A modified EBMT risk score predicts the outcome of patients with acute myeloid leukemia receiving allogeneic stem cell transplants

The systematic and standardized pretransplant risk assessment represents an important tool to predict the outcome of patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT). To investigate the capacity of a modified European group for blood and marrow transplantation (mEBMT) risk score to predict the outcome of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) receiving allogeneic stem cell transplants, we retrospectively analyzed 214 patients transplanted at our center between 1995 and 2008. Overall survival (OS) of the whole cohort at 1, 3, and 5 yr was 62%, 48%, and 45%, whereas the cumulative incidence of relapse or non-relapse mortality (NRM) was 26%, 33%, and 33% or 19%, 21%, and 22%. In univariate analysis, a higher mEBMT risk score was associated with an inferior OS ranging from 69% for patients with a score of 0/1 to 26% for patients with a score of 5/6 at 5 yr (P < 0.0001) and steadily increasing hazard ratios for each additional score point. Likewise, a higher mEBMT risk score was associated with an increased incidence of relapse (P = 0.049). Importantly, the prognostic value of the mEBMT risk score in terms of OS and relapse was maintained in multivariate analysis. Taken together, this indicates that a mEBMT risk score may be used to predict the outcome of patients with AML following alloSCT.