OBJECTIVES:
To evaluate the effects of epoetin (EPO) alfa treatment on overall survival, event-free survival and response duration in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) who were treated at a haematological referral centre in northeastern Brazil.
METHODS:
This was a retrospective cohort study of 36 patients diagnosed with MDS and treated with EPO alfa at 30,000 to 60,000 IU per week. Clinical data were collected from medical records. The events assessed were non-response to treatment and progression to acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism 7 and SPSS 24 software.
RESULTS:
The overall survival of patients who received EPO alfa treatment was 51.64%, with a median of 65 months of treatment, and the overall survival of this group was 100% during the first 24 months. We detected a 43.5-month median event-free survival, with a response rate of 80.5%. We observed responses from 25 to 175 months. Patients with transfusion dependence and those with a high-risk stratification, as determined by the International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS), the Revised International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R), the WHO classification-based Prognostic Scoring System (WPSS) and the WHO 2016, had a lower event-free survival than other patients.
CONCLUSIONS:
Despite the wide use of EPO alfa in the treatment of anaemia in patients with MDS, the median response duration is approximately only 24 months. Our data provide encouraging results concerning the benefits of using EPO alfa for the improvement of the quality of life, as patients treated with EPO showed higher overall survival, event-free survival rates and longer response durations than have been previously described in the literature.
It has been suggested that bridging therapy with intensive chemotherapy and/or hypomethylating agents followed by hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) can be valuable in the treatment of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). However, the influence of this approach on HSCT outcomes remains poorly defined. Therefore, our objective was to investigate the influence of treatment before HSCT in patients with MDS. We retrospectively analyzed data from the Latin American registry of 258 patients from 17 Latin American centers who underwent HSCT from 1988 to 2019. Our data showed that there was pre-HSCT. We detected no significant difference regarding the impact on overall survival of treated and untreated patients before HSCT. Despite these data, the type of previous treatment among treated patients showed a significant difference in overall survival. Treatment with hypomethylating agents together with pre-HSCT chemotherapy seems to result in better survival of the studied population. These data correspond to the first results obtained through cooperative work between various centers in Latin America comparing
This is an observational and cross-sectional study, carried out in May 2020, targeting adult individuals of both sexes who are members of multiprofessional teams working in Brazilian HSCT units in the current period of the pandemic by completing and analyzing a questionnaire. pre-formulated. HSCT units that cannot access the questionnaire were excluded from the study. The analysis of the operation profile of HSCT units in Brazil, through the application of a pre-structured questionnaire, is not an accurate tool, since it assumes some premises that may prove to be wrong, especially in this current scenario in Brazil. However, the data reveal the vulnerability of patients with onco-hematological diseases to infection by COVID-19, especially during HSCT procedures, in relation to the general population. Despite its limitations, it can be valuable to plan policies.
Secondary Acute Myeloid Leukemia (s-AML) refers to the development of leukemia after cytotoxic therapy, immunosuppressive therapy, radiation or an antecedent hematological disorder, such as Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS). A s-AML corresponds to 10% to 30% of AML cases and is defined by the presence of at least 20% of blast cells, representing a category of disease with a poor prognosis. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (Allo-HSCT) is the only option with curative potential for patients with s-AML, but recurrence after HSCT emerges as a frequent cause of treatment failure and course with high mortality. We report the case of a patient with s-AML after MDS, who underwent HSCT due to refractoriness to other treatments, recovering the bone marrow with dysplasia, being classified as AREB1.
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