Distribution and Impact of Comorbidities on Survival and Leukemic Transformation in Myeloproliferative Neoplasm-Associated Myelofibrosis: A Retrospective Cohort Study

In a retrospective study of 309 patients with myelofibrosis, severe burden of comorbidities as assessed by the Adult Comorbidity Evaluation 27 (ACE-27) or Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Comorbidity Index (HCT-CI) was associated with worse overall survival. ACE-27 may be preferred for comorbidity assessment in patients with myeloproliferative neoplasm, as it captures cardiovascular and venous thrombosis-related morbidities better than HCT-CI.& para;& para;Background: We sought to describe the distribution and impact of comorbidities on outcomes in patients with myelofibrosis, a disease characterized by aberrant bone marrow function with eventual fibrosis. Comorbidities were scored using the Adult Comorbidity Evaluation-27 (ACE-27) and the Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Comorbidity Index (HCT-CI), in which a score >= 3 indicates severe comorbidities. Patients and Methods: We conducted a retrospective study o f 306 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of myelofibrosis. Patients were seen from 1999 to 2014 with a median follow-up of 2 years. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were constructed to assess the impact of comorbidities on overall survival and leukemic transformation from the date of presentation to our center. A series of descriptive analyses were performed examining the distribution of comorbidities captured by the scales. Results: On multivariable survival analysis, an ACE-27 score of 3 was associated with an almost twofold increase in the risk of all-cause death (hazard ratio [HR] 1.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06-3.58; P = .03) compared with a lower score of 0 to 1. An HCT-CI score >= 3 was marginally significantly associated with an increased risk of all-cause death (HR 1.60; 95% Cl 0.96-2.68; P = .07). ACE-27 captured a greater spectrum of cardiovascular and venous thrombotic disease. No impact of comorbidities on leukemic transformation was observed. Conclusions: Although the presence of severe comorbidities was lower when assessed by ACE-27 (13%) compared with HCT-CI (23%), and the spectrums of comorbidities captured were different, the overall impact of severe comorbidities as assessed by both scales appears to be similar and associated with a survival disadvantage.