TP53 mutation defines a unique subgroup within complex karyotype de novo and therapy-related MDS/AML.

Overview

abstract

A subset of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) show complex karyotype (CK), and these cases include a relatively high proportion of cases of therapy-related myeloid neoplasms and TP53 mutations. We aimed to evaluate the clinicopathologic features of outcome of 299 AML and MDS patients with CK. Mutations were present in 287 patients (96%) and the most common mutation detected was in TP53 gene (83%). A higher frequency of TP53 mutations was present in therapy-related cases (p=0.008) with a trend for worse overall survival (OS) in therapy-related patients as compared with de novo (p=0.08) and within the therapy-related group, the presence of TP53 mutation strongly predicted for worse outcome (p=0.0017). However, there was no difference in survival between CK patients based on categorization of AML versus MDS, (p=0.96) or presence of absence of circulating blasts ≥1% (p=0.52). TP53 mutated patients presented with older age (p=0.06) and lower hemoglobin (p=0.004) and marrow blast (p=0.02) compared to those with CK lacking TP53 mutation. Multivariable analysis identified presence of multi-hit TP53 mutation as strongest predictor of worse outcome, while neither a diagnosis of AML versus MDS nor therapy-relatedness independently influenced OS. Our findings suggest that among patients with MDS and AML, the presence of TP53 mutation (in particular multi-hit TP53 mutation) in the context of CK identifies a homogeneously aggressive disease, irrespective of the blast count at presentation or therapy-relatedness. The current classification of these cases into different disease categories artificially separates a single biologic disease entity.