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A multifactorial risk scoring system for the prediction of early relapse in CMML patients with allo-HSCT: a nationwide representative multicenter study

Abstract

Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) is a clonal hematopoietic stem cell malignancy and the only curable therapy is allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). However, allo-HSCT is not appropriate for all CMML patients, and relapse is the leading cause of treatment failure. This project conducted a nationwide multicenter real-world study to develop a novel prediction scoring system for early relapse. A total of 238 CMML patients from twenty-seven medical centers treated with allo-HSCT, and 307 adult patients with CMML who underwent allo-HSCT in a publicly available research dataset from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplantation Registry (CIBMTR) database were included. Independent prognostic factors for the early relapse of CMML posttransplantation were identified according to competing risk regression methods. Four prognostic factors were identified: bone marrow blasts >10% (hazard ratio [HR], 4.262; P = 0.014), age >60 years (HR, 6.221; P = 0.007), hemoglobin level <100 g/L (HR, 3.695; P = 0.004), and non TET2 gene mutation (HR, 3.425; P = 0.017). A risk-grading scoring system was developed based on the regression coefficients and patients were stratified into low-risk (0–1 point), intermediate-risk (1.5–2 points) and high-risk ( > 2 points) groups. The validated internal c-statistic was 0.767 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.674–0.860), and the external c-statistic was 0.769 (95% CI, 0.703–0.836). In the derivation cohort, the cumulative incidence rates of early relapse in the low-risk, intermediate-risk, and high-risk groups were 1.35% (95% CI: 1–4%), 10.40% (95% CI: 4–16%), and 29.54% (95% CI: 16–39%) (P < 0.001), respectively. This scoring system can be utilized to early identification of patients at a high risk of relapse and contributing to the implementation of urgent medical support.

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Fig. 1: CIR according to the prediction model.
Fig. 2: ROC curve of the prediction scoring system in the derivation and validation cohorts.
Fig. 3: Calibration plot and decision curve analysis of the prediction scoring system in the derivation and validation cohorts.

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Data availability

The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants but are available on request from the corresponding author, Xiao-Hui Zhang, PhD, MD.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2021YFC2500304), the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82230004), National Natural Science of Foundation of China (No. 81970113) and Capital Health Research and Development of Special (No. 2022-1-4082).

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JYZ and XHZ contributed to the study design. JYZ, YXC, HLY, YJX, XBH, SJG, YCZ, FZ, XMS, YL, JMY, YHL, SQW, YJD, XZ, YMF, XD, HZ, ZMZ, KHB, MJ, TN, DMW, YC, LL and HY collected the data. JYZ, YXC, YHC, FRW, YYZ, and XDM performed data analysis. JYZ drafted and wrote the manuscript. WH, JZW, YW, HC, XYZ, YJC, KYL and XJH revised it critically. XHZ conceived and directed the study and revised the manuscript. The final version of the manuscript was critically reviewed and approved by all authors.

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Correspondence to Xiao-Hui Zhang.

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Zhou, JY., Chen, YX., Yuan, HL. et al. A multifactorial risk scoring system for the prediction of early relapse in CMML patients with allo-HSCT: a nationwide representative multicenter study. Bone Marrow Transplant 60, 310–318 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-024-02480-3

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