Real life experience with frontline azacitidine in a large series of older adults with acute myeloid leukemia stratified by MRC/LRF score: results from the expanded international E-ALMA series (E-ALMA+)

Abstract

Azacitidine (AZA) prolonged overall survival (OS) in the AZA-AML-001 trial. However, few subjects were randomized to AZA or intensive chemotherapy (IC). The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Leukemia Research Foundation (LRF) developed a score for older AML patients receiving IC or non-intensive regimens, whereas the E-ALMA study validated a score for survival and response in elderly patients receiving AZA in daily practice. Both identified three groups with different risk estimates. This analysis evaluates the efficacy of frontline AZA in older AML patients (N = 710) unfit for IC from different national registries (E-ALMA + series) stratified by the MRC/LRF risk score. Median OS of patients categorized as good, standard and poor-risk groups by the MRC/LRF score was 13.4 (95% CI, 10.8–16), 12.4 (95% CI, 9.9–14.8), and 8.1 months (95% CI, 7–9.1), respectively (p = .0001). In conclusion, this is the largest retrospective cohort of older AML patients treated with AZA.

Keywords:

• Acute myeloid leukemia
• elderly
• azacitidine
• MRC/LRF risk score
• E-ALMA+

Acknowledgments

This work was presented in part in abstract form at the 57th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, Orlando, FL. December 5–8, 2015.

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2017.1365854.