Blood/Marrow Transplantation for Treatment of ChronicMyeloid Leukemia: Identifying Predictors of Cytogenetic Relapse and Death

While treatment is believed to influence diseaseoutcome, the wide variation in published survival andremission rates among chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)patients demonstrates that the effectiveness oftreatment appears to be modified by patientcharacteristics, disease features, and diseasemanagement approaches. Future improvements in thetreatment of CML are dependent on our ability todistinguish between patients who are likely to havelong-term disease free survival and those who are not.Between June 1982 and December 2002, 234 patientswith CML in first chronic phase (CP) were treated atthe City of Hope National Medical Center with anallogeneic blood or marrow transplant (Allo-BMT)using histocompatible sibling donors. Thisretrospective case-series study examined the role ofpatient, disease, and treatment factors collectedboth at the time of diagnosis and Allo-BMT to assessthe predictive value of these factors on a patient?srisk for cytogenetic relapse (CR) and/or deathfollowing Allo-BMT. This study also explored thepredictive value of three generally acceptedprognostic scoring systems (Sokal, Hasford, Gratwohl)in this large single center Allo-BMT population.