Allogeneic stem cell transplantation provides durable disease control in poor-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia: long-term clinical and MRD results of the German CLL Study Group CLL3X trial

Blood. 2010 Oct 7;116(14):2438-47. doi: 10.1182/blood-2010-03-275420. Epub 2010 Jul 1.

Abstract

The purpose of this prospective multicenter phase 2 trial was to investigate the long-term outcome of reduced-intensity conditioning allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) in patients with poor-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Conditioning was fludarabine/ cyclophosphamide-based. Longitudinal quantitative monitoring of minimal residual disease (MRD) was performed centrally by MRD-flow or real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. One hundred eligible patients were enrolled, and 90 patients proceeded to alloSCT. With a median follow-up of 46 months (7-102 months), 4-year nonrelapse mortality, event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) were 23%, 42%, and 65%, respectively. Of 52 patients with MRD monitoring available, 27 (52%) were alive and MRD negative at 12 months after transplant. Four-year EFS of this subset was 89% with all event-free patients except for 2 being MRD negative at the most recent assessment. EFS was similar for all genetic subsets, including 17p deletion (17p-). In multivariate analyses, uncontrolled disease at alloSCT and in vivo T-cell depletion with alemtuzumab, but not 17p-, previous purine analogue refractoriness, or donor source (human leukocyte antigen-identical siblings or unrelated donors) had an adverse impact on EFS and OS. In conclusion, alloSCT for poor-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia can result in long-term MRD-negative survival in up to one-half of the patients independent of the underlying genomic risk profile. This trial is registered at http://clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00281983.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial, Phase II
  • Multicenter Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Genome
  • Deutschland
  • Graft vs Host Disease / pathology
  • Humans
  • Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell / diagnosis*
  • Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell / genetics
  • Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell / surgery*
  • Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell / therapy
  • Lymphocyte Transfusion
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm, Residual / diagnosis
  • Neoplasm, Residual / genetics
  • Neoplasm, Residual / surgery
  • Neoplasm, Residual / therapy
  • Prognosis
  • Prospective Studies
  • Stem Cell Transplantation / methods*
  • Transplantation Conditioning / methods*
  • Transplantation, Homologous / methods
  • Treatment Outcome

Associated data

  • ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT00281983