PREDICTIVE VALUE OF CLONALITY ASSAYS IN PATIENTS WITH NON-HODGKINS-LYMPHOMA UNDERGOING AUTOLOGOUS BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANT - A SINGLE INSTITUTION STUDY

Recent studies have documented an increased risk of therapy-related my elodysplastic syndrome or acute myelogenous leukemia (t-MDS/AML) after autologous bone marrow transplant (ABMT) for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma ( NHL). To develop methods to identify patients at risk for this complic ation, we have investigated the predictive value of clonal bone marrow (BM) hematopoiesis for the development of t-MDS/AML, as defined by an X-inactivation based clonality assay at the human androgen receptor l ocus (HUMARA), in a group of patients undergoing ABMT for NHL from a s ingle institution (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA). One hund red four female patients were analyzed. At the time of ABMT, the preva lence of polyclonal hematopoiesis was 77% (80/104), of skewed X-inacti vation pattern (XIP) was 20% (21/104), and of clonal hematopoiesis was 3% (3/104). To determine the predictive value of clonality for the de velopment of t-MDS/AML, a subgroup of 78 patients with at least 18 mon ths follow-up was analyzed. As defined by the HUMARA assay, 53 of 78 p atients had persistent polyclonal hematopoiesis, 15 of 78 had skewed X IP, and 10 of 78 (13.5%) either had clonal hematopoiesis at the time o f ABMT or developed clonal hematopoiesis after ABMT. t-MDS/AML develop ed in 2 of 53 patients with polyclonal hematopoiesis and in 4 of 10 wi th clonal hematopoiesis. We conclude that a significant proportion of patients have clonal hematopoiesis at the time of ABMT and that clonal hematopoiesis, as detected by the HUMARA assay, is predictive of the development of t-MDS/AML (P = .004). (C) 1998 by The American Society of Hematology.