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THURSDAY, Sept. 26, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Blast count seems to be the main prognostic count for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) presenting in an advanced phase, according to a study published online Aug. 27 in the American Journal of Hematology<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Michael Lauseker, Ph.D., from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit\u00e4t M\u00fcnchen in Germany, and colleagues examined prognostic factors for a cohort of 283 patients diagnosed in the advanced phase of CML. Nearly all of the patients received tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatment.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that median survival was 8.2 years in the heterogeneous cohort. The hazard ratio for mortality was 1.32 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.7 to 2.6) when comparing patients with >30 percent versus 20 to 29 percent blasts, respectively. Significantly higher risk for mortality was seen for patients with 20 to 29 percent versus <20 percent blasts (hazard ratio, 2.24; 95 percent CI, 1.2 to 4.0). The most important prognostic factor was blast count; however, age, hemoglobin, basophils, and other chromosomal aberrations should also be considered. Two groups were defined by the Eutos long-term survival score: high and non-high risk, with a hazard ratio of 3.01 (95 percent CI, 1.81 to 5.00).<\/p>\n
“It is our perception that a two-phase rather than a three-phase categorization of de novo patients is appropriate,” the authors write. “And, that a 20 percent blast cut-off could be involved in a new definition, only discriminating between chronic phase and blast crisis at diagnosis.”<\/p>\n
Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.<\/p>\n