History of Prior Malignancies Does Not Appear To Affect CML Outcomes

Patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with a history of prior malignancies and treated with frontline tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) appear to have similar outcomes as compared with those without prior malignancies, according to a study published in Cancer.¹

Although some patients with CML have a history of prior malignancies, the outcomes for these patients are not well defined. For the present study, investigators analyzed data from 630 patients treated with first-line TKIs, of which 626 had a known prior malignancy status. Of those, 7% had a prior malignancy other than nonmelanoma skin cancer and 3% had a history of nonmelanoma skin cancers only.

Twenty patients had nonmelanoma skin cancer, 11 had breast cancer, 7 had melanoma, 6 had prostate cancer, and 5 had colorectal cancer.

Baseline characteristics were similar among patients with no prior malignancy, those with a prior malignancy, and those with nonmelanoma skin cancer, though patients with a prior malignancy had an older median age than the other 2 groups.

The study showed that event-free survival, transformation-free survival, and failure-free survival rates were similar between the patient groups. Survival was, however, significantly poorer among patients with a prior malignancy compared with those with no prior malignancy and those with a prior history of nonmelanoma skin cancer.

After adjusting for confounding factors, the study demonstrated that advanced age and an increased creatinine level were associated with decreased survival following a diagnosis of CML.

TKIs were safety administered with concomitant therapy in the few instances when patients with CML required treatment for other malignancies.        

Reference

1. Koller PB, Kantarjian HM, Nogueras-Gonzalez GM, et al. Chronic myeloid leukemia among patients with a history of prior malignancies: A tale of dual survivorship. Cancer. 2016 Oct 20. doi: 10.1002/cncr.30362 [Epub ahead of print]