IL-6 and IL-2 plasma levels at the time of discontinuation identify CML patients who fail to sustain treatment-free remission

BIANCHINI M

Congreso; ESH (EUROPEAN SCHOOL OF HAEMATOLOGY); 2022

Introduction: Recent studies suggest that a proportion of chronic myeloid leukemia(CML) patients in deep molecular remission can discontinue the tyrosine kinase inhibitortreatment without disease relapse. However, there is still need for better prediction toolsfor choosing the right patients for stopping attempts. Easily accessible biomarkers suchas plasma proteins would be a valuable complement for guiding decision-making in thetreatment-free remission (TFR) scenario. This study aimed to identify plasma cytokinebiomarkers in CML patients at discontinuation to predict subsequent TFR failure.Methods: This study was conducted as an exploratory sub-study of the ArgentineanStop Trial (AST), which recruited 46 CML patients in chronic phase. Plasma sampleswere taken at the time of discontinuation and cryopreserved at -80°C until analysis withLuminex MAGPIX® platform. The levels of 20 cytokines were measured in duplicateplasma samples using three different panels (Merck-Millipore): EOTAXIN/CCL11,GMCSF, IFN2, IL-1, IL-1, IL-1RA, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8/CXCL8, IL-9, IL-15,MCP-1/CCL2, TGF, LIF, SCF, TGF1, TGF2, TGF3. For statistical analysis, nonparametric Mann–Whitney test was used for comparing differences between molecularrelapsed (R) vs. no-relapsed (NR) patients. Molecular recurrence-free survival wasestimated by the Kaplan–Meier method and compared within groups by the log-rank test.Each cytokine was dichotomized according to receiver operating characteristics curvesto optimize their cutoff points. Logistic regression was used to create predictive models,considering molecular relapse as the outcome variable. Differences were consideredstatistically significant when p