Post-Transplantation Cyclophosphamide-Based Graft- versus-Host Disease Prophylaxis with Nonmyeloablative Conditioning for Blood or Marrow Transplantation for Myelofibrosis

Abstract

We describe outcomes after post-transplantation cyclophosphamide and nonmyeloablative conditioning-based allogeneic blood or marrow transplantation for myelofibrosis using matched or mismatched related or unrelated donors. The conditioning regimen consisted of fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and total body irradiation. Forty-two patients were included, with a median age of 63 years, of whom 19% had Dynamic International Prognostic Scoring System (DIPSS)-plus intermediate-1 risk, 60% had intermediate-2 risk, and 21% had high-risk disease, and 60% had at least 1 high-risk somatic mutation. More than 90% of patients engrafted neutrophils, at a median of 19.5 days, and 7% experienced graft failure. At 1 year and 3 years, respectively, overall survival was 65% and 60%, relapse-free survival was 65% and 31%, relapse was 5% and 40%, and nonrelapse mortality was 30% and 30%. Acute graft-versus-host disease grade 3-4 was seen in 17% of patients at 1 year, and chronic graft-versus-host disease requiring systemic therapy in occurred in 12% patients. Spleen size ≥17 cm or prior splenectomy was associated with inferior relapse-free survival (hazard ratio [HR], 3.50; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.18 to 10.37; P = .02) and higher relapse rate (subdistribution HR [SDHR] not calculable; P = .01). Age >60 years (SDHR, 0.26; 95% CI, 0.08 to 0.80, P = .02) and receipt of peripheral blood grafts (SDHR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.11 to 0.99; P = .05) were associated with a lower risk of relapse. In our limited sample, the presence of a high-risk mutation was not statistically significantly associated with an inferior outcome, although ASXL1 was suggestive of inferior survival (SDHR, 2.36; 95% CI, 0.85 to 6.6; P = .09). Overall, this approach shows outcomes comparable those of to previously reported approaches and underscores the importance of spleen size in the evaluation of transplantation candidates.

Keywords: Myelofibrosis; Nonmyeloablative conditioning; Post-transplantation cyclophosphamide.