Pretransplantation MRD in Older Patients With AML After Treatment With Decitabine or Conventional Chemotherapy

•More older patients with AML remain MRD positive after decitabine treatment compared to intensive chemotherapy.•Survival after transplantation is comparable in older patients with AML who were treated with chemotherapy or decitabine.•Pre-transplant MRD is not predictive for survival in older patients with AML treated with decitabine, in contrast to those treated with intensive chemotherapy. The predictive value of measurable residual disease (MRD) for survival in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has been firmly established in younger patients treated with intensive chemotherapy. The value of MRD after treatment with decitabine in older patients is unknown. This retrospective analysis included patients ≥60 years of age with AML who received an allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (alloHCT) after treatment with decitabine or intensive chemotherapy. Of the 133 consecutively transplanted patients, 109 had available pretransplantation MRD analyses (by flowcytometry [threshold 0.1%]). Forty patients received decitabine treatment (10-day schedule), and 69 patients received intensive chemotherapy (7 + 3 regimen). Patients who received decitabine were older (median 67 versus 64 years) and more often had MRD (70% versus 38%). OS after alloHCT was comparable in both groups. In the chemotherapy group, MRD-positive patients had a significantly higher relapse probability (subdistribution hazard ratio [sHR] 4.81; P= .0031) and risk of death (HR 2.8; P= .02) compared to MRD-negative patients. In the decitabine group there was no significant association between the presence of MRD and relapse (sHR 0.85; P= .83) or death (HR 0.72; P= .60). Pretransplantation MRD in patients receiving decitabine treatment does not have similar predictive value for relapse or survival in older AML patients receiving an alloHCT, compared to patients receiving intensive chemotherapy.