Hematology/Oncology Clinics of North America
Unknown authors
Abstract
The aim of this study was to compare safety and efficacy of the association of busulfan with cyclophosphamide (BuCy2) versus busulfan and fludarabine (BuFlu) as a conditioning regimen in allogeneic hematopoietic progenitor cell transplantation (allo-HPCT) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).A total of 65 consecutive patients who received an allo-HPCT from Human Leucocyte Antigen-matched sibling donors were analyzed. The conditioning was BuCy2 in 48 patients and BuFlu in 17 patients.There were no significant differences between the 2 cohorts in hematological engraftment, incidence of extrahematological toxicities, and acute graft versus host disease (GVHD). The incidence of chronic GVHD was 34% in the BuCy2 group versus 57% in the BuFlu group (P = .03). Transplant-related mortality was 17% (8 patients) in the BuCy2 group versus 0 in the BuFlu arm. Disease-related mortality was similar in the whole study population; in high-risk AML patients it was 11% in the BuCy2 group and 19% in the BuFlu group (P = .015). The probability of disease-free and event-free survival at 2 years was, respectively, 70% and 60% in the BuCy2 group and 59% and 58% in the BuFlu group (P = .06 and P = not significant [ns]). The probability of overall survival at 2 years was 71% in the BuCy2 group and 63% in the BuFlu group (P = ns), and in the high-risk group it was 83% and 67% in the BuCy2 and BuFlu group, respectively (P = ns).BuFlu is well tolerated and is less toxic than BuCy2 and our results did not suggest that in high-risk AML, BuCy2 should be the favorite regimen in terms of efficacy.