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The most effective treatment for high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Nevertheless, only 40–50% of patients become long-term survivors with no relapse and/or chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGvHD). Recently, HSCT has become more feasible in older patients due to reduced-intensity conditioning regimens. Despite the advances in treatments, relapse remains a key cause of transplantation failure.1
In a study published in Blood Advances by Pierini et al.,1 a combination of myeloablative conditioning with regulatory and conventional T-cell immunotherapy was investigated for patients with AML. The findings from this study are summarized here.
The phase II clinical trial (NCT03977103), conducted in Italy, included 50 patients with AML. The patients were aged <75 years (range, 20–65 years) with an ECOG status ≤2 and the availability of an HLA-matched donor family member.
The conditioning regimen was total body irradiation (TBI) in patients ≤50 years of age and total marrow/lymphoid irradiation (TMLI) for patients aged 51–65 years or unfit for TBI. Patients received an age-adapted myeloablative conditioning regimen based on TBI, either fractionated (nine fractions delivered twice a day for 4.5 days; total dose, 13.5 Gy) or a single dose of 8 Gy for those aged <50 years or based on TMLI for those aged 51–65 years. TBI or TMLI were followed by thiotepa (5–10 mg/kg), fludarabine (150–200 mg/m2), and cyclophosphamide (30 mg/kg) (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Transplantation schema*
*Figure adapted from Pierini et al.1
Five patients had favorable risk, 22 intermediate risk, and 20 adverse genetic risk leukemia (see Table 1). Measurable disease at transplantation by cytogenic, immunophenotypic, and/or molecular analyses was observed in 33 patients. Eight patients underwent transplantation with active disease and 42 while in hematologic complete remission.
Table 1. Baseline characteristics*
AML, acute myeloid leukemia; CR, complete remission; DRI, Disease Risk Index; HCT-CI, Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation–Specific Comorbidity Index; HSCT, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; MRD, measurable residual disease; NA, not applicable; PIF, primary induction failure; TBI, total body irradiation; TMLI, total marrow/lymphoid irradiation. |
||||
Characteristic |
TBI based |
TMLI based |
Total |
p value |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sex, female |
11 |
13 |
24 |
0.87 |
Median age, years (range) |
33 (20–50) |
56 (38–65) |
53 (20–65) |
0.01 |
Genetic stratification at diagnosis (%) |
|
|
|
|
Other risk factors (%) |
|
|
|
|
Disease status at HSCT (%) |
|
|
|
|
DRI (%) |
|
|
|
|
HCT-CI risk score (%) |
|
|
|
|
The majority of conditioning regimen-related adverse events (AEs) were Grade 1–2. One patient developed Grade 5 central nervous system toxicity and died. Two patients died of septic shock. Febrile neutropenia was experienced by all patients during the aplastic phase. There were 19 cases of sepsis observed in a total of 65 febrile neutropenia events. Organ-specific toxicities were reported in all patients (Table 2). Twenty-two of 50 patients had cytomegalovirus reactivations or cytomegalovirus detection in tissue biopsies.
Table 2. Organ-specific toxicities*,†
CNS, central nervous system; TBI, total body irradiation; TMLI, total marrow/lymphoid irradiation. †Data from Pierini et al.1 |
||||||||
|
Grade 2 |
Grade 3 |
Grade 4 |
Grade 5 |
||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
TBI |
TMLI
|
TBI
|
TMLI |
TBI |
TMLI |
TBI |
TMLI |
|
Oral cavity |
68 |
81 |
32 |
19 |
— |
— |
— |
— |
CNS |
— |
6 |
— |
6 |
— |
— |
— |
3 |
Hepatic |
5 |
10 |
— |
3 |
16 |
6 |
— |
— |
Gastric |
95 |
94 |
5 |
6 |
— |
— |
— |
— |
Intestinal |
58 |
68 |
42 |
32 |
— |
— |
— |
— |
Renal |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
Pulmonary |
32 |
35 |
5 |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
Bladder |
— |
6 |
5 |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
Cardiac |
32 |
10 |
5 |
— |
— |
— |
— |
— |
The study achieved notably low leukemia relapse and cGvHD rates in patients with AML. This was achieved even though the majority of patients were aged 50–65 years, suggesting that T cell-depleted haploidentical HSCT with TMLI-based conditioning and Treg/Tcon immunotherapy may be applied in patients who are not eligible for standard myeloablative conditioning regimens due to their age. The findings from this study need to be challenged further in a larger, multicenter trial.
References
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