The prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with normal karyotype is further determined by specific genetic alterations. The optimal post-remission therapy (PRT) in younger patients within this group after first complete remission (CR1) remains to be determined. We report a retrospective evaluation of PRT approaches in 223 patients under the age of 60 years old with intermediate-risk AML in CR1. Patients receiving allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT) obtained improved overall survival (OS) than patients who treated with chemotherapy (5-year 61.6 ± 5.2% versus 41.1 ± 5.3%, p = 0.004). AlloHSCT led to fewer cases of relapse (hazard ratio [HR] 0.14, p < 0.001) and increased the relapse-free survival (RFS, HR 0.45, p < 0.001). With alloHSCT, the outcome of patients who reached negative minimal residual disease after 2 cycles of consolidation could be further improved with an increased OS of 66% and RFS of 61%. Nucleophosmin-1 (NPM1) mutation negative, CCAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha (CEBPA) double mutation negative, and FLT-3 internal tandem duplication negative (NPM1mut-negCEBPAdm-negFLT3-ITDneg) patients had a significantly longer RFS with alloHSCT. In conclusion, our results provide additional evidence that alloHSCT is preferential PRT in patients with intermediate-risk AML that are under the age of 60 years old in CR1.
Keywords: Acute myeloid leukemia; Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; Intermediate risk; NPM1mut-negCEBPAdm-negFLT3-ITDneg; Postremission therapy.