Abstract: Antihuman T-lymphocyte immune globulin (ATG) was shown to lower the incidence of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) from an unrelated donor. The type, dose, and duration of ATG treatment is a matter of ongoing controversy in allo-HSCT. Furthermore, there has been no phase 3 study to explore the role of ATG-thymoglobulin for the prevention of cGVHD in allo-HSCT from matched siblings, whereas results from a recent randomized trial of ATG-Fresenius was reported (NEJM 2016). We performed a prospective, single-center, open-label, randomized trial of ATG-thymoglobulin as a part of the conditioning regimen. The primary endpoint was the cumulative incidence (CI) of cGVHD at a 2-year evaluation. A total of 126 patients with acute leukemia were planned to be enrolled and assigned randomly at a 1:1 ratio to receive ATG-thymoglobulin (1.25 mg/kg at three and two days before allo-HSCT) or receive no ATG-thymoglobulin stratified according to the refined Disease Risk Index and conditioning intensity. Both groups were well balanced for NCCN risk, disease type, disease status, and MRD status at HSCT. The current study finally enrolled 120 patients with a median of 560 days of follow-up (range 52 - 1257). The CI of cGVHD in the ATG group (n=60) and non-ATG (n=60) group at 2 years after allo-HSCT was 37.2% and 82.7%, respectively (p & lt;0.001). Moderate-to-severe cGVHD occurred in 11.7% of the ATG group and 47.2% of the non-ATG group (p & lt;0.001). In multivariate analysis, non-AGT group, NCCN favorable to intermediate risk, and reduced intensity conditioning remained significant risk factors for the CI of chronic GVHD. There were no significant between-group differences in the CI of infectious complications, acute GVHD, or other allo-HSCT-related adverse events. In contrast, the ATG group had a significantly increased CI of relapse (CIR) compared with the non-ATG-group (28.8% vs 11.7%, p=0.010), which remained significant in the multivariate analysis. Disease-free survival, overall survival, and GVHD and relapse free survival were similar between the ATG and non-ATG groups. In conclusion, the current study revealed that the use of ATG-thymoglobulin, even at a relatively low dose (2.5 mg/kg), decreases the occurrence of cGVHD at a cost of an increased risk for relapse in the setting of allo-HSCT from matched sibling donors for acute leukemia. The optimal dose, timing, and duration of ATG-thymoglobulin should be investigated further. Disclosures Kim: BMS: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Sun Pharma.: Research Funding; ILYANG: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Pfizer: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Takeda: Research Funding. Lee:Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding. Kim:Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; AML Global Portal: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Hanmi: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; BL & H: Research Funding; Astellas: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Chugai: Consultancy, Honoraria; Amgen Inc.: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Yuhan: Consultancy, Honoraria; SL VaxiGen: Consultancy, Honoraria; AbbVie: Honoraria; Sanofi-Genzyme: Honoraria; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.

Abstract: Introduction Geriatric assessment (GA) typically refers to a multidimensional evaluation designed to evaluate an older person's functional ability, physical health, cognition, psychological health, nutritional status, and social support. The purpose of GA is to develop time-efficient and straightforward tools to evaluate multiple patient characteristics, which may be predictive of treatment outcomes of elderly acute myeloid leukemia (eAML) patients treated with intensive chemotherapy. Given that there have been few prospective studies with conflicting results, we performed a single-center prospective observational cohort study (#KCT0002172) investigating the prognostic value of multiparameter GA domains for eAML patients' tolerance and survival outcomes after intensive chemotherapy. Patients and methods Newly diagnosed eAML patients aged over 60 years who received intensive chemotherapy (n=105) were prospectively enrolled between November 2016 and December 2019. The median age was 64 years (range, 60-75), and they were all considered fit for intensive chemotherapy, with adequate performance and organ function. All the enrolled patients were administered various questionnaires for pretreatment GA and functional evaluation, which included evaluation for social and nutritional support, cognition, depression, distress, and physical function. Results Of the 105 enrolled patients, 93% had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance score of 1 and received intensive chemotherapy. Among them, between 32.4% and 69.5% of patients met the criteria for impairment on each GA domain. Physical impairment measured by the Short Physical Performance Battery (SPPB) was significantly associated with non-fatal toxicities of Grade III-IV severe infection (odds ratio (OR) 3.000, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.159-7.788, p=0.024) and acute renal failure (OR 3.891, 95% CI, 1.329-11.39, p=0.013). Cognitive dysfunction measured by the Mini-Mental Status Examination- Korean version of CERAD Assessment Packet was significantly associated with a higher risk of Grade III-IV infection (OR 2.667, 95% CI, 1.025-6.939, p=0.044) and prolonged hospitalization (OR 4.208, 95% CI, 1.485-4.229, p=0.005). Reduced physical function measured by the SPPB and depressive symptoms measured by the Korean version of Short form Geriatric Depressive Scale (SGDS-K) were predictive of worse overall survival (OS; hazard ratio (HR) 1.917, 95% CI, 1.074-3.420, p=0.027 and HR 1.902, 95% CI, 1.005-3.602, p=0.048). SPPB impairment was also significantly related to higher treatment-related mortality (TRM; HR 2.023, 95% CI, 11.057-3.874, p=0.033). Furthermore, gait or sit-and-stand speed, a component of SPPB, was the single most powerful tool to predict survival outcomes of both OS (HR 2.766, 95% CI, 1.471-5.200, p=0.002 and HR 3.615, 95% CI, 1.868-6.999, p & lt;0.001) and TRM (HR 2.461, 95% CI, 1.233-4.913, p=0.011 and HR 3.814, 95% CI, 1.766-8.237, p & lt;0.001). We reconfirmed the prognostic value of preexisting survival prediction models, Wheatley index scores, and web-based AML scores, contrasting to the lack of significance of Ferrara criteria. The addition of SPPB/SGDS-K or gait (or sit-and-stand) speed/SGDS-K improved the predictability of the Wheatley index and web-based AML scores with 69% and 90% relative increases in predictive power for survival, respectively. Conclusions We prospectively demonstrated the prognostic value of physical and psychological assessment by GA for survival outcomes in intensively treated eAML patients. Gait or sit-and-stand speed was the single most powerful tool to identify frailty and predict survival outcomes. The prognostic value of preexisting survival prediction models, Wheatley index scores, and AML scores was reconfirmed.. The addition of measures for physical function and depression improved the predictability of those prediction models for survival. Cognitive and physical impairment were able to identify non-fatal toxicities during intensive chemotherapy in eAML patients. Our data will facilitate the incorporation of GA measures into validated survival prediction models to determine initial treatment for eAML patients in routine clinical care and clinical trials. Further studies are warranted to determine the best ways to adjust the care provided for frail patients to improve treatment tolerance and outcomes. Disclosures Kim: Novartis: Research Funding; BMS: Research Funding; Pfizer: Research Funding; ILYANG: Research Funding; Takeda: Research Funding. Lee: Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Kim: AbbVie: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; AIMS Biosciense: Consultancy, Honoraria; Amgen: Consultancy, Honoraria; AML-Hub: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Astellas: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; BL & H: Research Funding; BMS & Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Boryung Pharm Co.: Consultancy; Daiichi Sankyo: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Handok: Consultancy, Honoraria; LG Chem: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pintherapeutics: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Sanofi Genzyme: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; SL VaxiGen: Consultancy, Honoraria; VigenCell: Consultancy, Honoraria.

Abstract: Evidence that a venetoclax (VEN)-combined regimen is effective in relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (R/R AML) is emerging. However, it is unknown how VEN-combined low intensity treatment compares to intensive chemotherapy (IC) in medically fit patients with R/R AML. Methods: We compared AML patients who received IC ( n = 89) to those who received a VEN in combination with hypomethylating agents or low dose cytarabine (VEN combination) ( n = 54) as their first- or second-line salvage after failing anthracycline-containing intensive chemotherapy. Results: The median age was 49 years, and significantly more patients in the VEN combination group were in their second salvage and had received prior stem cell transplantation (SCT). Overall response rates including CR, CRi, and MLFS were comparable (44.0% for IC vs. 59.3% for VEN combination, p = 0.081), but VEN combination group compared to IC group tended to show lower treatment related mortality. The rate of bridging to SCT was the same (68.5%), but the percentage of SCT at blast clearance was significantly higher in the VEN-combined group (62.3% vs. 86.5%, p = 0.010). After median follow-up periods of 22.5 (IC) and 11.3 months (VEN combination), the median overall survival was 8.9 (95% CI, 5.4-12.4) and 12.4 months (95% CI, 9.5-15.2) ( p = 0.724), respectively. Conclusion: VEN combination provides a comparable anti-leukemic response and survival to salvage IC, and provide a bridge to SCT with better disease control in medically-fit patients with R/R AML.

Abstract: Background Transplantation-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA) is a significant complication after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) and may affect 20% of recipients on average. A few groups have proposed risk or prognostic factors for TA-TMA, including a recent prospective study in a cohort that included both children and young adults (Jodele et al. Blood 2014), yet there has been no reproduced or validated data for consensus. Furthermore, with rapid advances in transplantation technology such as an increased variety of donors, conditioning regimens, and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis, currently used diagnostic criteria and risk factors for TA-TMA must be re-evaluated using recent large cohorts. Patients and method The purpose of this study is to investigate risk and prognostic factors for TA-TMA in adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). TA-TMA was primarily diagnosed with previously published diagnostic criteria proposed by our group (Cho et al. Transplantation 2010). Then, we analyzed TA-TMA incidence, risk, and prognostic factors in two independent cohorts for training (n = 382, 2012-2015, retrospective) and validation (n = 231, 2016-2017, prospective). In particular, predictive factors for TA-TMA in a prospective cohort, including children and young adults as recently suggested by Jodele et al., were evaluated in our adult AML patients. Results In the entire cohort (n = 613), the median TA-TMA onset was 66 (range, 5-511) days from allo-HSCT. Among TA-TMA patients, 33.6% and 32.6% of them suffered from proteinuria and AKI, respectively. Also, 33.2% suffered from preceding or concurrent hemorrhagic cystitis (any grade), and 12.7% suffered from VOD/SOS at the time of TA-TMA diagnosis. Regarding the treatment of TA-TMA, 87.3% of patients discontinued or reduced the calcineurin inhibitor with supportive care, while 12.7%, 5.6%, and 4.2% were treated with total plasma exchange, t-PA, and defibrotide addition to calcineurin inhibitor dose modification, respectively. Thirty percent of patients achieved complete remission, and TA-TMA was related to poor three-year OS. There were no significant clinical characteristic differences between the training and validation cohorts with the exception of more haploidentical allo-HSCT in the validation cohort (training vs. validation; 26.7% vs. 36.4%, p = 0.012), and the cumulative incidence of TA-TMA was significantly (p 〈 0.001) higher among the validation cohort (18.8%) than the training cohort (8.9%). For the risk factors of TA-TMA, univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that LDH 〉 1.5 x upper normal limit (training p = 0.042 and validation p = 0.0042), proteinuria ≥30 mg/dL (training p = 0.0019 and validation p = 0.0012), and ≥Grade I hemorrhagic cystitis (training p = 0.0460 and validation p = 0.0049) were significantly associated with an increased risk of TA-TMA in both the training and validation cohorts. Among patients with TA-TMA, concurrent hemorrhagic cystitis upon diagnosis of TA-TMA was a significant factor for inferior overall survival in the entire cohort (32.3% vs. 5.9%, p = 0.031). Conclusions This study validates the feasibility of diagnostic criteria for TA-TMA proposed by our group with a recent large cohort consisting of training and validation cohorts and points out the role of preceding hemorrhagic cystitis as a risk and prognostic factor for TA-TMA in AML. Of note, proteinuria and elevated LDH prior to the appearance of MAHA proposed by Jodele et al. with a younger population were proven to be useful for predicting the occurrence of TA-TMA among adult populations with AML. Disclosures Kim: Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Astellas: Consultancy, Honoraria; Hanmi: Consultancy, Honoraria; AGP: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; SL VaxiGen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy; Amgen: Honoraria; Chugai: Honoraria; Yuhan: Honoraria; Sanofi-Genzyme: Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Handok: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria; Daiichi Sankyo: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Otsuka: Honoraria; BL & H: Research Funding. Kim:BMS: Research Funding; Pfizer: Research Funding; Takeda: Research Funding; Il-Yang co.: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding. Lee:Achillion: Research Funding; Alexion: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding.

Abstract: Background The comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) typically refers to a multidimensional assessment designed to evaluate an older person's functional ability, physical health, cognition, psychological health, nutritional status, and social support. There is a significant heterogeneity in terms of their underlying health and resilience to the burden of disease and treatments in elderly AML (eAML). To date, a few have evaluated the predictive value of CGA among newly diagnosed eAML. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential clinical value of CGA as a screening test for frailty in eAML. We designed a comprehensive CGA battery with measures which previously validated, standardized, and widely used. This study is a single-center prospective observational cohort study focused on discriminating between those older patients who are fit for intensive therapies and those who are vulnerable and may experience excess toxicity. Patients and method This prospective cohort study is to investigate the predictive values of each domain of CGA to discriminate vulnerable patients in eAML fit for intensive chemotherapy. Between November 2016 and July 2019, we enrolled newly diagnosed eAML patients aged ≥60 years considered fit for intensive chemotherapy, who had adequate performances and organ functions. All the enrolled patients were administered various questionnaires for an initial CGA and functional evaluation divided into 3 categories; (1) Social and Nutritional support (OARS and MNA), (2) Psychological (MMSE-KC, SGDS-K, PHQ-9, NCCN distress thermometer, MADRS, and KNU-DESC), and (3) Physical function (ECOG, KIADL, SPPB, Handgrip strength, and PTA by professional ENT evaluation). Results Seventy-seven patients were enrolled, in whom the median age of 64 years (range, 60-74), 58.4% were males, and 93.5% and 77.9% of patients had on ECOG score of 0~1 and HCT-CI score of 0~2, respectively. All enrolled patients were treated with intensive chemotherapy, and 62.3% achieved the first complete remission. Three patients experienced early death within 60 days (3.9%). During induction chemotherapy, the median recovery period for neutrophil and platelet counts was 26 (range, 24-29) and 30 (range, 27-33) days, respectively. The median hospitalization days for induction chemotherapy were 32 days (range, 21-104), and infection and GI complications (NCI-CTC-AE based any grade 79.2% and 67.5% respectively) were the most common complications primarily affecting tolerance to the initial chemotherapy. The grade III to IV infection, GI complications, hepatopathy, and acute kidney injury developed in 67.5%, 42.9%, 37.7%, and 16.9% of patients, respectively. Physical impairments were significantly associated with a higher incidence of infection (intact vs. any impairments; 46.4% vs. 79.6%, p=0.003), of which handgrip strength was most accurate tool to predict infection risk (p =0.032), and a trend of more GI complications (intact vs. any impairments; 28.6% vs. 51.0%, p=0.056), resulting in prolonged hospitalization (intact vs. any impairments; 32.2±1.7 days vs. 37.5±2.1 days, p=0.088) for the period of induction chemotherapy. Psychological impairment (intact vs. any impairments; 30.9±1.3 days vs. 38.2±2.1 days, p=0.005), particularly cognitive dysfunction measured by MMSE-KC (p=0.033), was also significantly associated with prolonged hospitalization. Conclusions This data demonstrates that a significant proportion of eAML fit for intensive chemotherapy based on performance status and comorbidity had social, nutritional, physical, psychological impairments by initial CGA assessments. These interim data focusing on early events suggest that impaired physical and/or psychological functions would be useful to identify eAML with intolerance to intensive chemotherapy. This ongoing exploratory prospective study will enroll more eAML patients (targets number=100) and further follow up currently enrolled patients, which will give us invaluable data to develop practical frailty marker and a new model for fitness for intensive chemotherapy. Disclosures Kim: Takeda: Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; BMS: Research Funding; Pfizer: Research Funding; Il-Yang co.: Research Funding. Lee:Achillion: Research Funding; Alexion: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Kim:Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Astellas: Consultancy, Honoraria; Hanmi: Consultancy, Honoraria; AGP: Consultancy, Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; SL VaxiGen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy; Amgen: Honoraria; Chugai: Honoraria; Yuhan: Honoraria; Sanofi-Genzyme: Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Handok: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria; Daiichi Sankyo: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Otsuka: Honoraria; BL & H: Research Funding.