The Lost or Absence of MRD<0.1% at Any Time after 2 Cycles of Consolidation Chemotherapy in CBFB-MYH11-Positive Acute Myeloid Leukemia Indicates Poor Prognosis

Objective: To investigate the long-term prognostic factors of CBFB-MYH11-positive acute myeloid leukemia in low、 intermediate risk patients.

Methods:58 CBFB-MYH11-positive patients were analyzed retrospectively in 1525 acute myeloid leukemia patients who were diagnosed in Peking University Institute of Hematology from October 2013 to August 2018, and the clinical feature、induction remission rate and survival were compared.

Results: 58 (8%) patients with CBFB-MYH11-positive were found in 1525 newly diagnosed actue myeloid leukemia, 41 males and 17 females were included. The median age was 38(17-66) years , and median follow-up time was 29.8(4.8-74.4)months, 25(43.1%) patients received allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, in which there were 10 patients with c-kit mutation. According to the NCCN guideline, there were 40 patients in low risk group and 18 patients in intermediate risk group (16 patients with c-kit mutation). The rate of complete remission (CR) in the first induction chemotherapy was 98.3%(57/58), the cumulative remission rate of two cycles was 100%, the relapse rate was 25.9%(15/58), and the mortality rate was 19.0% (11 ≤ 58). After 1 and 2 cycles of consolidation, the level of CBFB-MYH11/ABL decreased to less than 0.18% and 0.094% respectively, which were related to the low recurrence rate. Among the 33 patients who did not undergo allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation after two courses of consolidation, the recurrence rate of patients with CBFB-MYH11/ABL level > 0.1% (n =21) was significantly higher than that of patients with < 0.1% (n = 12) (61.9% VS 0%, P =0. 001), and the relapse-free survival(RFS) (3-year RFS rate 37.6% VS 100%, P =0.005 ) 、event-free survival (EFS)(3-year EFS rate 33. 3% VS 100%, P = 0.004) were significantly decreased. The RFS and EFS were lower than those of patients received allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (n=25) (3-year RFS rate 31.4% VS 84.6%, P = 0.000; 3-year EFS rate 31.4% VS 76.0%, P =0.004).

Conclusions: To the CBFB-MYH11-positive acute myeloid leukemia patients, if the level of CBFB-MYH11/ABL gene presented more than 0.1% at any time after 2 cycles of consolidation, poor prognosis was related to, and allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation could improve the survival.