A single-institution study of allograft outcomes for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia over 20 years.

BACKGROUND

Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) is an established potentially curative therapy for patients with high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). Future availability of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies and bispecific antibodies may further reduce utilisation of alloSCT.

AIM: This retrospective analysis sought to describe institutional outcomes for alloSCT for CLL, to which future outcomes following immunotherapies may be compared locally.

METHODS

Patients with CLL in the institutional alloSCT database were identified. Kaplan-Meier estimates were used to assess survival outcomes, and Gray's competing incidence analyses were used for cumulative incidence of relapse (CIR) and non-relapse mortality (NRM).

RESULTS

Sixty-two patients with CLL of median age 54 years (range 25-75), including 17 with prior Richter transformation, underwent alloSCT between 2000 and 2022. A total of 39% and 35.4% of tested patients harboured complex karyotype and del(17p) respectively. Median follow-up for survivors was 9.2 years. Two-year progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), CIR and NRM rates were 57.7%, 74%, 16.3% and 18.2% respectively. Ten-year PFS and OS were 38.2% and 50.8% respectively. Twenty-nine deaths occurred during follow-up, including 14 without prior CLL relapse. Del(17p) abnormality was associated with inferior PFS, and age ≥54 years at alloSCT was associated with inferior OS.

CONCLUSIONS

Survival outcomes from this study align with prospective and retrospective data published from the chemoimmunotherapy era of CLL treatment. Although more recent data suggest improved post-alloSCT survival outcomes, data assessing the impact of novel agents distinct from improved alloSCT care are lacking. Our recommendations for the current role of alloSCT in CLL therapy are summarised.