Clinical implications of mutations in a Southeast Asian cohort of acute myeloid leukaemia patients.

AIMS

In recent years, genomic technologies have enabled the identification of mutations in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). is a recurrently mutated epigenetic modifier gene in AML. To date, the prognostic significance of mutations has not been studied in a Southeast Asian AML population. We sought to investigate the clinical implications of mutations in a Southeast Asian cohort of AML patients.

METHODS

mutations were identified using a targeted next-generation sequencing panel in 157 AML patients. We studied the molecular and clinical features of patients with mutations and assessed the prognostic impact of mutations.

RESULTS

mutations were found in 33 of 157 (21.0%) AML patients. 114 patients were included for statistical analysis. Pretreatment data revealed that patients with mutations were older (≥60 years old), had a higher white blood cell count at diagnosis, had more adverse cytogenetic risk profiles and were more often associated with mutations compared with patients with wild-type . Survival analysis showed that DNMT3A mutations were associated with poorer clinical outcomes. This was especially when associated with NPM1 and FLT3-ITD mutations (AML ), which are common. The AML subtype was an independent predictor for poorer overall survival (OS). Other independent risk factors for poorer OS include advanced age at diagnosis and adverse cytogenetic risk stratification.

CONCLUSIONS

mutations are associated with an unfavourable clinical outcome in our Southeast Asian AML patient cohort. In particular, AML patients had the poorest prognosis.