Clinical Features and Survival According to Minimal Residual Disease in a Colombian Population Diagnosed with B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Introduction

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a clonal hematopoietic disorder that originates from B or T lymphoid progenitors and has well validated prognostic and predictive factors that influence outcomes. One of the strongest prognostic factors is the detection of minimal residual disease (MRD) which measures residual cell population after treatment when a morphologic complete response has been achieved. MRD positivity is associated with a higher risk of relapse and poor response to chemo or radiotherapy

Objectives

The aim of the study was to assess the prognostic impact of post-induction MRD status in a cohort of ALL Colombian patients in terms of relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS).

Methods

This is a retrospective observational study conducted at a Colombian university hospital and included a cohort of ALL patients diagnosed between 2013 and 2020 treatment according to protocol PETHEMA (Spanish Program for Hematology Treatments). MRD was measured with 8-color flow cytometry evaluate on bone marrow. MRD status was classified as negative MRD (NMRD) or positive MRD (PMRD) based on a sensitivity threshold of <0,01% or ≥0,01% leukemic cells, respectively, following to international guides. Demographic and clinical characteristics were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Kaplan-Meier method was used to assess overall RFS and OS.

Results

A total 128 patients were included. The median age at diagnosis was 34 years (range 0-89 years), 54% were men, 26% were overweight, 22% obese, 6.2% had type 2 DM (T2DM), and most had a ECOG PS of £2 (94%). Most patients (80.5%) had high risk according PETHEMA, B-ALL and were classified as ALL-2 (58%) according to FAB classification with Pre-B cell ALL being the most common phenotype (54.7%). Ph+ ALL was diagnosed in 12% of patients. Most used treatments protocols were PETHEMA-AR and PETHEMA-RI in 43.8% and 11.6% of patients, respectively. Post-induction MRD measurement was available in 98 patients, 36 (36.7%) had NMRD and 62 (63.3%) PMRD. From the 36 patients with NMRD, eight patients (22.2%) received Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (alloHSCT): two of them, were transplanted in first complete remission, one because of high risk and the other one for BCR-ABL positivity. The other six patients received alloHSCT in second remission and all of them relapsed after late consolidations. Finally, alloHSCT was done in 28 patients with PMRD (45.2%).

The 12-month OS for patients with NMRD was 68.7% (95%CI 50.5-81.2) compared to 63.7% (95%CI 50.3-74.4) in the ones with PMRD, p=0.375. 12-month RFS was 83.3% (95%CI 61.5-93.4) in patients with NMRD and 90.0% (95%CI 72.1-96.7) in patients with PMRD, p=0.436. (Figure 1). OS was significantly higher for the PMRD patients who underwent AlloHSCT 96.4% (95%CI 77.2-99.4) versus not underwent 36.8% (95%CI 20.6-53.2), HR: 0.39 (95%CI 0.005-0.29) p=0.002 (Figure 2).

Conclusion

MRD assessment is a strong prognostic in ALL, however it was not associated with significant differences in RFS or OS in this single institution cohort of Colombian patients. Patients with PMRD taken to AlloHSCT had superior OS compared to NMRD that underwent transplant. A small sample size and short follow-up could explain our results. Larger cohorts with extended follow up and with different MRD methods are needed to better understand the role of MRD assessment in minority ALL populations, such as Colombian patients.

Figure 1

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Figure 1

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