Long-Term Outcomes After Transplantation for Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

Abstract

The Oncology Grand Rounds series is designed to place original reports published in the Journal into clinical context. A case presentation is followed by a description of diagnostic and management challenges, a review of the relevant literature, and a summary of the authors’ suggested management approaches. The goal of this series is to help readers better understand how to apply the results of key studies, including those published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, to patients seen in their own clinical practice. Hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) has been used for more than four decades as consolidation therapy in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Allogeneic HSCT is almost universally used today, and autologous HSCT nearly disappeared from daily practice. Improvement in transplantation strategies, supportive care, and increased donor source availability led to increased numbers of long-term survivors after HSCT. In the accompanying paper of this grand rounds, Armenian and coworkers analyzed the burden of late complications after HSCT for AML in a large cohort of patients and compared severe/life-threatening conditions with those of siblings. This study reinforces the need for prolonged clinical follow-up of transplanted patients otherwise nearly cured of their original disease for late malignant and nonmalignant complications.