Prognostic value of lymphoid marker CD7 expression in acute myeloid leukemia patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation in first morphological complete remission

• DOI: 10.1007/s12185-021-03182-y
• Publication Date: 2021-06-26T16:02:41Z
• Authors: Kangkang Lv; Chengsen Cai; Jia Chen; Mimi Xu; Li Wan; Meng Zhou; Yuanyuan Du; Xiao Ma; Xiaojin Wu; Xiaowen Tang; Huiying Qiu; Depei Wu; Yue Han; Yuejun Liu
• Keywords: Hematology; Cumulative incidence; Minimal Residual Disease

Although defined as a lymphoid surface marker, CD7 is aberrantly expressed on a subtype of acute myeloid leukemia cells and appears to be associated with an inferior response to chemotherapy. Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) is a potentially curative modality but no data has been reported in CD7-positive AML patients. We performed a retrospective analysis involving 141 AML patients who underwent allo-HCT in first morphological complete remission (CR1). The results showed that CD7-positive AML patients had a poor 2-year overall survival (64.5% vs 82.0%, P = 0.040), relapse-free survival (RFS) (56.5% vs 79.4%, P = 0.005), and higher cumulative incidence of relapse (27.0% vs 9.7%, P = 0.003) post-HCT. In addition, expression of CD7 was related to RAS and RUNX1 mutation, and high residual disease level pre-HCT. Multivariate analyses showed CD7 expression at diagnosis was an independent risk factor for RFS (P = 0.016, HR = 0.418) and relapse (P = 0.014, HR = 0.307). We concluded that for AML patients in CR1, CD7 is a negative predictor for allo-transplant outcomes.