Pretreatment CD34/CD38 Cell Burden as Prognostic Factor in Myelodysplastic Syndrome Patients Receiving Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation.

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) is a highly heterogeneous clonal hematopoietic disorder. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) remains the only curative treatment and is of particular interest in patients at high risk for progression to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In MDS, CD34/CD38 cells possess MDS stem cell potential, and secondary AML (sAML) clones originate from the MDS disease stage. However, the prognostic impact of the pretreatment stem cell population burden in MDS remains unknown. We retrospectively analyzed the prognostic impact of the pretreatment CD34/CD38 cell burden in 124 MDS patients who received allogeneic HSCT at our institution. A high pretreatment bone marrow CD34/CD38 cell burden (≥1%) was associated with worse genetic risk and a higher incidence of blast excess. Patients with a high CD34/CD38 cell burden had a significantly higher cumulative incidence of MDS relapse, a higher cumulative incidence of secondary AML, and a trend for shorter overall survival after allogeneic HSCT. In multivariable analyses this prognostic impact was shown to be independent of other clinical and cytogenetic risk factors in MDS. Patients suffering MDS relapse or progression to AML also had a higher pre-treatment CD34/CD38 cell burden as a continuous variable. The observed prognostic impact is likely mediated by MDS stem cells within the CD34/CD38 cell population initiating MDS relapse or progression to AML. New therapeutic strategies targeting MDS stem cells might improve outcomes.