The Impact of Pretransplant Use of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors on Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation in Patients with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia - A Single-institution Retrospective Study -

Abstract

Objective Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a malignant hematological disorder, and allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) was its only curative treatment until the introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Allo-SCT is still considered for CML patients who are resistant to TKIs and in an advanced phase. Currently, second- and third-generation (2/3G TKIs are typically incorporated into the first-line treatment of CML. However, the impact of 2/3G TKIs on subsequent allo-SCT remains unclear. We therefore evaluated the effect of 2/3G TKIs on allo-SCT. Methods We retrospectively evaluated the effect of pretransplant therapy with TKIs on the outcome of allo-SCT for CML using clinical data at our institution. Patients Thirty-two CML patients who received their first allo-SCT procedure at our institute from 2001 to 2020 were included. We divided the patients into three subgroups based on TKI treatment before allo-SCT. Patients receiving no TKIs, only imatinib (IM), and 2/3G TKIs were classified into the Non-TKI, IM, and 2/3G TKI groups, respectively. Results In a univariate analysis, the pretransplant use of 2/3G TKIs was significantly associated with a higher 5-year overall survival (91.7%) and relapse-free survival (75.0%) than the use of IM (37.5% and 12.5%) in patients presenting with or progressing to the advanced phase. In addition, pretransplant use of 2/3G TKIs did not increase the incidence of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Conclusion We demonstrated that the pretransplant use of 2/3G TKIs was safe and improved the outcome of CML patients who presented with or progressed to the advanced phase without increasing the frequency of GVHD.