
1.32 (1.02–1.71)
Interval diag. to SCT
a
0.465
1.05 (0.91–1.22)
0.209
1.00 (1.00–1.00)
0.974
1.00 (1.00–1.00)
0.461
1.00 (1.00–1.00)
0.410
1.00 (1.00–1.00)
0.717
1.00 (1.00–1.00)
Year of SCT
0.929
1.00 (1.00–1.00)
0.894
0.99 (0.87–1.30)
0.862
1.01 (0.91–1.12)
0.960
1.00 (0.92–1.09)
0.558
0.98 (0.90–1.06)
0.522
0.98 (0.91–1.05)
Secondary AML
0.033
1.68 (1.04–2.72)
0.232
1.55 (0.76–3.19)
0.434
1.26 (0.71–2.26)
0.192
1.35 (0.86–2.12)
0.163
1.40 (0.87–2.25)
0.058
1.47 (0.99–2.18)
Female D to male R
0.001
1.75 (1.27–2.43)
0.669
1.12 (0.66–1.90)
0.319
1.22 (0.82–1.82)
0.306
1.18 (0.86–1.62)
0.253
1.21 (0.87–1.69)
0.0004
1.62 (1.24–2.11)
R CMV seropositivity
0.231
1.32 (0.84–2.09)
0.851
0.93 (0.46–1.90)
0.733
0.91 (0.55–1.53)
0.651
0.91 (0.60–1.38)
0.456
0.85 (0.55–1.31)
0.639
0.92 (0.64–1.32)
D CMV seropositivity
0.417
1.17 (0.81–1.68)
0.241
1.49 (0.77–2.89)
0.812
1.06 (0.67–1.68)
0.358
1. 20 (0.82–1.75)
0.359
1.21 (0.81–1.80)
0.832
1.04 (0.75–1.42)
Center (frailty variable)
0.0007
0.047
0.211
0.917
0.913
0.154
AML acute myeloid leukemia,
CMV cytomegalovirus,
D donor,
diag diagnosis,
GRFS GVHD/relapse-free survival,
GVHD graft-versus-host disease,
LFS leukemia-free survival,
NRM non-relapse mortality,
OS overall survival,
R recipient,
SCT allogeneic stem cell transplantation
aAnalyzed per 6-month interval
Toxicity and NRM
The median follow-up of the entire cohort of 19 months (range, 1–106) was similar in both no-ATG (16 months) and ATG groups (21 months) (Table
1). Two-year NRM for the entire cohort was 15.5% (95% CI, 12.3–19.1). In univariate analysis, 2-year cumulative incidence of NRM was no different between the no-ATG (17.3%; 95% CI, 13.3–21.7) and the ATG (10.7%; 95% CI, 7.7–14.2) groups (
p = 0.149). (Table
3 and Fig.
2a).
Fig. 2
Transplant outcomes according to the use of ATG. Cumulative incidence of non-relapse mortality (NRM) (
a), of relapse (
b), leukemia-free survival (
c), and overall survival (
d) in the ATG and no-ATG groups as mentioned
×
Apart from GVHD, the main other causes of death from NRM in the no-ATG and ATG groups were infections (23 patients and 5 patients (16 and 14.3% of all deaths), respectively) and veno-occlusive disease (3 patients in each group (3.5 and 8.6% of all deaths), respectively) (Table
4).
In multivariate analyses, recipient age above 50 years was associated with an increased risk of NRM (HR = 1.83, 95% CI, 1.14–2.94;
p = 0.012) and we observed a center effect on the incidence of NRM (
p = 0.047). Although not significant, there was a trend for reduced NRM in patients receiving ATG (HR = 0.59, 95% CI, 0.32–1.09;
p = 0.094) (Table
5).
Use of ATG had no impact on relapse incidence
Two-year cumulative incidence of relapse in the entire cohort of patients was 25.9% (95% CI, 21.8–30.1) and represented the main cause of death in the two groups of patients: 53.4% of all causes of death in the no-ATG and 54.5% of those of the ATG groups (Table
4). In univariate analysis, the use of ATG had no impact on the 2-year incidence of relapse, which occurred in 27.2% (95% CI, 22.4–32.1) of the patients in the no-ATG group and in 22.5% (95% CI, 15.1–30.8) of those in the ATG group (
p = 0.226) (Table
3 and Fig.
2b). The absence of the impact of ATG on relapse risk was confirmed in multivariate analyses (HR = 0.72, 95% CI, 0.46–1.12;
p = 0.149) (Table
5). No significant factor was associated with the risk of relapse in this study, although older age (>50 years) showed a trend to an increased risk (HR = 1.39, 95% CI, 0.96–2.00;
p = 0.083).
Use of ATG improved transplant survivals including GRFS
At 2 years, LFS and OS for in the entire cohort of patients were 58.4% (95% CI, 53.7–63.2) and 62.2% (95% CI, 57.4–67), respectively. In univariate analysis, 2-year LFS and OS were improved in the ATG group (66.8%; 95% CI, 58.1–75.6 and 71.8%; 95% CI, 63.4–80.2, respectively) in comparison to the no-ATG group (55.4%; 95% CI, 49.8–61 and 58.9%; 95% CI, 53.2–64.6, respectively) (
p = 0.044 and 0.049, respectively) (Table
3 and Fig.
2c, d). The beneficial impact of ATG on LFS and OS was confirmed in multivariate analyses (HR = 0.67, 95% CI, 0.46–0.95,
p = 0.027 for LFS and HR = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.44–0.95,
p = 0.027 for OS) (Table
5). The only other factor that also impacted transplant survivals was recipient older age (>50 years) resulting in impaired LFS (HR = 1.53, 95% CI, 1.15–2.05,
p = 0.004) and worse OS (HR = 1.42, 95% CI, 1.04–1.93,
p = 0.026) (Table
5).
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Two-year overall GRFS was 45.0% (95% CI, 40.1–49.8). In univariate analysis, patients of the ATG group had improved 2-year GRFS (60.1%, 95% CI, 51–69.3) compared those of the no-ATG group (39.6%, 95% CI, 34–45.1) (
p = 0.00016) (Table
3 and Fig.
3). Use of ATG was significantly associated with improved GRFS in multivariate analyses (HR = 0.51, 95% CI, 0.37–0.70,
p = 4 × 10
−5) (Table
5), while use of a female donor for a male recipient and recipient older age (>50 years) were associated with worse GRFS (HR = 1.62, 95% CI, 1.24–2.11,
p = 0.0004 and HR = 1.32, 95% CI, 1.02–1.71,
p = 0.037) (Table
5).
Fig. 3
GRFS according to the use of ATG
×
Discussion
The main challenge of allo-SCT in AML and other hematological malignancies remains to limit organ life-threatening toxicity while preserving the GVL effect and patients’ quality of life by avoiding severe chronic GVHD. The GVHD and relapse-free survival composite end point is becoming an important end point to improve in allo-SCT [
21,
23]. In this objective, while improvements in terms of tolerability of the transplant process have been shown in the last two decades by the development of reduced intensity and toxicity conditioning regimens and by improvement of supportive care including management of infections [
24], the increased use of PBSC grafts, reaching 70% of stem cell grafts used in Europe nowadays [
25], is also associated with higher incidence of severe cGVHD even with HLA-identical sibling donors [
11,
12,
26], thus potentially impairing GRFS. The Flu-ivBu4 RTC associated with PBSC graft has been reported as effective than conventional Bu-cyclophosphamide MAC regimen but with reduced short- and long-term non-relapse mortality in AML patients transplanted in CR1 with an HLA 10/10-matched related or unrelated donor [
8–
10]. However, the incidence of chronic GVHD with PBSC (80%) grafts from HLA-identical sibling donors, following such RTC in the absence of ATG, remains high with 68% overall cGVHD and 42% extensive cGVHD incidences at 4 years post-transplant reported recently by the Spanish Cooperative Transplant Group [
7]. The current study was limited to AML in CR1 transplanted with HLA-identical donors to reduce bias due to donor type and disease status on transplant outcomes. As reported in other contexts of allo-SCT [
14,
16,
17,
27–
30], we confirm in the present study that the addition of intermediate dose of thymoglobulin (median, 5 mg/kg) significantly reduces, after adjustment to other factors, the risk of developing cGVHD (Cox HR = 0.46,
p = 0.0001). Compared to patients not receiving ATG, those transplanted with ATG, despite having received more frequently PBSC, had a reduction of 2 years of cumulative incidence of the overall cGVHD from 52 to 31% (
p = 0.00026) and that of extensive cGVHD from 26 to 8% (
p < 10
−4). Such reduction of cGVHD incidence was not associated with reduced anti-leukemic control since use of ATG did not impact relapse incidence in this series of AML transplanted in CR1 in both univariate and multivariate analyses. Most patients had received a thymoglobulin dose of <6 mg/kg, so we could not analyze the impact of the ATG dose on outcomes. However, these results are in line with preserved GVL effect despite the addition of low or intermediate doses of ATG in the context of allo-SCT for AML performed with MRD and MUD following conventional MAC [
31,
32] and RIC [
29,
30,
33,
34], in contrast with increased risk of relapse with doses of thymoglobulin >10 mg/kg [
28].
By contrast, as reported by others [
15,
17,
30], we did not observe protective effect of such doses of ATG against acute GVHD. Actually, in the context of allo-SCT performed with PBSC from matched related or unrelated donors, use of low doses of ATG (2.5 mg/kg of thymoglobulin) was associated with an increased risk of aGVHD [
34,
35]; a reduction of the incidence of aGVHD has been observed with thymoglobulin doses starting at 5 mg/kg, although higher doses (≥7.5 mg/kg of thymoglobulin) were associated with increased risk of mortality from infections and relapse in both MAC and RIC settings [
28,
36]. The optimal dose of thymoglobulin in both RIC and MAC seems therefore to be about 5 mg/kg. At such intermediate dose of ATG, as described by others [
14,
15,
30,
37], we did not observe difference of infection-related mortality between the ATG and no-ATG groups, despite potential increased frequency of viral EBV reactivation manageable by viral load monitoring and preemptive use of rituximab [
30,
37].
Altogether, our results show that the addition of intermediate dose of ATG to the Flu-ivBu4 RTC represents an independent factor associated with improved GRFS, as defined by Ruggeri et al. for registry-based studies [
21], allowing a probability of being alive without disease and without significant cGVHD at 2 years after allo-SCT in 60% of the patients transplanted for AML in CR1 with a sibling donor, compared to 40% of those not receiving ATG. Although GRFS is not routinely analyzed up to now, a 2-year 60% GRFS compares favorably to 40% GRFS at 3 years reported after allo-SCT performed for AML transplanted in CR1 (79%) or CR2 (21%) with MAC (61%) or RIC and PBSC (82%) from HLA-matched related (55%) or unrelated (45%) donors within the EBMT registry [
21], and to 25% at 1 year reported with PBSC HLA-sibling donor allo-SCT by the Minnesota Group [
23].
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Use of ATG in our series appears also as an independent factor associated with improved LFS and OS, mainly due to reduced incidence of overall and extensive cGVHD leading to a trend towards increased late NRM in the absence of ATG. Although a center effect was observed in the incidence of cGVHD and NRM, possibly due to preferential used of ATG and of prophylactic donor lymphocyte infusion in some centers, we did not detect a center effect on LFS, OS, and GRFS. The only other factor associated with worse survivals was recipient age above 50 years, due to higher NRM, as reported by others with such conditioning regimen [
7].
Conclusions
We recognize that this study has several limitations, mainly because of its retrospective aspect and that the reason for the choice of GVHD prophylaxis was not known but mainly dependent on the center’s protocols. However, the study was performed on a homogeneous cohort of AML patients transplanted in CR1 with HLA-identical sibling donors following a Flu-ivBu4 RTC. Despite these limitations, the results of this study suggest that, in this particular setting, an intermediate dose of ATG improves the composite end point severe GVHD and relapse-free survival by reducing the incidence of overall and chronic GVHD without affecting the long-term anti-leukemic effect. These results should be confirmed in a well-designed phase III randomized trial.
Acknowledgements
Not applicable.
Funding
Not applicable.
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Availability of data and materials
ML, MM, and AN had full access to all the data in the study (available upon data specific request).
Authors’ contributions
MTR, BNS, ML, and AN designed the research and/or analyzed data. RMH, MAS, DB, HO, ED, CRE, SS, GI, IYA, MY, and JLDM provided the clinical data. MTR, MD, BNS, ML, and AN wrote the manuscript, and all authors approved the final version of the manuscript. A complete list of contributors, as well as members of the European Blood and Marrow Transplantation Group, appears on the online data supplement. MTR, MDP, BNS, MM ,and AN had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Ethics approval and consent to participate
The study protocol was approved by the institutional review board at each site and complied with country-specific regulatory requirements. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and Good Clinical Practice guidelines. Patients provide informed consent authorizing the use of their personal information for research purposes.
Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
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Impact of in vivo T cell depletion in HLA-identical allogeneic stem cell transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia in first complete remission conditioned with a fludarabine iv-busulfan myeloablative regimen: a report from the EBMT Acute Leukemia Working Party
Autoren:
Marie Thérèse Rubio Maud D’Aveni-Piney Myriam Labopin Rose-Marie Hamladji Miguel A. Sanz Didier Blaise Hakan Ozdogu Etienne Daguindeau Carlos Richard Stella Santarone Giuseppe Irrera Ibrahim Yakoub-Agha Moshe Yeshurun Jose L. Diez-Martin Mohamad Mohty Bipin N Savani Arnon Nagler
