HCT Provides Long-Term Survival in CML

HONOLULU—According to a study of late transplant outcomes for more than 6,500 chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients, those patients alive in remission 5 years after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) enjoy relatively low rates of subsequent disease relapse and death. In fact, their mortality eventually approaches that of the general population, said Douglas Rizzo, MD, MS, associate professor of medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Rizzo and his colleagues presented the data on behalf of the Chronic Leukemia Committee of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) at the Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT) Tandem Meetings (abstract 40).

A total of 2,954 patients were alive and in continuing remission for 5 years or longer after HCT using donor (related or unrelated) hematopoietic stem cells. For those patients, estimated 15-year survival is 87%, the study showed. An estimated 10% of 5-year survivors experience late relapse of their disease by 15 years after HCT.

"Patients who live beyond the early transplant complications without relapse can expect to have very good long-term survival," Dr. Rizzo commented. "Our study shows that HCT is a proven therapy that offers durable long-term survival without recurrence of CML for a substantial percentage of people with this serious disease."