Clinicopathological Variables and Outcome in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Associated With BCR-ABL1 Transcript Type and Body Weight: An Outcome of European LeukemiaNet Project

Abstract

Objective: It is debatable whether BCR-ABL1 transcript type has an impact on outcome of treatment of patients with CML, and it is not widely studied whether body weight influences response to treatment. In this study, we tried to find out if any of these factors has an impact on response to treatment and outcome.

Methodology: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the files of 79 patients being treated in our center for CML with known BCR-ABL1 breakpoints, and patients' management and response assessment was done based on ELN 2013 guidelines. The analysis was performed based on two main groups, obese vs. normal BMI, and then based on BCR-ABL1 transcripts: e13a2 vs. e14a2. Cumulative incidence of MMR, CCyR, and DMR were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier survival curve method, and comparisons between groups were performed by the Log-rank/Gray test methods.

Results/conclusion: In the patient-cohort studied, there was no statistically significant difference in molecular response between patients with CML based on body weight or transcript type although patients in the obesity group achieved higher and faster MMR with no statistical significance.

Keywords: BCR-ABL1 transcript; chronic myeloid leukemia; obesity.

Figure 1.

Box plots depicts distribution of (A) WBC at diagnosis, (B) platelet counts at diagnosis, (C) spleen size, and (D) Sokal scores at diagnosis across transcript types e13a2 and e14a2.

Figure 2.

Box plots depicts distribution of (A) WBC at diagnosis, (B) platelet counts at diagnosis, (C) spleen size, and (D) Sokal scores at diagnosis across Obese and normal weight groups.

Figure 3.

Kaplan–Meier curve showed (A) cumulative incidence of major molecular remissions (MMR), (B) cumulative incidence of complete cytogenetic remissions (CCyR), and (C) cumulative incidence of deep molecular remissions (DMR) across transcript types e13a2 and e14a2.

Figure 4.

Kaplan–Meier curve showed (A) cumulative incidence of major molecular remissions (MMR), (B) cumulative incidence of complete cytogenetic remissions (CCyR), and (C) cumulative incidence of deep molecular remissions (DMR) across groups by weight.