Patient-reported outcomes predict overall survival in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) predict overall survival (OS) in many cancer types, but there is little evidence of their prognostic value in older patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We examined whether the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Leukemia (FACT-Leu) predicted OS beyond established prognostic factors among these patients.

Data were from AML2002 (n = 309), a randomized phase 2/3 study comparing decitabine plus talacotuzumab versus decitabine alone in older AML patients ineligible for intensive chemotherapy. We used ridge-penalized Cox proportional hazards models to estimate the association between baseline FACT-Leu scales and OS. We then conducted a bootstrap analysis to determine how often FACT-Leu scales appeared in forward- and backward- selected "final models" predicting OS relative to prognosticators from the AML Composite Model (AML-CM; e.g., chronic comorbidities, previous cancer, cytogenetic/molecular risk).

In ridge-penalized models, the FACT-Leu Physical Well-Being (PWB), Trial Outcomes Index (TOI), and Total scales predicted OS. Adjusting for AML-CM factors, an important increase (3 points) in PWB score was associated with a 14% reduction in the hazard of death. In the bootstrap analysis, the PWB scale appeared in 93% of backward- and 98% of forward selected models, while the TOI [57% (backward), 79% (forward)] and FACT-Leu Total [51% (backward), 78% (forward)] appeared less often in final models.

These results indicate PROs' value for predicting outcomes among older AML patients and underscore the need to more systematically collect PRO data in routine care with these patients.

gov Registration: NCT02472145.