10-year real-world data on acute myeloid leukemia: The paradigm of a public health center in Brazil.

Abstract

e19022 Background: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease with different predominant molecular pathways. The last few years have witnessed great advances in targeted therapy. There are several trials in developed countries evaluating clinical outcomes. Nevertheless, data from low and middle-income (LMIC) countries frequently describe inferior results. Methods: This was a retrospective single-center cohort conducted in a university hospital in Northeast Brazil. We have analyzed the outcomes of all 62 patients diagnosed with AML between 2007 and 2017. Patients were classified using the European LeukemiaNet 2017 model into favorable (n=8), intermediate (n=18), and adverse risk (n= 7). 29 were not otherwise classified because of the absence of cytogenetic and/or molecular tests. We used logistic regression for data analysis assessing death as the outcome. Survival measures were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. The impact of bone marrow transplant (BMT) on patients eligible for intensive treatment on overall survival (OS) was assessed using a Cox proportional hazards model. Results: The median OS (mOS) of the entire cohort was 7 months (CI: 3.14-10.85). Stratifying by the risk, the mOS was shorter in patients with unknown and adverse risk (3 and 5 months, respectively) than in favorable and intermediate risk (22 and 11 months, respectively, P = 0.05). 16 (38%) patients were submitted to allogeneic BMT. We found a survival advantage (hazard ratio, HR: 0.32, 95% CI: 0.15-0.71) – p=0.005) in transplant patients, with superior median overall survival (mOS) (49 months) when compared with the chemotherapy group (6 months) ( P = 0.003). A total of 48 (77%) patients died during the follow-up and most deaths (n=39, 81%) occurred during the first year of diagnosis. Univariate analysis of clinical and laboratory characteristics found no association with death. A multivariate model including AML origin, risk stratification, and alloBMT as predictor variables demonstrated the protective power of alloBMT (table). Conclusions: Inferior outcomes found in LMIC are the result of a multifactorial scenario that reflects the absence of proper diagnostic tools, hospital infrastructure, and the lack of more effective and less toxic therapies. We suggest that patients with inadequate risk assessment should undergo consolidation with alloBMT as this remains the primary curative intervention in the real-world setting of LMIC. [Table: see text]