Long-term outcomes after haploidentical stem cell transplantation for hematologic malignancies

Blood Adv. 2024 Mar 23:bloodadvances.2023010625. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2023010625. Online ahead of print.

Abstract

The introduction of posttransplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy)-based graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis lead to significant improvements in haploidentical stem cell transplantation (haplo-SCT) outcomes over the past decade. We retrospectively assessed long-term outcomes of patients who had their first haplo-SCT between February 2009 and March 2019. Long-term survivors were defined as patients who were alive and disease free at 2 years after transplant. Three hundred thirty-five patients with a median age of 48 (range, 18-72) years were identified. Of these, 142 patients were disease-free and alive at 2 years after transplant. The 4-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) for all study patients were 42% and 47%, respectively. With a median follow-up of 52 months for the long-term survivor group, the 4-year PFS and OS were 94% and 96%, respectively. The 4-year cumulative incidence of relapse (CIR) and non-relapse mortality (NRM) were 2.9% and 3.3%, respectively. Age>=55 was the only predictive factor in multivariable analysis for inferior PFS (HR 3.41, 95% CI: 1.21-9.60; p=0.020) and OS (HR 3.31, 95% CI: 1.08-10.18; p=0.037). Thirteen patients (9%) died in the long-term survivor group, only two of which died of relapsed disease. Secondary primary malignancy was the most frequent cause of NRM (n=4), followed by infection (n=2). For haplo-SCT with PTCy-based GVHD prophylaxis, our findings suggest an excellent long-term survival for patients who were disease-free and alive at 2 years after transplant. Late relapses were rare, and age was the only predictive factor for long-term outcomes.