Practice Patterns and Real-Life Outcomes for Patients with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia in the United States.

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is associated with a favorable long-term prognosis if appropriate treatment is initiated promptly. Outcomes in clinical trials and population-based registries vary; potential explanations include a delay in treatment and lower adherence to guideline-recommended therapy in real-world practice. We used the Vizient Clinical Data Base (CDB) to describe demographics, baseline clinical characteristics, and treatment patterns in newly diagnosed APL patients during the study period of April 2017 - March 2020. Baseline white blood cell count (WBC) was used to assign risk status and assess treatment concordance with National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines. Logistic regression models examined adjusted associations between patient, hospital, disease characteristics, and adverse outcomes (in-hospital death or discharge to hospice). Among 1,464 APL patients, 205 (14.0%) experienced an adverse outcome. A substantial subset (20.6%) of patients did not receive guideline-concordant regimens. Odds of adverse outcomes increased with failure to receive guideline-concordant treatment (OR: 2.31 [95% CI: 1.43 - 3.75]; p=0.001), high-risk disease (OR: 2.48 [1.53 - 4.00]; p 200 AML patients/year; p=0.046). In conclusion, in this large database analysis, 14.0% of newly diagnosed APL patients died or were discharged to hospice. A substantial proportion of patients did not receive guideline-concordant therapy, potentially contributing to adverse outcomes.