Webb, Jason A.

12011 Background: Patients (pts) with high HCT-Comorbidity Index scores (HCT-CI of ≥3), older age (≥65 years), and/or who are frail per gait speed (<0.8 meters/second) have increased morbidity and mortality after allo-HCT compared to younger and healthier counterparts. We report the phase II analysis (PIIA) and interim phase III primary outcome analysis (PIIIA) of a seamless phase II/III prospective, randomized clinical trial conducted at 11 transplant centers to test new approaches to improve quality of life (QOL) in this population. Methods: Phase II compared specialist-administered supportive and palliative care (SPC), patient-administered management of comorbidities (MC, e.g. physical exercise, stress reduction, etc), both (SPC+MC), and usual care (UC) for change in Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – Bone Marrow Transplantation (FACT-BMT) QOL scores from baseline to day 90 (D90). Pts deceased prior to D90 were assigned FACT-BMT score=0. The winning phase II arm moved forward versus UC in phase III. Results: PIIA was done after enrolling 35 pts to each of the 4 study arms. Calculating the difference between FACT-BMT scores on D90 minus baseline, excluding missing data, indicated that only SPC resulted in a small improvement in QOL compared to either MC or SPC+MC (Table); hence SPC was the winning phase II arm. The PIIIA was conducted after enrolling 158 SPC pts and 153 UC pts. The SPC and UC arms were well balanced with median age (both 68 years), HCT-CI ≥3 (49% vs 55%), frailty per gait speed (13% vs 12%), female sex (41% vs 34%), non-white race (9.5% vs 11.5%), and Hispanic or unreported ethnicity (7.7% vs 5.7%), respectively. After median follow-up of 362 days, 45 pts had died in each arm. The mean QOL difference between D90 and baseline was 2.83 for SPC and 4.27 for UC (difference of differences, -1.44, 95% CI of difference, -5.03 to 2.14, p=0.43). Fitting a generalized linear model that included baseline, D30, and D90 values and testing the null hypothesis that the slope of scores differs between SPC and UC resulted in p=0.85. Using the Kaplan Meier method, no difference in survival was observed across arms (HR 1.13 [0.75-1.73]). Conclusions: Specialist-administered palliative care showed no meaningful improvement in QOL, nor a survival advantage, compared to usual care in frail, older and comorbid allo-HCT recipients, resulting in the cessation of this Phase II/III trial. Analysis of the whole patient population for primary and secondary outcomes is in progress. Clinical trial information: NCT03870750 . Change in FACT-BMT (D90 value minus baseline value) comparing the 4 arms of phase II. Group Mean difference (sd) Median difference (range) SPC (n=28) -2.93 (28.52) 0.25 (-102 to 38.22) CM (n=18) -18.37 (33.80) -9.50 (-98.33 to 11) SPC+CM (n=27) -15.76 (32.69) -7.67 (-90 to 32)

INTRODUCTION While prognostic understanding (PU) is important for all patients (pts) considering hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT), it may be particularly important for older (&gt;65 years), medically infirm, and/or frail pts deciding whether to undergo allogeneic HCT (allo-HCT). This abstract reports on PU and concordance with transplant physician (hereafter MD) PU for pts participating in an ongoing seamless, phase II-III randomized clinical trial (ACE-BMT) comparing 4-arms: a pt-administered comorbidity management intervention (CM), specialist-administered palliative care (PC), a combined arm of CM and PC to standard of care. Here we report preliminary data on the concordance between pt and MD PU on the chance of cure 1-year (yr) post allo-HCT. METHODS Pt PU was compared to MD PU (gold standard) to determine concordance. MD and pt answers were compared on a single validated question asked at enrollment to the study (typically 2 weeks prior to HCT). Both pts and MD's estimated the chance of cure 1 yr after allo-HCT by selecting one of six possible response options: very good (more than 90%), good (75-90%), better than 50% (50-74%), worse than 50% (25-49%), bad (10-24%) or very bad (less than 10%). PU was “concordant” or “accurate” if MD and pt selected the same response option. Pts with discordant PU were labeled “pessimistic” if the pt selected a response option with a lower chance of cure than the MD (and “optimistic” if a higher chance). Response options were further simplified to greater than or less than 50% chance of cure and MD and pt PU were compared again. Descriptive statistics, chi-square for categorical and t-tests for continuous variables were used. Logistic regression was used to determine the association between pt prognostic concordance and pt socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. RESULTS All pts consented to date were included (n=358), except those who did not answer the prognosis question (n=61). 54.2% (n=194) had HCT-Comorbidity Index (HCT-CI) of ≥3, 67.9% (n=243) were older than 65 yrs and 4.5% (n=16) were frail, defined by walk speed &lt;0.8 m/s. Median age was 68 yrs (range 20-80). 39.7% (n=141) were female. 89.9% (n=322) identified as White, 4.2% (n=15) Asian, and 1% each as Black/African American and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander. 5.3% (n=19) identified Hispanic. 11.5% (n=44) had high school education or less. 54.1% (n=183) made less than $100,000/yr. 40.1% (n=136) had acute myelogenous leukemia, 25.4% (n=86) had high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome and 10.6% (n=36) had a myeloproliferative cancer. 72.1% (n=245) had matched, 82.5% (n=283) unrelated and 95.0% (n=36) peripheral blood allo-HCT. 9% (n=31) had KPS of 100%, 35% (n=121) KPS 90%, and 47.5% (n=147) KPS 80%. Pts reported having a very good, good, better than 50%, worse than 50% and bad/very bad chance of cure 1 yr post allo-HCTL 34.4% (n=123), 30.7% (n=110), 26.0% (n=93), 7.3% (n=26) and 1.7% (n=6), respectively. 91.1% (n=326) of pts felt they had a &gt;50% chance of being cured 1 yr post allo-HCT. MD answers were missing for 159/358 (44.4%) pts. MDs reported pt had a very good, good, better than 50%, worse than 50% and bad/very bad chance of being cured 1 yr post allo-HCT, 3.0% (n=6), 6.5% (n=13), 52.8% (n=105), 35.7% (n=71) and 2% (n=4) respectively. 62.3% (n=124) of MDs felt the pt had a &gt;50% chance of being cured 1 yr post allo-HCT. For the subset of pts with MD prognostic data (n=199), pt's PU was concordant 20.6% (n=41) of the time when compared across all 6 response options. Overall, 71.9% (n=143) of pts erred toward optimism, while 7.5% (n=15) of pts were pessimistic. 60.8% of MD and pts agreed on prognosis when dichotomized to better or worse than 50% chance of being cured 1 yr post allo-HCT. Prognostic concordance was not significantly associated with any pt socio-demographic factors, HCT-CI or KPS via descriptive statistics or regression analysis. CONCLUSIONS In this prospective randomized trial focusing on a population of older, medically infirm, and/or frail pts receiving allo-HCT, pts' PU was not concordant with MD prognosis approximately 80% of the time. While some pts were pessimistic, the majority overestimated the likelihood they would be cured of disease compared to MD estimates. Future studies should investigate the true accuracy of both MD and pt prognosis, as well as how to improve communication about prognosis and pt PU (if inaccurate based on best available information) prior to HCT.