Al‐Kali, Aref

ABSTRACT Patients with newly‐diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (ND‐AML) derive variable survival benefit from venetoclax (Ven) plus hypomethylating agent (HMA) therapy, and the optimal Ven duration across genetic risk groups remains undefined. Among 540 ND‐AML patients receiving Ven‐HMA at Mayo Clinic, outcomes were compared across Ven 7‐ ( n = 33), 14‐ ( n = 117), 21‐ ( n = 96), and 28‐day ( n = 294) schedules during Cycle 1 and stratified by ELN 2024 and Mayo genetic risk groups. At a median follow‐up of 37.7 months, allogeneic stem cell transplant (ASCT) rates were similar across Ven duration groups (15%, 18%, 18%, and 20% for 7‐, 14‐, 21‐, and 28‐day; p = 0.86). Median transplant‐censored survival was comparable across Ven durations (13.3, 11.9, 16.8, and 13.2 months for 7, 14, 21, 28 days, respectively; p = 0.65), with outcomes driven by ELN risk (6.3, 11.5, 18.3 months for high, intermediate, low; p < 0.01) and Mayo genetic risk (6.9, 17.8 months, not reached; p < 0.01). Survival was comparable across Ven durations within ELN intermediate/low‐risk and all Mayo risk groups. Among ELN high‐risk patients, 14‐day Ven was associated with inferior transplant‐censored survival compared to 21‐ and 28‐day schedules ( p < 0.01). Notably, 30‐ and 60‐day mortality were higher with shorter Ven schedules (7‐day: 9%/18%; 14‐day: 7%/15%) versus 28‐day (2%/6%), which likely reflects treatment selection bias. In ND‐AML, no significant difference in transplant‐censored survival was observed across the 7‐, 14‐, 21‐, and 28‐day Ven schedules; prognosis was determined primarily by Mayo and ELN 2024 genetic risk rather than by Ven duration. Prospective trials are needed to establish risk‐adapted Ven dosing strategies.

ABSTRACT Venetoclax (Ven) plus hypomethylating agents (HMA) is standard frontline therapy for newly diagnosed AML (ND‐AML) patients unfit for intensive chemotherapy and is also considered in younger, fit patients. However, consolidation with allogeneic stem cell transplant (ASCT) is often required to secure durable remission. The current study examines posttransplant outcomes in patients with ND‐AML treated with frontline Ven‐HMA who subsequently underwent ASCT. A total of 111 ND‐AML patients (58% male, 60% secondary/therapy‐related, median age 70 years [range, 37–80]) received a median of 3 cycles of Ven‐HMA. Mutations at the time of diagnosis included RUNX1 (18%), SRSF2 (17%), TP53 (16%), ASXL1 , IDH2 , K/NRAS , TET2 (14% each), STAG2 (11%), DNMT3A (8%). All patients were in CR/CRi at the time of transplant including 88% after Ven‐HMA. Measurable residual disease (MRD) by flow cytometry was detectable in 18/76 (24%) patients. Donors were mostly HLA‐matched unrelated (75%); 51% receiving fludarabine/melphalan conditioning and 67% posttransplant cyclophosphamide. At a median follow‐up of 15 months, 42 (38%) of patients have died and 18 (16%) experienced posttransplant relapse. Median posttransplant survival was not reached (NR), with 1‐, 2‐, 3‐year survival rates of 69%/60%/57%, respectively. On multivariate analysis, age ≥ 65 years, STAG2 mutation ( STAG2 MUT ) , and DNMT3A MUT were associated with superior posttransplant survival. Patients were stratified into low‐ (0–1 point), intermediate‐ (2 points), and high‐risk (3 points); age < 65 years, STAG2 wild type, and DNMT3A wild type, with 3‐year survival rates of 89%, 59%, and 19%, respectively ( p < 0.01). Taken together, age, STAG2 MUT and DNMT3A MUT stratified posttransplant survival in Ven‐HMA treated patients with ND‐AML.

PURPOSE Hematology care delivery is changing rapidly for patients, care teams, and health care institutions. This study simultaneously evaluated utilization data for synchronous/real-time patient appointments, asynchronous/time-delayed patient communications, and provider preferences in a large academic hematology practice to inform sustainable care delivery and workflows in the digital era. METHODS We conducted a retrospective analysis of aggregated adult hematology appointment and patient communication data at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) from January 2023 to January 2025. Data were stratified by appointment modality, patient characteristics, and electronic health record (EHR) message volumes. Additionally, a voluntary, anonymous survey assessed hematology provider preferences regarding appointment modalities, in-basket burdens, and billing practices. RESULTS Among 83,713 completed appointments, 80.8% were in-person, 12.9% video, and 6.4% telephone. Patients age 80 years and older and rural cohorts used virtual modalities at rates comparable with younger and metropolitan cohorts. Asynchronous communication volume was considerable, with 155,036 patient-initiated telephone calls generating a digital cascade of 407,578 EHR messages (a 1:2.6 ratio) and 49,798 patient-initiated advice request in-basket messages generating 343,030 additional EHR messages (a 1:6.9 ratio). Providers (n = 53) strongly preferred in-person appointments for new consults (92.5%) and active therapy management (90.6%) but favored virtual appointments for surveillance (52.8%). Although 86.8% of providers reported spending >30 minutes daily on in-basket management, 94.3% reported not billing for this time. CONCLUSION Telehealth is a substantial component of modern hematology practice, used across all age groups. However, digital cascading and proliferation of asynchronous communications present an invisible and uncaptured workload. Optimizing care delivery could include implementation of a stratified hybrid model, prioritizing in-person appointments for high-acuity needs and virtual appointments for low-acuity needs, alongside standardized workflows to mitigate burdens of the digital era.

ABSTRACT We examined the prognostic value of routine NGS data in newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) treated with intensive (7 + 3 backbone) induction, specified by AML subtype. A contemporary (2015–2025) series of 545 Mayo Clinic patients (median age 56 years, females 44%) was considered. Median follow‐up was 49 months with 341 (63%) allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantations (AHSCT) recorded. AML subtypes included core‐binding factor (CBF; N = 72; 13%), primary non‐CBF ( N = 403; 74%), post‐myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) or post‐myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms (post‐MDS‐MDS/MPN; N = 28; 5%), post‐MPN ( N = 15; 3%), and therapy‐related (t‐AML; N = 27; 5%). Corresponding complete remission rates, with/without count recovery (CR/CRi), were 89%, 76%, 64%, 27%, and 78% ( p < 0.01) and 5‐year transplant‐censored survival rates 68%, 57%, 21%, 0%, and 55% ( p < 0.01). In multivariable analyses, the prognostic value of specific mutations was mostly limited to primary non‐CBF AML where adverse karyotype (OR 1.9; p = 0.04) predicted inferior and FLT3 ‐ITD (OR 0.4; p < 0.01) or NPM1 MUT / FLT3 WT (OR 0.1; p < 0.01) superior CR/CRi while KRAS MUT (HR 8.8; p < 0.01), TP53 MUT (HR 5.4; p < 0.01), and TET2 MUT (HR 2.3; p = 0.01) predicted inferior and NPM1 MUT / FLT3 WT (HR 0.3; p = 0.01) superior survival. Prognostication in intensively‐treated AML should start with subtype specification and recognition of the limited value of NGS in non‐primary AML. Post‐MPN AML is particularly associated with dismal outcomes and should be prognostically distinguished from post‐MDS‐MDS/MPN AML. In primary non‐CBF AML, in addition to previously established risk factors, the favorable impact of FLT3 ‐ITD on achieving CR/CRi and the unfavorable impact of KRAS MUT and TET2 MUT on transplant‐censored survival were noted and require confirmation from additional studies.

Myelodysplastic syndromes with isolated deletion of chromosome 5q [MDS-del(5q)] constitute a distinct biological entity traditionally associated with favorable outcomes, although up to one quarter of patients progress to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Existing prognostic models, developed in heterogeneous MDS populations, may not adequately capture risk within this subgroup. We assembled an international cohort of 682 patients with MDS-del(5q) to evaluate the performance of the IPSS-R and IPSS-M, identify prognostic variables, and develop a disease-specific prognostic tool, the IPSS-del(5q). Most patients were classified as lower-risk by IPSS-R (94.4%) and IPSS-M (85.5%), yet both systems showed limited discriminatory ability (C-indices ≈0.5). Independent adverse prognostic factors included age ≥70 years, male sex, anemia (hemoglobin ≤10 g/dL), thrombocytopenia (platelets ≤100×10⁹/L), the presence of one additional chromosomal abnormality, ≥2 gene mutations, SF3B1 mutations, and high-risk TP53 status. Six variables were included in the IPSS-del(5q), stratifying patients into standard-risk (74.3%) and high-risk (25.7%) groups with significantly different LFS (69.2 vs. 32.0 months; p&lt;0.01). Moreover, this model reclassified 19.1% of lower-risk IPSS-R and 14.6% of lower-risk IPSS-M patients into the high-risk IPSS-del(5q) group. However, its discriminative power remained modest, with a C-index of 0.60. Overall, this study provides the most comprehensive prognostic evaluation of MDS-del(5q) to date, demonstrates the limited discriminatory capacity of existing MDS scores in this entity, and underscores the need to develop refined disease-specific prognostic approaches for this MDS subtype.

Background/Objectives: Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) carry a highly variable prognosis, stratified by the Revised International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R) and the Molecular IPSS (IPSS-M). CEBPA mutations define a favorable-risk subgroup in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), yet their prognostic significance in MDS has not been characterized. Methods: We analyzed 2442 patients from the International Working Group (IWG) 2022 multi-center MDS registry after pre-specified exclusions. Overall survival (OS) and leukemia-free survival (LFS) were compared between CEBPA-mutated (n = 66; 2.7%) and wild-type patients using Kaplan–Meier estimation and Cox proportional hazards regression, adjusting for age, sex, and IPSS-R score; pre-specified subgroup, sensitivity, competing-risk, and mutation subtype analyses were performed. Results:CEBPA-mutated patients had markedly inferior OS (median 17.2 versus 42.2 months; HR 2.05, 95% CI 1.50–2.79; p < 0.001). After IPSS-R adjustment, the hazard ratio remained adverse (HR 1.39, 95% CI 1.00–1.94; p = 0.053), with uniform directionality across all 13 evaluable subgroups and no significant interaction. Co-mutation adjustment for ASXL1 and STAG2 further attenuated the hazard ratio to HR 1.11 (95% CI 0.79–1.57; p = 0.54), suggesting part of the observed signal reflects co-mutation burden rather than an independent CEBPA effect. Competing-risk analysis suggested that the excess mortality is mediated through AML transformation (CEBPA-mutated versus wild-type subdistribution hazard ratio of 1.89, 95% CI 1.20–2.99; p = 0.006) rather than non-transformative MDS mortality (cause-specific HR 0.97; p = 0.890). Truncating mutations drove the adverse signal (HR 2.21; p = 0.023), while basic leucine zipper (bZIP) domain mutations showed no significant effect (HR 1.25; p = 0.470). Conclusions:CEBPA mutations identify a rare MDS subgroup with markedly inferior survival, driven by truncating loss-of-function mutations and associated with leukemic transformation; the AML-derived bZIP-favorable paradigm does not translate to MDS, and CEBPA mutation status merits a prospective study to assess clinical utility for risk stratification.

Abstract Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are clinically and biologically diverse disorders, emphasizing the need for personalized treatment approaches. The International Working Group for Prognostication of MDS (IWG_PM) recently introduced a molecular classification, referred to as the MDS taxonomy, that categorizes patients into 16 subgroups based on 21 gene mutations, 6 cytogenetic abnormalities, and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at TP53 and TET2 loci. This study sought to validate and enhance the clinical relevance of the MDS taxonomy by analyzing a large retrospective cohort ( n = 5136) and transcriptomic data from a prospective cohort ( n = 477). The taxonomy successfully identified subgroups with distinct clinical characteristics and disease progression patterns. However, incorporating gene interactions from taxonomy subgroups did not improve the prognostic performance of the Molecular International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS‐M). We further assessed whether the taxonomy could guide management in patients receiving disease‐modifying therapies. Except for the “ TP53 ‐complex” subgroup, taxonomy classifications were not predictive of hypomethylating agent response or transplant outcomes. Nonetheless, they correlated with overall survival, suggesting that while both IPSS‐M and the taxonomy capture disease biology, other non‐genetic factors may influence treatment response. RNA sequencing confirmed the biological distinctiveness of the taxonomy groups. Transcriptomic profiling of CD34+ bone marrow cells revealed unique, homogeneous gene expression patterns, particularly within the AML‐like, bi TET2 , SF3B1 , and TP53 ‐complex subgroups. Further integration of multi‐omics data may refine MDS classification, improving clinical decision‐making and guiding the development of targeted therapies.

ABSTRACT Hypomethylating agents (HMA) and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT) have both demonstrated remissions in VEXAS; however, comparative data is lacking. We conducted a multicenter, retrospective analysis of 66 patients diagnosed with VEXAS syndrome treated with HMA ( n = 35) or alloHSCT ( n = 31). Baseline characteristics such as genetics, co‐morbidities, and performance status were balanced between the groups, except older age in the HMA group. Median follow‐up from therapy initiation was 18 months (95% CI: 11–26), and 14 (21%) deaths were reported (alloHSCT n = 3; HMA n = 11). Among all evaluable patients within the alloHSCT cohort, all patients achieved molecular remission, and a substantial proportion of patients discontinued glucocorticoids (58%). In contrast, HMA therapy was associated with lower but meaningful rates of molecular remission (22%) and glucocorticoid discontinuation (6%). In a real‐world setting, HMA therapy was associated with a high discontinuation rate related to toxicity or lack of response. On multivariable analysis adjusted for age and Charlson Comorbidity Index, alloHSCT was associated with improved overall survival (HR = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.05–0.81; p = 0.024). This association remained consistent across multiple ancillary sensitivity analyses, including restriction to transplant‐eligible patients, patients aged ≤ 75 years, 1:1 matching, and propensity score‐based weighted analyses. Although limited by retrospective design, these findings suggest that alloHSCT remains an attractive and potentially curative strategy in selected patients with VEXAS. Prospective validation of these findings is warranted.

Among the transcriptional dependencies that sustain leukemic identity in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the menin–KMT2A chromatin complex has emerged as a central regulatory node. The scaffold protein menin, encoded by MEN1, facilitates transcriptional activation of HOX and MEIS family genes during normal hematopoietic development. In AML, this physiologic and developmentally regulated role is co-opted to sustain constitutive HOX/MEIS-driven programs that block differentiation and maintain leukemic potential. Although dependency on menin is most clearly established in KMT2A-rearranged and NPM1-mutated AML, this vulnerability appears to arise from a shared transcriptional state characterized by persistent HOX activation rather than from any single genetic alteration. Pharmacologic disruption of the menin-KMT2A interaction collapses stemness-associated transcriptional networks, promotes myeloid differentiation, and attenuates leukemic self-renewal. Clinical activity observed with menin inhibitors provides translational validation of this dependency and establishes menin inhibition as a differentiation-based therapeutic strategy. In this review, we examine the molecular basis of menin-dependent transcriptional regulation in AML and its implications for therapeutic targeting with menin inhibitors and resistance to therapy.

e18607 Background: Progression to myelofibrosis (MF) is associated with worse survival and influences treatment decisions, yet predictors of fibrotic progression in polycythemia vera (PV) and essential thrombocythemia (ET) remain poorly characterized. Methods: Patients with pathologically confirmed PV or ET were identified from a retrospective chart review. Demographics (age, sex, race, ethnicity), clinical features (thrombosis and bleeding history, performance status, symptom burden, organomegaly), bone marrow pathology (cellularity, trilineage hematopoiesis, megakaryocyte proliferation and atypia, fibrosis grade), molecular markers ( JAK2 , CALR , MPL , ASXL1 , EZH2 , TET2 , SRSF2 , IDH1/2 , SF3B1 , TP53 ), cytogenetics, laboratory values, and treatment history (phlebotomy, hydroxyurea, interferon, ruxolitinib) at first bone marrow biopsy were recorded. MF progression was defined as hematologist-confirmed transformation to MF. Kaplan-Meier analyses estimated median MF-free survival (MFS), defined as time to MF progression or death. Univariable followed by multivariable Cox proportional regression were performed to identify candidate MFS predictors. The proportional hazards assumption was assessed using Schoenfeld residuals. Hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed, with p<0.05 indicating statistical significance. Results: A total of 505 PV and 198 ET patients were identified. The majority were White (PV: 92%; ET: 86%). PV patients were predominantly male (54%) whereas ET patients were predominantly female (66%). MF progression occurred in 160 (32%) PV and 32 (16%) ET patients. Death was observed in 139 (28%) PV and 10 (5%) ET patients. Median MFS was 158.5 months (95% CI: 143.0-183.0) for PV and 308.0 months (95% CI: 175.0-NR) for ET. In PV, older age at diagnosis (HR 1.04; 95% CI: 1.02-1.07; p<0.001) and shorter time since PV or ET diagnosis to biopsy (HR 0.995; 95% CI: 0.990-0.999; p=0.048) independently predicted worse MFS. In ET, bone marrow hypercellularity (HR 5.67, 95% CI: 1.40-23.0, p=0.015) independently predicted worse MFS. Conclusions: PV patients demonstrated shorter MFS compared to ET. Older age at diagnosis in PV, whereas bone marrow hypercellularity in ET was significantly associated with fibrotic progression or death. Active surveillance of at-risk patients may facilitate early detection and timely treatment initiation. Disease Variable HR (95%CI) P-value PV Age at diagnosis 1.04 (1.02-1.07) <0.001 Time since PV or ET diagnosis to biopsy 0.995 (0.990-0.999) 0.048 ET Bone marrow hypercellularity 5.67 (1.40-23.0) 0.015