Improved survival rates of AML patients following admission to the intensive care unit

Abstract

Induction chemotherapy in AML patients may have life-threatening side effects requiring intensive care unit (ICU) treatment. We analyzed all AML patients receiving intensive chemotherapy at a single academic center between 01/2006-12/2016. At least one ICU admission was observed in 32% (76/240) patients, and 33% of those died following ICU admission. Whereas the ICU admission proportion remained stable, mortality after ICU admission decreased from 14% (2006–2008) to 3% (2014–2016; p = .056). The number of failing organ systems inversely correlated with surviving ICU admission (p < .001). Sepsis and renal, cardiac and pulmonary failure were each associated with higher mortality. With increasing ICU duration, survival probability decreased (p < .001), but remained >50% even after 14 days of ICU treatment. Progression-free and overall survival were comparable between ICU surviving patients and patients never needing ICU support. In conclusion, outcome after ICU admission of AML patients has substantially improved in recent years.

Keywords:

• AML
• ICU
• intensive care
• intensive treatment
• outcome
• prognosis
• survival

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2019.1594213.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Swiss Cancer League KFS-3795-02-2016 (to TP).