The randomized, phase 3 ALFA-0701 trial showed that a reduced and fractionated dose of gemtuzumab ozogamicin added to standard front-line chemotherapy significantly improves event-free survival in adults with de novo acute myeloid leukemia. Here we report an independent review of event-free survival, final overall survival, and additional safety results from ALFA-0701. Patients (N=271) aged 50-70 years with de novo acute myeloid leukemia were randomized to receive conventional front-line induction chemotherapy (3+7 daunorubicin+cytarabine) with/without gemtuzumab ozogamicin 3 mg/m2 on days 1, 4, and 7 during induction. Patients in remission following induction therapy received 2 courses of consolidation therapy (daunorubicin+cytarabine) with/without gemtuzumab ozogamicin (3 mg/2;/day on day 1) according to their initial randomization. The primary endpoint was investigator-assessed event-free survival. Secondary endpoints included overall survival and safety. A blinded independent review confirmed the investigator-assessed event-free survival results (August 1, 2011; hazard ratio, 0.66 [95% CI, 0.49-0.89]; 2-sided p=0.006), corresponding to a 34% reduction in risk of events in the gemtuzumab ozogamicin versus control arm. Final overall survival (April 30, 2013) favored gemtuzumab ozogamicin but was not significant. No differences were observed between arms in early death rate. The main toxicity associated with gemtuzumab ozogamicin was prolonged thrombocytopenia. Veno-occlusive disease (including after transplant) was observed in 6 patients in the gemtuzumab ozogamicin arm and 2 in the control arm. In conclusion, gemtuzumab ozogamicin added to standard intensive chemotherapy has a favorable benefit/risk ratio. These results expand front-line treatment options for adult patients with previously untreated acute myeloid leukemia. (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00927498).

GLS greater than -17.45%, obtained after 150 mg/m2 of anthracycline therapy, is an independent predictor of future anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity. These findings should encourage physicians to perform echocardiography earlier during treatment with anthracyclines.

In this study, we aimed to refine prognostication of older with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) after intensive chemotherapy. Five hundred and nine patients aged 60 years or older (median age, 68 years) were prospectively enrolled in the intensive Acute Leukemia French Association (ALFA)-1200 trial between 2012 and 2016, and 471 patient samples were submitted to multigene analysis. Mutations in any of 8 genes frequently altered in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), including ASXL1, SRSF2, STAG2, BCOR, U2AF1, EZH2, SF3B1, and ZRSR2, defined a secondary AML (sAML)-like disease, as reported. Of the samples analyzed, 48% included sAML-like gene mutations. These mutations were associated with a shorter event-free survival, both overall (hazard ratio, 1.46; 95% confidence interval, 1.19-1.79; P < .001) and within the European LeukemiaNet (ELN)-2017 intermediate-risk subgroup (hazard ratio, 1.52; 95% confidence interval, 1.01-2.28; P = .044), which excludes ASXL1-mutated cases by definition. We therefore included patients with intermediate-risk AML carrying sAML-like mutations in a single high-risk patients group together with adverse-risk patients with AML, whereas other intermediate-risk patients were included in a standard-risk group together with favorable-risk patients (high-risk/standard-risk patient ratio, 1.00). Using this 2-class risk assessment, we observed that transplantation prolonged overall survival from remission in patients with high-risk AML only, not in patients with standard-risk AML. Routine analysis of sAML-like gene mutations may thus improve the definition of high-risk older patients with AML, and better identify the half of older patients who clearly derive survival benefit from allogeneic transplantation in first remission. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT01966497.

We analysed the prognostic significance of minimal residual disease (MRD) level in adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) treated in the randomized gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO) ALFA-0701 trial.Levels of WT1 and NPM1 gene transcripts were assessed using cDNA-based real-time quantitative PCR in 183 patients with WT1 overexpression and in 77 patients with NMP1 mutation (NPM1mut) at diagnosis.Positive WT1 MRD (defined as > 0.5% in the peripheral blood) after induction and at the end of treatment were both significantly associated with a higher risk of relapse and a shorter overall survival (OS). Positive NPM1mut MRD (defined as > 0.1% in the bone marrow) after induction and at the end of treatment also predicted a higher risk of relapse, but did not influence OS. Interestingly, the achievement of a negative NPM1mut MRD was significantly more frequent in patients treated in the GO arm compared to those treated in control arm (39% versus 7% (p=0.006) after induction and 91% versus 61% (p=0.028) at the end of treatment). However, GO did not influence WT1 MRD levels.Our study supports the prognostic significance of MRD assessed by WT1 and NPM1mut transcript levels and show that NPM1 MRD is decreased by GO treatment.

DDX41 germline mutations (DDX41MutGL) are the most common genetic predisposition to myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Recent reports suggest that DDX41MutGL myeloid malignancies could be considered as a distinct entity, even if their specific presentation and outcome remain to be defined. We described here the clinical and biological features of 191 patients with DDX41MutGL AML. Baseline characteristics and outcome of 86 of them, treated with intensive chemotherapy in 5 prospective ALFA/FILO trials were compared with those of 1604 DDX41 wild-type (DDX41WT) AML patients, representing a prevalence of 5%. DDX41MutGL AML patients were mostly males (75%) in their seventh decade, with low leukocyte count (median, 2x109/L), low bone marrow blast infiltration (median, 33%), normal cytogenetics (75%) and few additional somatic mutations (median, 2). A second somatic DDX41 mutation (DDX41MutSom) was found in 82% of patients and clonal architecture inference suggested that it could be the main driver for AML progression. DDX41MutGL patients displayed higher complete remission (CR) rates (94% vs. 69%, p<0.0001) and longer restricted mean overall survival (OS) censored at hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) than ELN-2017 intermediate/adverse (Int/Adv) DDX41WT patients (5-year ΔRMST of 13.6 months, p < 0.001). Relapse rates censored at HSCT were lower at 1 year in DDX41MutGL patients (15% vs. 44%) but later increased to join that of Int/Adv DDX41WT patients at 3 years (82% vs 75%). HSCT in first CR was associated with prolonged relapse-free survival (RFS; HR, 0.43 [95%CI, 0.21-0.88]; p = 0.02) but not with longer OS (HR=0.77 [95%CI, 0.35-1.68], p=0.5).

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a highly heterogeneous disease both in terms of genetic background and response to chemotherapy. Although molecular aberrations are routinely used to stratify AML patients into prognostic subgroups when receiving standard chemotherapy, the predictive value of the genetic background and co-occurring mutations remains to be assessed when using newly approved antileukemic drugs. In the present study, we retrospectively addressed the question of the predictive value of molecular events on the benefit of the addition of gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO) to standard front-line chemotherapy. Using the more recent European LeukemiaNet (ELN) 2017 risk classification, we confirmed that the benefit of GO was restricted to the favorable (hazard ratio [HR], 0.54, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.30-0.98) and intermediate (HR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.33-1.00) risk categories, whereas it did not influence the outcome of patients within the adverse risk subgroup (HR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.61-1.43). Interestingly, the benefit of GO was significant for patients with activating signaling mutations (HR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.28-0.65), which correlated with higher CD33 expression levels. These results suggest that molecular aberrations could be critical for future differentially tailored treatments based on integrated genetic profiles that are able to predict the benefit of GO on outcome.

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A multistage model instructed by a large dataset (knowledge bank [KB] algorithm) has recently been developed to improve outcome prediction and tailor therapeutic decision, including hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in AML. We assessed the performance of the KB in guiding HSCT decision in first complete remission (CR1) in 656 AML patients younger than 60 years from the ALFA-0702 trial (NCT00932412). KB predictions of Overall Survival (OS) were superior to those of European LeukemiaNet (ELN) 2017 risk stratification (C-index 68.9 versus 63.0). Among patients reaching CR1, HSCT in CR1, as a time-dependent covariate was detrimental in those with favorable ELN 2017 risk and those with negative NPM1 MRD (interaction tests P=0.01 and P=0.02, respectively). Using KB simulations of survival at 5 years in a scenario without HSCT in CR1 (KB score), we identified in a similar time-dependent analysis a significant interaction between the KB score and HSCT, with HSCT in CR1 being detrimental only in patients with a good prognosis based on KB simulations (KB score ≥40, interaction test P=0.01). We could finally integrate ELN 2017, NPM1 MRD and KB scores to sort 545 CR1 patients into 278 (51.0%) HSCT candidates and 267 (49.0%) chemo-only candidates. In both time-dependent and 6-month landmark analyses, HSCT significantly improved OS in HSCT candidates while it significantly shortened OS in chemo-only candidates. Integrating KB predictions with ELN 2017 and MRD may thus represent a promising approach to optimize HSCT timing in younger AML patients.