Bone Marrow Transplant Chart Review for RIC

Primary myelofibrosis (PMF) is among the Philadelphia Chromosome Negative Myeloproliferative Disorders. This diagnosis can be present at a patient's initial diagnosis or it can arise out of preceding Polycythemia Vera or Essential Thrombocythemia. While the clinical course is variable, it is defined by varying degrees of splenomegaly, anemia, fatigue and other constitutional symptoms. Patients with PMF are at increased risk of acute leukemia, bone marrow failure and thrombosis. Currently, the only curative treatment for PMF is allogeneic stem cell transplant. However, as the median age at diagnosis is in the mid to late 60s, most patients are no longer candidates for transplant due to their age and/or other comorbid illnesses.

Unfortunately, all other treatments for PMF are palliative in nature and often of limited efficacy. Over the last several years, many advances have occurred that have increased the safety and improved the outcomes of allogeneic transplants. Perhaps most important has been the ongoing refinement of reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) regimens prior to transplant. Over the last few years, many groups have published data suggesting that these RIC transplants can be very effective in the treatment of PMF and it is felt to be a potentially curative procedure. However, the vast majority of these data are reported in persons younger than 65 years old. The current protocol for RIC transplant for PMF available at the University of Utah excludes patients older than the age of 65.

We would like to see if there is sufficient successful experience with transplant in persons older than 60 years old (including many older than 65 years of age) to justify the creation of a clinical trial using RIC regimens in this older age group. We will be reviewing the medical records of approximately 30 patients at four different institutions:

University of Utah/Huntsman Cancer Hospital
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Baylor College of Medicine
M.D. Anderson Cancer Centers

We will evaluate: engraftment rate, relapse rate, disease free survival, overall survival, causes of death and other pertinent statistics. We will compare the outcomes to appropriate historical controls. We hypothesize that RIC regimens may be justifiably safe in older patients with PMF and hope that our data will allow the development of a corollary clinical trial.