Scheich S, et al. - Researchers aimed at determining the clinical impact of colonization with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) on outcome after allogeneic stem cell transplantation in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Findings here reinforced the importance of regular MDRO screenings and prompt further investigations into the impact of colonization with MDRO on the immune system after Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT).

Methods

• This retrospective, single-center study was performed to analyze data from 264 patients with AML who underwent a first allo-HSCT between January 2006 and March 2016.
• Overall survival and nonrelapse-related mortality were primarily assessed.

Results

• At least 1 MDRO, mainly vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecalis/faecium (n = 122), colonized 142 of 264 patients (53.8%).
• There appeared no differences between the characteristics of colonized patients and MDRO-negative patients with respect to median age (53.5 vs 53 years), cytogenetic risk according to European LeukemiaNet criteria, remission status before allo-HSCT (first or second complete remission: 55.7% vs 60.7%, respectively; active disease: 44.4% vs 39.3%, respectively), donor type, or hematopoietic cell transplantation-comorbidity index (HCT-CI).
• MDRO-positive patients, in comparison to noncolonized patients, had an inferior probability of survival at 5 years (43.3% vs 65.5%; P = .002), primarily because of a higher cumulative incidence of nonrelapse-related mortality (33.9% vs 9.4%; P < .001).
• In this study, death caused by infections occurred in 15.5% of colonized patients versus 4.9% of noncolonized patients.
• The cumulative incidence of relapse did not differed between MDRO-positive and MDRO-negative patients (33.8% vs 42.1%, respectively; P = .798).