Improved survival after allogeneic transplantation for acute lymphoblastic leukemia in adults: a Danish population-based study

Abstract

We investigated trends of survival in a population-based cohort study of all 181 adults who received HCT for ALL in Denmark between 2000–2019. Patients had a median (min–max) age of 36 (18–74) years at HCT and were followed for a median of eight years. Overall survival (OS) improved over time with an estimated 2-year OS of 49% (CI 27–66%) in year 2000 versus 77% (CI 59–88%) in year 2019. More patients achieved cure over time (OR for cure per year 1.07, CI 1.00–1.15), while the rate of death in non-cured patients remained stable (HR of excess mortality per year 0.99, CI 0.93–1.06). Relapse decreased over time (HR 0.92 per year, CI 0.87–0.98), whereas non-relapse mortality did not change notably (HR 0.98 per year, CI 0.93–1.04). In conclusion, survival after HCT in adults with ALL has improved over the past two decades, primarily due to more patients achieving cure.

Keywords:

• Allogeneic transplantation
• allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
• acute lymphoblastic leukemia
• ALL
• survival

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Camilla Roepstorff and Heidi Petersen for their excellent work as data managers and the Danish National Acute Leukemia Registry for providing additional data for our study.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.