Impact of comorbidities constituting the hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT)-comorbidity index on the outcome of patients undergoing allogeneic HCT for acute myeloid leukemia

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prognostic impact of the individual component comorbidities of the hematopoietic cell transplant comorbidity index (HCT-CI) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that underwent allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT). METHOD: This single-center study retrospectively investigated the individual comorbidities of the HCT-CI on the outcome of 418 patients that underwent HCT for AML, in CR1 (n = 303, 72%) or CR2 (n = 115, 28%) at our center between 1999 and 2014. RESULTS: Median age at HCT was 50 years (range 18-71). Univariate analysis of the HCT-CI, grouped as score 0 (n = 109), 1-2 (n = 157) and ≥3 (n = 152), demonstrated significant influence on overall survival (OS) (P = .004) and non-relapse mortality (NRM) (P = .02). For individual comorbidities constituting the HCT-CI, variables with a P-value ≤ .2 on univariate analysis were included in the multivariable analysis. For OS, none of the comorbidities of the HCT-CI demonstrated independent prognostic relevance. However, for NRM, multivariable analysis demonstrated pretransplant diabetes (HR = 2.17, 95% CI = 1.31-3.60, P = .003) and cardiovascular comorbidity (HR = 1.78, 95% CI = 1.15-2.76, P = .01) to be independent predictors of NRM post-transplant. CONCLUSION: Among the comorbidities that compose the HCT-CI, diabetes and cardiovascular comorbidity independently predict NRM in patients undergoing allogeneic HCT for AML. This information should be taken into consideration regarding post-transplant monitoring and care.