title: A new stratification strategy that identifies a subset of class III patients with an adverse prognosis among children with beta thalassemia major undergoing a matched related allogeneic stem cell transplantation.
abstract: One hundred ninety patients underwent 197 HLA-matched related allogeneic stem cell transplantation for a diagnosis of beta thalassemia major at our center. The median age (+/-SD) was 7+/-4.1 years, and there were 129 (68%) males. Age and liver size as continuous variables were significantly associated with an adverse outcome. Using a receiver operator characteristics curve plot analysis, cutoff values of 7 years and 5 cm for age and liver size, respectively, were associated with the highest likelihood ratio of an adverse impact. On a multivariate analysis age>or=7 years and liver size>or=5 cm had a significant impact on event free survival (EFS) (relative risk 2.2 and 2.7, P values .014 and .000, respectively). Using these 2 variables, patients were categorized as high risk if they were >or=7 years and had a liver size>or=5 cm (n=41; all belonged to Class III). The 5-year EFS and overall survival (OS) in this high-risk group was 23.93+/-6.88 and 39.01+/-7.96, whereas in the remaining Class III patients (n=64) it was 70.3+/-6.06 and 78.3+/-5.5, respectively. This risk stratification identifies a significant subset (39%) of patients among those in Class III who have a poor outcome with a conventional myeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Patients in this high-risk group would probably benefit from novel therapeutic approaches.
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology, Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, India. vikram@cmcvellore.ac.in
authors.forename: Vikram
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mathews
authors.forename: Biju
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: George
authors.forename: Uday
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Deotare
authors.forename: Kavitha M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Lakshmi
authors.forename: Auro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Viswabandya
authors.forename: Dolly
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Daniel
authors.forename: Mammen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chandy
authors.forename: Alok
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Srivastava
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006529:Hepatomegaly; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous / Q000009:adverse effects; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D017086:beta-Thalassemia / Q000145:classification / Q000628:therapy*