Introduction: The use of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in leukemia treatment is associated with high early morbid-mortality rates. Therefore, to identify morbid-mortality risk factors in this setting can be useful to improve therapeutic ratio.
Methods: We studied 15 variables in 46 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treated with cyclophosphamide, total body irradiation (TBI) and allogeneic BMT. A multivariant analysis with an unconditional logistic regression model was used.
Results: Variables found to be related with early mortality included general state of health and acute graft versus host disease. Patients with a Karnofsky index (KI) between 60% and 80% had a higher risk of early death than those with a KI between 90 and 100%. Patients who developed severe (grade II-IV) acute graft versus host disease (AGVHD), had a relative risk of 15.62 (IC 95%: 3.16-77.34) compared with those who do not. Time between diagnosis and BMT contributed to the creation of the mathematical model without reaching statistical significance.
Conclusions: In this series and in the range of the parameters analysed, general state of health according to KI, and the appearance of severe AGVHD are the variables related with a higher risk of early mortality.