McCarthy, Philip L.

Abstract CXCR4, the chemokine receptor for stromal derived factor-1 (SDF-1) plays an important role in the homing and migration of hematopoietic stem cells. Selective inhibition of the binding of the CXCR4 receptor by the molecule AMD3100 leads to the mobilization of hematopoietic progenitors, including CD34+ cells into the circulation, even in the steady state. Preliminary studies have indicated that AMD3100 given 10–11 hours before each apheresis along with standard doses of G-CSF mobilizes more CD34+ cells per kilogram than does G-CSF alone. A Phase II study of this combination in patients with NHL and myeloma is underway. G-CSF at 10μg/kg/day for a duration of up to 9 days is administered with AMD3100 at 240 μg/kg/day starting on the evening of day 4 of G-CSF therapy, (10–11 hours prior to first and subsequent daily aphereses) until 5 x 106 CD34/kg are collected, or for a maximum of 5 days of a standard 3 blood volume apheresis. Both agents are administered subcutaneously. To date 20 patients (myeloma-6, NHL-14) have been enrolled and analyzed. Of these 20, 14 are considered to have been ‘heavily pre-treated’ using standard definitions (≥ 10 cycles of chemotherapy, platinum based salvage chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy to bone marrow sites). Blood CD34 assays (cells/μl) were performed before and after each AMD 3100 dose and on each apheresis product. After the first dose of AMD3100 there was a 2.6 fold increase in CD34/μl in blood (23 → 60 CD34+ cells/μl). The median number of apheresis performed was 2 (range 1–5); the median total CD34 collected for all 20 patients was 5.7 x 106/kg (range 2.32–14.58 x 106/kg). All patients had collections of > 2.0 x106 CD34/kg, and in 12 of 20 the 5 x 106 CD34/kg cell dose goal was collected, including 8 of 14 in the heavily pre-treated group. In fact in 6, the 5 x 106 CD34/kg cell dose was collected in a single apheresis. The median CD34/kg cell dose collected for the 14 heavily pre-treated patients was 5.7 x 106/kg (2.32–6.48 x 106/kg). There were no serious AE’s related to the use of AMD3100. Transient GI toxicity (mostly diarrhea) occurred in 10 of 20 patients shortly after the injections of AMD3100, but only 3 required therapy. Engraftment data is available for the first 12 patients treated. Time to ANC >500/μl and platelets > 20,000/μl was 9 (range 8–10) and 12 (range 9–19) days respectively. This novel combination of AMD3100 and G-CSF appears to be effective in mobilizing large numbers of CD34+ cells, even in patients considered to be heavily pre-treated, and is an effective alternative to chemotherapy/cytokine mobilization. Compared to studies of G-CSF alone, this combination may reduce the number of apheresis procedures needed to collect an adequate graft for rapid hematopoietic engraftment. The study is ongoing with accrual to date of 40 patients.

8517 Background: An increased risk of SPM in MM pts treated with len has been reported. We performed an IPD metanalysis to estimate the incidence of SPM according to len exposure. Methods: Randomized studies of MM, from PubMed and ASCO/IMW/ASH (after 2000), that met the following criteria, were included: randomization to treatment with len (len-trials); randomization to treatment including new drug but not len (no-len-trials); available SPM data. Primary aim was to estimate cumulative incidence of SPMs by len exposure, corrected for death (competing event). Results: Data from 6,383 pts (3,218 from 8 len-trials, 3,165 from 10 no-len-trials) were analyzed. Median age was 69 years. During follow-up (median=30 mos) 420 (6.6%) SPMs were reported: 188 (2.9%) hematologic and 232 (3.6%) solid cancers. Solid tumors occurred with similar incidence in all groups. Incidence of hematologic SPM was significantly higher in patients receiving len (3.2 vs 1.1, p=0.04), but risk is limited to patients treated with melphalan+len (4.1, 95%CI: 2.4-5.8) with no excess in other combinations (len without melphalan: 1.2, 0.0-2.6; melphalan without len: 1.1, 0.0-2.7) (p=0.003). The cumulative incidence of death for any cause was much higher than the risk of SPM. Conclusions: The risk of hematologic SPMs was higher in pts receiving melphalan+len. The benefit/risk profile of len treatment remains positive. Cumulative incidence (%) of SPMs and death (95%CI). [Table: see text]

Abstract The first two authors and last two authors contributed equally. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified risk loci for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), Chronic Lymphoblastic Leukemia (CLL) and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, however an Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) GWAS has not been published to date. We performed a GWAS to identify AML and Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) risk loci using a nested case-control study design in the DISCOVeRY-BMT cohorts which includes almost 2000 AML and MDS patients as cases and 2813 unrelated donors as controls. Genotyping was performed using the Illumina Human OmniExpress BeadChip and imputed using the Haplotype Reference Consortium, yielding > 8 million high-quality variants for statistical analysis. Logistic regression models with AML (de novo AML with normal cytogenetics, de novo AML with abnormal cytogenetics and therapy-related AML) and MDS cases and European American healthy donor controls adjusted for age and sex were used to test the association of each SNP with disease status. To identify the strongest association signal with disease we conducted a summary statistic SNP-based association analysis (ASSET) using non-overlapping AML and MDS cases implemented in R statistical software. ASSET uses an exhaustive search for SNPs with small but common pleiotropic effects across groups of traits while accounting for the multiple tests required by the subset search, as well as any shared controls between groups. This approach allowed us to further investigate the heterogeneity within AML subtypes and to gain increased power by pooling subtypes that show pleiotropic effects. ASSET genome wide (GW) significance is defined as P<5.0x10-8, however, we present results of each subset analysis. ASSET analyses identified an association of T allele at rs12203592, Interferon Regulatory Factor 4 (IRF4), with increased risk of de novo AML and MDS (Figure 1) (OR=1.37; 95% CI, 1.25-1.51, Pmeta=1.59x10-10). The variant has been reported significant in GWAS of skin pigmentation, hair color, non-melanoma skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma, actinic keratosis, and childhood ALL; GW case-control studies of neuroblastoma and breast cancer show suggestive association signals (P<5 x 10-6). IRF4 belongs to the IRF family of transcription factors and is a key regulator of differentiation stages in hematopoiesis. The T allele at rs12203592 is associated with significantly increased expression of IRF4 in whole blood and lung tissue and in vitro mouse studies have shown the T allele to be associated with higher levels of IRF4 transcription. rs12203592 is <80bp from an IRF4 transcription start site and in an important position within NF-κB motifs in multiple blood and immune cell lines, supporting the hypothesis that this SNP modulates NF-κB repression of IRF4 expression. Another variant in the IRF4 regulatory region, rs62389423 (A allele), showed a putative association with subsets of de novo AML and MDS (OR=1.36; 95% CI,1.21-1.52, Pmeta=1.2x10-7). Although not in linkage disequilibrium with rs12203592, the A allele has also been previously associated with susceptibility to skin cancer and melanoma in multiple GWAS. Analysis of 596 UKbiobank CLL cases and >300,000 controls, shows the A allele correlates with a 50% increased risk of CLL (95% CI, 1.32-1.73, P= 2.4x10-9).Several other GWAS also show an association between additional IRF4 variants and CLL. Analyses in individual subtypes also revealed an intronic variant, rs10098598, in RAD21 to be associated with de novo AML (OR=2.18; 95% CI, 1.60-2.97; Pmeta=8.9x10-7). RAD21, on8q24, a region known to be associated with multiple cancer types, is involved in DNA double-stranded break repair and in chromatid cohesion in mitotic cells. Loss of function would theoretically lead to chromosomal instability and tumorigenesis. Components of the cohesion complex (including RAD21) are somatically mutated in ~12% of de novo AML and MDS patients, where it is frequently an early event. We provide the first GW evidence of association between a common variant and AML susceptibility. This SNP has been shown to be associated with multiple phenotypes, suggesting that there are pleiotropic effects at work. Our RAD21 finding is consistent with the role of cohesion in leukemogenesis and provides some evidence of its role in de novo AML susceptibility. Replication and further subset analyses with genome-wide data in >2000 AML cases are ongoing. Disclosures Griffiths: Alexion Inc.: Honoraria, Research Funding; Astex/Otsuka Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria, Research Funding; Celgene, Inc: Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis, Inc.: Research Funding; Pfizer, Inc.: Research Funding. McCarthy:Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Karyopharm: Consultancy, Honoraria; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria.

Abstract Background: The phase 3 double-blind, CALGB/Alliance 100104 study assessed the efficacy and safety of lenalidomide (LEN) or placebo maintenance therapy until relapse in post-autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) patients with newly-diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM). Interim analyses demonstrated superiority for LEN versus placebo for time to progression (TTP), thus meeting the primary TTP endpoint of the trial. The study was unblinded in December 2009 and, based on the TTP and overall survival (OS) benefit observed with LEN, patients in the placebo arm (who had not yet progressed) at the time of unblinding were given the option of crossing over to receive LEN. Data have been reported for a follow-up of 91 months based on the planned intention to treat (ITT) analysis, yielding a TTP hazard ratio (HR) 0.57 and an OS difference of HR 0.61 (Holstein SA, et al. Lancet Haematol. 2017;4:e431-42). Crossover to active treatment enabled patients to benefit from LEN maintenance and collection of additional efficacy and safety data; however, crossover can confound the estimates of OS for longer follow-up. We report the results of an analysis adjusted for crossover, thus aiming to provide a more accurate estimate of the survival benefit achieved with LEN maintenance therapy. Methods: Results are reported for an analysis based on an updated data cutoff, post-October 2016. The rank-preserving structural failure time model (RPSFTM) was considered the most appropriate method to adjust for crossover (Robins JM, Tsiatis AA. Commun Stat Theory Methods. 1991;20:2609-31). This method requires that the assumption that the treatment effect is the same for patients who receive LEN at randomization as those who receive LEN as crossover treatment is not violated; a landmark analysis was performed to explore this. The iterative parameter estimation (IPE; Branson M, Whitehead J. Stat Med. 2002;21:2449-63) algorithm was used as validation. Both the RPSFTM and IPE analyses assume a residual LEN effect after discontinuation (base case). Results: A total of 76 NDMM patients who had not progressed, as determined by central adjudication, crossed over from placebo to LEN and were included in the analysis. The landmark analysis of OS from the date of unblinding indicated that the treatment effect for the crossover versus the non-crossover placebo group was HR 0.57 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.29-1.15) (Figure). This also provided a measure of the benefit of LEN maintenance in patients who started maintenance therapy after the trial-specified 90-100 day window post-ASCT (median 11.5 months post-randomization; range 3.2-51.0 months). Adjustment for crossover using the RPSFTM or IPE resulted in an increase in the relative treatment effect of LEN maintenance (vs placebo) on OS from 30.8 months for the ITT analysis (HR 0.61; 95% CI 0.47-0.81) to 40.1 months (HR 0.52; 95% CI 0.36-0.73) for the RPSFTM analysis and 38.8 months (HR 0.52; 95% CI 0.37-0.74) for the IPE analysis (Table). Results were consistent across the two methods. Discussion: This analysis was performed on an updated version of the data set reported in the Holstein article. Once we adjusted for crossover, depending on the methodology used, there was an additional gain of ~40 months of OS. Previously, a pre-planned, pooled meta-analysis of 3 studies that included CALGB/Alliance (McCarthy PL, et al J Clin Oncol. 2017;35:3279-89) indicated that the OS gain was 2.5 years; however, our analysis from the CALGB study alone shows that LEN maintenance may provide a survival benefit of > 3 years. In diseases where prolonged follow-up is required to demonstrate survival benefits, allowing patients to crossover to active treatment may be important to facilitate this. However, the results should be analyzed appropriately to enable assessment of the value of the therapy. As this analysis indicates, the value of active treatment may be underestimated if adjustment for crossover is not performed. In conclusion, the data reported here provide further insight into the survival benefits of LEN maintenance therapy post-ASCT and support guideline recommendations to offer LEN maintenance therapy to all patients post-ASCT. Support: U10CA180821, U10CA180882, U10CA180820; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00114101. Disclosures McCarthy: Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Karyopharm: Consultancy, Honoraria; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria. Richardson:Amgen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Takeda: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; BMS: Research Funding; Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Oncopeptides: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Karyopharm: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Cooper:Celgene: Consultancy; BresMed Health Solutions Ltd: Employment. Saunders:Celgene: Consultancy; BresMed Health Solutions Ltd: Employment. Dhanasiri:Celgene: Employment, Equity Ownership. Anderson:Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy; Millennium Takeda: Consultancy; C4 Therapeutics: Equity Ownership, Other: Scientific founder; Celgene: Consultancy; OncoPep: Equity Ownership, Other: Scientific founder; Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Stadtmauer:Celgene: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy; Amgen: Consultancy; Takeda: Consultancy. Holstein:Celgene: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.

Abstract Abstract 680 Cytogenetics play an essential role in determining the prognosis of patients with AML. However, there is still no validated cytogenetics grouping scheme that specifically applies to patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation, which hampers accurate prognostication and risk stratification. We studied 821 adult patients (median age 41, range 18–74) who underwent SCT between 1999 and 2004 for AML (excluding APL) in CR1 or CR2 and who were reported to the CIBMTR from centers with >20 patients meeting study criteria. 75% of patients received a myeloablative conditioning. 496 patients had a normal karyotype. The primary cytogenetics reports were manually reviewed for 92% of the patients with an abnormal karyotype. We compared the ability of the 6 existing grouping schemes (MRC, CALGB, EORTC/GIMEMA, SWOG/ECOG, DFCI, and Monosomal Karyotype (MK) classifications) to stratify patients, using both the Akaike Information Criterion in multivariable models and the C-statistic. Among all existing schemes, the DFCI system provided a marginally superior stratification for overall and leukemia-free survival. We also built a new classification using individual cytogenetic abnormalities in a Cox model that included other significant covariates (performance status, therapy-related disease, conditioning intensity, graft source, donor match, duration of CR1, and gender match). This CIBMTR scheme (see Table), which is similar to the DFCI scheme except for the inclusion of patients with t(8;21) in the intermediate group, could stratify patients into 3 groups with similar treatment-related mortality but significantly different overall survival, leukemia-free survival, and incidence of relapse. This scheme appeared to apply to both patients in CR1 and in CR2 (see FiguresF2). This transplant-specific scheme could be adopted for prognostication purposes and to stratify patients with karyotypic abnormalities entering transplantation clinical trials. Future studies may clarify the relative outcome of patients with t(8;21) and refine this scheme with the inclusion of molecular abnormalities. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Abstract Abstract 897 Recent changes in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) including increased use of reduced-intensity conditioning, peripheral blood cells as the graft source (PB) and unrelated donors (URD) warrant re-evaluation of risk factors for acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) and its impact on overall survival (OS). Risk factors for these outcomes were analyzed using more recent data from CIBMTR observational database. Methods: The cohort included adult patients ≥ 20 y transplanted from an HLA-identical sibling (SD) (n=3191) or URD (N=2370) for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), or myelodsyplastic syndrome (MDS) using a T-cell replete graft from 1999–2005. Six groups were created to evaluate the impact of conditioning [(myeloablative (MA) and reduced-intensity or non-myeloablative (RIC)], total-body irradiation (TBI) and graft source [(bone marrow (BM) or PB] as follows: MA+TBI+PB (group 1), MA+TBI+BM (group 2) MA+ no TBI+PB (group 3), MA+ no-TBI+BM (group 4), RIC+PB (group 5) and RIC+BM (group 6). Separate analyses were performed for SD and URD. IBMTR grade was used to classify aGVHD. A p-value of ≤ 0.01 was considered significant. Results: Among the SD cohort, the probability of aGVHD grade B-D and grade C-D at 100 days was 39% (95% CI, 37–41%) and 16% (95% CI, 14–17%). In multivariate analyses, non-TBI based MA regimens with a BM graft (group 4), RIC conditioning with PB (group 5) and tacrolimus plus methotrexate aGVHD prophylaxis were associated with lower odds ratio of grade B-D aGVHD (Table 1). The probability of OS was 51% (95% CI: 49–53%) at 3 y and 46% (95% CI: 44–49%) at 5 y. In multivariate analyses, grade B-D aGVHD was associated with a higher risk of death. Other independent risk factors for OS are shown in Table 2. Among the URD cohort, the probability of aGVHD grade B-D and C-D at 100 days was 59% (95%, CI 57–61%) and 32% (30-34%). In multivariate analysis, BM with MA (TBI and no TBI) or RIC conditioning (groups 2, 4 and 6) were significantly associated with lower odds ratio of grade B-D aGVHD (Table 1). Other independent risk factors included a diagnosis of CML. HCT from a 7/8 HLA-mismatched URD showed a trend for higher incidence of aGVHD (p=0.02). The probability of OS was 38% (95% CI: 35–40%) at 3 y and 33% (95% CI: 31–35%) at 5 y. In multivariate analysis, grade B-D aGVHD was associated with a higher mortality. Table 2 shows other independent risk factors for OS. Conclusion: Intensity of the conditioning regimen, TBI and the graft source has a combined effect on the risk of aGVHD. In both SD and URD cohorts, BM with MA, non-TBI regimens were associated with lower risk of aGVHD. In URD cohort, BM after a RIC also was associated with a reduced risk of aGVHD. Modulation of these risk factors is needed to reduce acute GVHD incidence and death after allogeneic transplantation. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Abstract Both genome wide association studies (GWAS) of common variation and exome wide association studies (EXWAS) of rare variation have successfully identified disease susceptibility variants for a variety of diseases. One GWAS of inherited susceptibility to Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) has been conducted, but no EXWAS have been performed to measure risk of AML attributable to low-frequency constitutional genetic variation. We performed the first EXWAS of risk of AML as a nested case-control study in the DISCOVeRY-BMT (Determining the Influence of Susceptibility Conveying Variants Related to one-Year mortality after BMT) cohorts. The DISCOVeRY-BMT parent study examined transplant-related mortality in leukemia patients undergoing unrelated donor allogeneic BMT. To identify low frequency variants and genes contributing to increased susceptibility to AML we used genotype data from the Illumina HumanExome BeadChip typed in the DISCOVeRY-BMT cohorts; the HumanExome BeadChip contains 242,901 variants, which are mainly protein-coding variants. The optimal sequence kernel association test (SKAT-O) was used to analyze gene-level associations with risk of AML. These gene-based tests evaluate the cumulative effects of multiple single gene variants on risk of AML. Analyses were performed in all European American AML cases and two subtypes: 1) de novo AML, 2) de novo AML with normal cytogenetics. Models were adjusted for age at transplant and principal components to control for population stratification. For gene-based tests at least 2 variants with minor allele frequency (MAF) ≤ 5%, were required to be present in the gene. This yielded a total of 13,687 genes tested, and a Bonferroni corrected significance level of P<3.65 x 10-6. Association tests were performed in 1,189 AML cases reported to CIBMTR 2000-08 (Cohort 1) and 327 AML cases reported to CIBMTR from 2009-11 (Cohort 2). Controls in Cohorts 1 (n=1,986) and 2 (n= 515) were 10/10 HLA-matched unrelated donors who passed a comprehensive medical exam and deemed healthy. We used metaSKAT to combine Cohorts 1 and 2 and obtain p-values of association with AML. We present the results of gene-level tests significant in both cohorts. The likely pathogenicity of these variants was determined in silico using SIFT, PolyPhen and MutationTaster. Patient characteristics are in Table 1. DNMT3A, on chromosome 2, was associated in the gene-based test with risk of AML (Pmeta=1.70x10-9, Table 2). Three missense variants at MAF <1% comprise both overall AML and de novo AML gene-based association: exm177559 (Asn->Ser), exm177507 (Arg->His), and exm177543 (Arg->Trp). Normal cytogenetics de novo AML gene-based assocations consisted of only 2 of these variants: exm177559 and exm177507 (Table 2). While prevalence of exm177507 is <1% for all AML cases, in de novo AML with normal cytogenetics the MAF was higher at 3%. The other 2 variants had a MAF<1% irrespective of subtype. Somatically, DNMT3A is most frequently mutated in hematologic malignancies, with >30% of de novo AML cases with a normal karyotype and >10% of MDS patients having DNMT3A mutations. Although these are germline gene associations all three of the variants found have been reported somatically in hematologic malignancies. In 200 AML cases from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) p.R882H (represented as exm177507 on the exome chip) was a frequent somatic mutation (25%). Exm177543 (p.R635W) and exm177559 (p.N501S) are reported in the Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC) as somatic mutations involved in hematopoietic and lymphoid tissue in both cell lines and humans. Exm177507 and exm177543 show evidence of pathogenicity in all three in silico tools, while exm177559 was reported as deleterious and disease causing by Sift and MutationTaster, respectively. Our results show that multiple potentially pathogenic missense germline variants in DNMT3A comprise the gene-based association with AML, specifically de novo AML with normal cytogenetics. Given the functional nature of these variants it is possible germline risk stratification could be informative in determining AML risk, and subsequently development of AML harboring DNMT3A mutations. Confirmation of these findings in additional cohorts could have implications for individualized risk screening, prediction and prognosis. Additional cytogenetic subgroup analyses, including treatment-related AML, are underway. Disclosures Hahn: Novartis: Equity Ownership; NIH: Research Funding. McCarthy:Sanofi: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Janssen: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Onyx: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bristol Myers Squibb: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; The Binding Site: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Karyopharm: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Gamida Cell: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Sucheston-Campbell:NIH/NCI: Research Funding.

Abstract #the authors contributed equally to this work While survival outcomes after HLA-matched unrelated donor (URD) blood and marrow transplant (BMT) have significantly improved over the last two decades, about 40% of patients die before 1-year post URD BMT. Previously we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) named DISCOVeRY-BMT (Determining the Influence of Susceptibility COnveying Variants Related to one-Year mortality after BMT) to investigate the contributions of common genetic variants on survival outcomes. To address the specific contributions of low frequency (≤ 1%) exonic variants on survival outcomes, we used the DISCOVeRY-BMT cohorts typed with the Illumina HumanExome BeadChip containing 242,901 variants, which are mainly protein-coding variants. We used a gene-based test (the optimal sequence kernel association test (SKAT-O)) to evaluate the cumulative effects of multiple genetic variants within a gene on overall survival (OS), transplant-related mortality (TRM), and disease-related mortality (DRM) 1 year after URD BMT. SKAT-O measures the overall significance of the gene and allows the variants to have different directions and magnitude of effects. We used a 2-stage study design: SKAT-O analysis was carried out in Cohort 1 consisting of 1,972 AML, ALL or MDS patients reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research from 2000 to 2008 and their 2,006 10/10 HLA-matched URD. Genes with a suggestive association with each outcome (P < 1×10-3) entered the final meta-analysis including Cohort 1 and an independent cohort (Cohort 2), consisting of 503 recipients and 520 10/10 HLA-matched URD from 2009 to 2011. The analysis included recipients and URD of European descent due to the low frequency of other populations. All association models included age at BMT, diagnosis (AML, ALL, MDS), disease status at BMT, cell source (peripheral blood, marrow), year of BMT, and principal components from EIGENSTRAT to control for population stratification. Only coding variants (missense and nonsense) with minor allele frequency ≤ 1% were included in our analysis, which resulted in > 12,000 genes tested in our gene-based analysis in recipients and donors. Exome-wide significance was set at Pmeta< 4.10×10-6 after Bonferroni correction for the total number of genes tested. The likely pathogenicity of these variants was determined in silico using SIFT and PolyPhen. In recipients, we identified OR51D1, a member of the olfactory receptor gene family, as significantly associated with both OS and TRM. The OS association with ORD51D1 is driven by TRM as the same six missense variants contribute to both TRM and OS, but not to DRM. In donors, four (ALPP, EMID1, SLC44A5, LRP1), one (HHAT), and two (LYZL4, NT5E) genes were significantly associated with OS, TRM, and DRM, respectively (Table). ALPP encodes an alkaline phosphatase. SLC44A5 is a member of the solute carrier gene family. LRP1 (low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1) encodes an endocytic receptor involved in several cellular processes, including intracellular signaling, lipid homeostasis, and clearance of apoptotic cells. HHAT encodes an enzyme that acts within the hedgehog secretory pathway, which is involved in hematologic malignancy. LYZL4 is a member of a family of lysozyme-like genes, which have a protective role in host defense. The encoded protein of NT5E, CD270, is used as a determinant of lymphocyte differentiation. The likely pathogenicity of several of the functional variants in all significant genes identified was predicted to be both (possibly or probably) damaging and deleterious (Table), thus indicating that the amino acid substitution of the variant may not be well tolerated. One damaging variant in LRP1 has been identified as a somatic mutation in hematopoietic and lymphoid tissue. Our study is the first analysis of the low-frequency coding variant contribution to URD BMT survival outcomes. We found that the missense variants contributing to many of these significant gene associations shows evidence of pathogenicity and thus it is biologically plausible these variants are contributing to survival outcomes. Further confirmation of these findings, and studies of the functional consequences of protein-coding changes in these genes, may provide more individualized risk prediction and prognosis as well as alternative donor selection strategies. Table. Table. Disclosures McCarthy: Gamida Cell: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Onyx: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Karyopharm: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; The Binding Site: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Sanofi: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Hahn:Novartis: Equity Ownership; NIH: Research Funding. Sucheston-Campbell:NIH/NCI: Research Funding.

Abstract Over the past decade, there have been numerous published candidate gene association studies of non-HLA variants, genes and/or pathways in relation to BMT survival outcomes. Most of these studies investigated a small number of candidate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), chosen based on known gene function, in a limited number of cases without replication. Here we test the association of previously reported SNPs with survival outcomes (overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), death due to disease (DD) or transplant-related mortality (TRM)) after URD BMT using data from the DISCOVeRY-BMT (Determining the Influence of Susceptibility Conveying Variants Related to one-Year mortality after BMT) study which included 2,052 European descent recipient-unrelated donor pairs (Cohort 1) and 763 recipient-unrelated donor pairs (Cohort 1) reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) between 2000-2009 and 2009-2011, respectively. DISCOVeRY-BMT is a Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) that includes over 9 million typed or imputed SNPs. This represents the largest study to date and is well powered to test both SNP and gene-based association hypotheses. We conducted an extensive literature review of PubMed using MESH terms related to transplant and hematologic disease which yielded 76 candidate gene association studies that investigated a total of 46 genes with any survival outcome. Of the 46 genes, 11 genes (CTLA4, CYP2B6, CYP2C19, GSTM1, GSTT1, IL23R, IL6, MTHFR, NOD2/CARD15, TNFSRF1B, and VDR) were studied in at least 2 publications. A total of 16 SNPs in 8 of these genes reported a significant (P< 0.05) association with at least one survival outcome (OS, PFS, DD or TRM). We tested these 16 SNPs for an association with the survival outcome originally reported in each article (Table 1). All association models included age at BMT, diagnosis (AML, ALL, MDS), disease status at BMT, cell source (blood, bone marrow) and year of BMT. P-values from Cohorts 1 and 2 were combined using a fixed-effects model in METAL software. Since the candidate gene studies have a gene-based hypothesis, we also performed gene-level testing using the VErsatile Gene-Based Association Study (VEGAS2) software to measure the aggregate effect of all available typed and imputed SNPs from our GWAS data in these 8 genes. The candidate gene association studies included heterogeneous patient populations of autologous and/or allogeneic (related or unrelated donors) BMT for a variety of hematologic diseases. Most candidate gene studies performed genotyping on both donors and recipients, and SNPs were tested either independently for donor or recipient genomes, or considering the total number of variant alleles the recipient-donor pair had at a given locus (0-4) (Table 1). The 16 SNPs from the previous candidate gene association studies were not significantly associated at a nominal P<0.05 to either the survival outcome reported in the original published paper, or to any survival outcome (Table 1). Likewise, the VEGAS2 gene-based analysis did not reveal any statistically significant associations for any of the 8 genes at P<0.05. Our study also corroborated prior reports of SNPs and genes that were not associated with survival outcomes. Candidate gene association studies use a priori biological knowledge to select genes that are likely associated with outcome and subsequently SNPs within the gene thought likely to affect function based on knowledge at the time of the investigation. Our findings suggest that neither the genetic variation tested in these candidate genes, nor other individual SNPs in the gene independently or collectively are not associated with survival outcomes in recipients of URD BMT. Our failure to replicate the prior candidate gene studies may be due to these SNPs being dependent on the underlying disease (ie. AML, ALL, etc), the donor relation (related, unrelated, autologous), or that there is no true association of these SNPs with the outcomes studied. #These authors contributed equally Table 1. Table 1. Disclosures McCarthy: Gamida Cell: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celgene: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Karyopharm: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Onyx: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Bristol Myers Squibb: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; The Binding Site: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Sanofi: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Hahn:Novartis: Equity Ownership; NIH: Research Funding. Sucheston-Campbell:NIH/NCI: Research Funding.

Key PointsIKZF1 associations with high-risk B-ALL may differ by age and sex. A novel variant on chromosome 14, rs189434316, is associated with over a 3.5-fold risk of normal cytogenetic B-ALL.