Incidence and survival outcomes of chronic myelomonocytic leukemia in the United States

Abstract

Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is an aggressive neoplasm with sparse data on outcomes at a population level. Using Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database, we identified 2238 patients with CMML diagnosed in the period 2003–2013. We found that the disease incidence was significantly higher with advancing age and lower in females, Blacks, and Asian/pacific islanders. Median OS declined significantly with increasing age (age 20–39 – 25 months, age 40–59 – 20 months, age 60–79 – 18 months, and age ≥80 – 11 months, p < .01), but did not vary by gender or race. Median OS has improved in the period 2007–2013 as compared with 2003–2006 (17 months vs. 14 months, p < .01). In spite of advances in CMML biology and therapeutics, in general, the survival of CMML patients remains dismal. More effective therapies are needed to improve the outcomes of CMML.

Keywords:

• Leukemia
• SEER
• survival
• chronic
• myelomonocytic
• incidence

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2016.1258700.