Reclassification of Acute Myeloid Leukemia According to the 2022 World Health Organization Classification and the...

In 2022, the revised WHO classification and International Consensus Classification (ICC) for myeloid neoplasms were published. We examined the impact of these guidelines on AML diagnoses alongside the 2022 European LeukemiaNet (ELN) recommendations on risk stratification.

We included 450 adult patients with newly diagnosed AML (non-acute promyelocytic leukemia) from the cBioPortal open-source dataset. Diagnoses and risk stratifications were revised based on the new guidelines and compared with the 2017 WHO classification. Survival analyses were performed using Cox regression.

Among the patients included, 190 (42.2%) had consistent diagnoses across the three classifications, whereas 225 (50.0%) had inconsistent diagnoses. The two major WHO 2017 subtypes, AML not otherwise specified (AML-NOS) and AML with myelodysplasia-related changes (AML-MRC), were further subdivided according to the WHO 2022 and ICC. The ICC had the highest prognostication power among the three classifications. Subgroup analysis according to the different definitions of myelodysplasia-related AML and the introduction of AML with mutated TP53 (AML-TP53) showed that the differentiation of AML-TP53 was beneficial. The update from ELN 2017 to ELN 2022 resulted in significant transitions in a subset of patients. The updated diagnostic classification and ELN risk stratification (i.e., the ICC and ELN 2022) showed a straightforward relationship.

This study presents an integrative comparative analysis of past and current guidelines for AML diagnosis and risk classification based on open-source data. The ICC diagnostic criteria are clinically significant for determining AML prognosis. In line with the changing treatment paradigm for AML, future research is needed to continuously validate diagnostic and risk stratification systems.