Clinical and biological characteristics of acute myeloid leukemia with 20–29% blasts: a retrospective single-center study. Issue 5 (16th April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mei, Chen; Ren, Yanling; Zhou, Xinping; Ye, Li; Ma, Liya; Luo, Yingwan; Lin, Peipei; Xu, Weilai; Lu, Chenxi; Yang, Haiyang; Yu, Wenjuan; Mao, Liping; Wei, Juying; Jin, Jie; Tong, Hongyan
• Is Part Of: Leukemia & lymphoma. Volume 60:Issue 5(2019)
• Page Start: 1136
• Page End: 1145
• Publication Date: 2019-04-16
• Subjects: AML -- MDS -- BM blast; Leukemia -- Periodicals; Lymphomas -- Periodicals; 616.99419
• DOI: 10.1080/10428194.2018.1515938
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1042-8194

Abstract

Abstract: It is controversial whether acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients with 20–29% bone marrow (BM) blasts should be considered AML or myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). We retrospectively studied 382 patients, including 108 AML with 20–29% BM blasts (AML20–29), 210 AML with ≥30% BM blasts (AML ≥ 30), and 64 MDS with 10–19% BM blasts (MDS-EB2). We found that AML20–29 were more similar to MDS-EB2 in terms of advanced age, less blood count, the increased presence of poor-risk cytogenetics. The frequency of mutated genes in AML20–29 had both the characters of AML and MDS. Median overall survival of AML20–29 and MDS-EB2 were similar and shorter than those of AML ≥ 30 ( p = .045). Multivariate analysis showed inferior survival with increased age, low platelet count and FLT3 mutations. Our findings suggest that AML20–29 have clinical features more similar to MDS than AML.