Killer immunoglobulin-like receptor (KIR) ligand incompatibility in the graft-versushost direction was demonstrated to be associated with improved outcome in patients given haploidentical, T-celldepleted hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCTs). The goal of this study was to evaluate whether that observation could be generalized for patients receiving unmanipulated HSCTs from unrelated donors (URD). One hundred thirty patients with hematologic malignancies entered the study. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis was uniform and consisted of cyclosporin, short-term methotrexate, and pretransplantation antithymocyte globulin (ATG). Patients were divided into those with (n ‫؍‬ 20) and those without (n ‫؍‬ 110) KIR ligand incompatibility with respect to their donors. At 4.5 years patients with KIR ligand incompatibility had higher probability of overall survival (87% versus 48%, P ‫؍‬ .006) and disease-free survival (87% versus 39%, P ‫؍‬ .0007) compared with those without KIR ligand incompatibility. Transplantrelated mortality for the 2 groups equaled 6% and 40% (P ‫؍‬ .01), respectively. Relapse rates for patients receiving transplants from a donor with or without KIR ligand incompatibility were 6% and 21%, respectively (P ‫؍‬ .07). All patients with myeloid malignancies receiving transplants from KIR ligand-disparate donors (n ‫؍‬ 13) are alive and disease free. These data indicate that natural killer (NK) cell alloreactivity is associated with better outcome after URD-HSC transplantation when ATG is used as part of GVHD prophylaxis. (Blood. 2003;102:814-819)

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The addition of cladribine to the standard induction regimen is associated with increased rate of complete remission and improved survival of adult patients with AML.

Key Points Using EBMT data in >2000 patients from 1994 to 2015, we analyzed the development and factors influencing outcomes of HSCT for ADs. Transplant center experience, accreditation, and national socioeconomic factors are relevant for outcomes and future health service delivery.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) remains the therapeutic method with the most potent anti-leukemic activity mediated by the graft versus leukemia effect. However, a significant proportion of patients with AML will relapse after allo-SCT. The prognosis for these patients is dismal, with a probability of long-term survival of <20%. Data from previous studies have shown that disease-specific prognostic factors, are in general, the same as those in patients treated with conventional chemotherapy. Minimal residual disease (MRD) and chimerism status monitoring after allo-SCT may be used as predictors of impending relapse and should be part of routine follow-up for AML patients. A significant number of studies have shown that pre-emptive administration of donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) based on MRD and chimerism monitoring, as well as prophylactic DLI in AML patients at high risk of relapse is effective in preventing relapse. In this review, we discuss strategies for the identification of high-risk patients, review current therapeutic options and provide our recommendations for the management of post-SCT AML.

A B S T R A C T PurposeAllogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) is potentially curative for acute leukemia (AL), but carries considerable risk. Machine learning algorithms, which are part of the data mining (DM) approach, may serve for transplantation-related mortality risk prediction. Patients and MethodsThis work is a retrospective DM study on a cohort of 28,236 adult HSCT recipients from the AL registry of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. The primary objective was prediction of overall mortality (OM) at 100 days after HSCT. Secondary objectives were estimation of nonrelapse mortality, leukemia-free survival, and overall survival at 2 years. Donor, recipient, and procedural characteristics were analyzed. The alternating decision tree machine learning algorithm was applied for model development on 70% of the data set and validated on the remaining data. ResultsOM prevalence at day 100 was 13.9% (n ϭ 3,936). Of the 20 variables considered, 10 were selected by the model for OM prediction, and several interactions were discovered. By using a logistic transformation function, the crude score was transformed into individual probabilities for 100-day OM (range, 3% to 68%). The model's discrimination for the primary objective performed better than the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation score (area under the receiver operating characteristics curve, 0.701 v 0.646; P Ͻ .001). Calibration was excellent. Scores assigned were also predictive of secondary objectives. ConclusionThe alternating decision tree model provides a robust tool for risk evaluation of patients with AL before HSCT, and is available online (http://bioinfo.lnx.biu.ac.il/ϳbondi/web1.html). It is presented as a continuous probabilistic score for the prediction of day 100 OM, extending prediction to 2 years. The DM method has proved useful for clinical prediction in HSCT.

We compared outcomes from a single-arm study of blinatumomab in adult patients with B-precursor Ph-negative relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (R/R ALL) with a historical data set from Europe and the United States. Estimates of complete remission (CR) and overall survival (OS) were weighted by the frequency distribution of prognostic factors in the blinatumomab trial. Outcomes were also compared between the trial and historical data using propensity score methods. The historical cohort included 694 patients with CR data and 1112 patients with OS data compared with 189 patients with CR and survival data in the blinatumomab trial. The weighted analysis revealed a CR rate of 24% (95% CI: 20–27%) and a median OS of 3.3 months (95% CI: 2.8–3.6) in the historical cohort compared with a CR/CRh rate of 43% (95% CI: 36–50%) and a median OS of 6.1 months (95% CI: 4.2–7.5) in the blinatumomab trial. Propensity score analysis estimated increased odds of CR/CRh (OR=2.68, 95% CI: 1.67–4.31) and improved OS (HR=0.536, 95% CI: 0.394–0.730) with blinatumomab. The analysis demonstrates the application of different study designs and statistical methods to compare novel therapies for R/R ALL with historical data.