A study, published in Cancers, indicated that hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) with prior use of checkpoint inhibitors appears feasible in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and/or myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and the use of post-HSCT cyclophosphamide (PTCy) as graft-versus host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis improves outcomes.
“Taken together, these data indicate that the use of prior checkpoint inhibitors needs to be considered within the donor/hematopoietic stem cell selection and GVHD prophylaxis plan for patients undergoing HSCT,” the authors wrote.
In this study, a retrospective analysis of 43 patients with AML and/or MDS who were treated with an antiprogrammed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) (32 patients) or anticytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4) (9 patients) blockade or both (2 patients) prior to HSCT with the primary outcome of acute…