Normal karyotype acute myeloid leukemia patients with CEBPA double mutation have a favorable prognosis but no survival benefit from allogeneic stem cell transplant

Normal karyotype acute myeloid leukemia (NK-AML) with CCAAT/enhancer binding protein α (CEBPA) mutations is known to have a more favorable prognosis. However, direct comparison of the clinical significance according to consolidation therapy has not been widely performed in patients with NK-AML. A total of 404 patients with NK-AML who received intensive induction chemotherapy were included in the present study. Diagnostic samples from the patients were evaluated for CEBPA mutations by direct sequencing. CEBPA single (sm) or double mutation (dm) was observed in 27 (6.7 %) and 51 (12.6 %) patients, respectively. CEBPA^dm was associated with GATA2^mut, and it was less frequently associated with FLT3-ITD^pos, NPM1^mut, and DNMT3A^mut in comparison with CEBPA^wild or CEBPA^sm (all p values <0.05). On multivariate analysis, CEBPA^dm (p = 0.007, OR 39.593) was an independent risk factor for achievement of complete remission (CR). With a median follow-up of 40.1 months, CEBPA^dm showed a favorable overall survival (OS), event-free survival (EFS), and lower relapse incidence (RI) in comparison with CEBPA^wild (all p values <0.005). Comparison of clinical outcome analyses (consolidation chemotherapy vs. allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT)) demonstrated the role of consolidation treatment in patients with CEBPA^dm. Allogeneic HCT was associated with lower EFS and RI and a trend of higher non-relapse mortality. However, there was no statistically significant difference in OS. In conclusion, CEBPA^dm was associated with other molecular mutations. Consolidation chemotherapy alone may overcome higher relapse rates by reducing the treatment mortality and increasing survival after relapse events in patients with CEBPA^dm in NK-AML.