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Abstract Abstract 467 Background: While donor-recipient disparity at HLA loci is associated with greater risk for severe acute graft vs. host disease (GVHD) and inferior survival after unrelated donor allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), the impact of amino acid substitution (AAS) at peptide binding pockets of the HLA molecule is incompletely understood. Methods: Adult and pediatric patients who received myeloablative or reduced intensity/non-myeloablative first unrelated bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for AML, ALL, CML or MDS between 1988 and 2009 were included. Donors and patients were fully high resolution matched for HLA-A, B, C, and DRB1 (8/8) or had single mismatch (7/8) at one HLA class I locus. Among 7/8 donor-recipient pairs, cases were categorized based on the presence or absence of the AAS of interest at positions 9, 77, 99, 116, or 156 of the class I molecule. In multivariable analysis accounting for patient, disease, and transplantation variables, we studied the independent impact of AAS at these residues on risk for grade III-IV acute GVHD, chronic GVHD, treatment-related mortality, primary malignancy relapse, and overall survival. We compared 7/8 donor-recipient pairs with AAS of interest to 7/8 pairs without these AAS in the primary analyses. Additionally, we performed this analysis restricted to each HLA class I locus. Results: Donor-recipient pairs were 8/8 matched (n=5282), 7/8 with AAS of interest (n=1713), or 7/8 without AAS of interest (n=318). In multivariable analysis, AAS at position 116 was associated with increased risk for grade III-IV acute GVHD (HR 1.21, 1.04–1.42, p=0.0165). No other significant association was detected between AAS studied and clinical outcomes. In multivariable analysis restricted to each class I HLA locus, we detected the following: Among 7/8 matched pairs with mismatch at HLA-C, AAS at position 116 was associated with increased risk for severe acute GVHD (HR 1.42, 1.13–1.79, p=0.0031) and inferior OS (HR 1.2, 1.01–1.41, p=0.0343). AAS at position 99 was associated with increased TRM (HR 1.37, 1.11–1.69, p=0.0037). Of 7/8 pairs with mismatch at HLA-B, AAS at position 9 was associated with increased chronic GVHD (HR 2.19, 1.31–3.66, p=0.0029). Specific amino acid substitution pairs with frequency > 30 were tested for association with HCT outcomes. None met the significance level of 0.00125, pre-specified for multiple comparisons. Conclusions: These results support the concept that AAS at key peptide-binding residues in the HLA class I molecule are associated with increased risk for severe acute GVHD and lower survival. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Abstract Introduction Older patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation may experience a higher degree of morbidity and limitations from transplant related complications. Chronic graft-versus –host disease (GVHD) causes a significant reduction in patients’ quality of life (QOL), physical functioning, and functional status. However, it is not known if moderate to severe chronic GVHD has a worse impact on QOL, or survival outcomes for older patients. Methods We analyzed data of patients with moderate or severe chronic GVHD (N=522, 1661 follow-up visits, a total of 2,183 visits) from the Chronic GVHD Consortium, a prospective observational multicenter cohort. Moderate or severe chronic GVHD was defined by the National Institutes of Health global severity score at the time of enrollment. We examined the relationship between age group (adolescent and young adult “AYA” 18-40, “middle-aged” 41-59, and “older” ≥ 60 years) and clinical manifestations of chronic GVHD, patient-reported outcomes, functional status, non-relapse mortality and overall survival. Clinical manifestations of chronic GVHD were determined by the clinician-reported individual organ scores. Patient-reported outcomes included (1) QOL as measured by Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Bone Marrow Transplantation (FACT-BMT) and the Medical Outcome Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) (2) chronic GVHD symptom burden as measured by the Lee Symptom Scale; and (3) physical fitness as measured by the Human Activity Profile (HAP). Functional status was assessed using the 2-minute walk test (2MWT). Because of multiple testing, p-values <0.01 were considered significant. Results There were 115 (22%) AYA, 279 (53%) middle-aged and 128 (25%) older patients with moderate (58%) or severe (42%) chronic GVHD included. At study enrollment, older patients (≥60) were similar to younger patients in sex, time from transplant (median 12 months), prior acute GVHD, percentage of severe chronic GVHD, and current co-morbidity scores but differed in disease distribution and conditioning regimen intensity. At enrollment, in unadjusted analyses using all available data, older patients had similar rates and severity of global and organ-specific manifestations of chronic GVHD compared to younger patients, except for genital involvement, which was more prevalent and severe in AYA patients. Although older patients reported worse physical functioning [SF-36 Physical Functioning (p=0.01)], shorter 2MWT (p=0.002), and lower HAP scores (p=0.001) than AYA and middle-aged patients suggesting they have more physical limitations, older patients had better QOL [FACT-BMT (p=0.01)] scores compared to middle-aged patients and similar to AYA patients. Older patients had better psychological [Lee Psychological Scale (p<0.001), SF-36 Mental Health (p=0.01)] and emotional functioning [FACT-Emotional Well-being (p=0.001)] and less pain [SF-36 Bodily Pain (p=0.006)] than AYA and middle-aged patients but similar chronic GVHD symptom burden [Lee Symptom Scale (p=0.47)]. In multivariable linear mixed models utilizing all visit data and adjusted for clinical covariates, older patients had QOL (FACT-BMT) that was comparable to AYA patients (estimate -0.04, p=0.99) and better than middle-aged patients (estimate 5.7, p=0.004), while the SF36 physical and mental component scores and symptom burden were not different between the groups. Non-relapse mortality and overall survival were similar between the age groups in unadjusted analyses (p=0.23, p=0.17) and after adjusting for clinical covariates (p=0.17, p=0.15) in Cox models. In a subgroup analysis, we found that there were no differences in overall and organ-specific chronic GVHD manifestations, QOL and survival between patients in the 60-64 (n=73), 65-70 (n=39), and >70 (n=16) age groups, except for more moderate-severe skin involvement in the 65-70 year olds. Conclusion Despite higher physical and functional limitations, older patients with moderate or severe chronic GVHD have preserved QOL, comparable disease manifestations and symptom burden, and similar overall survival and non-relapse mortality when compared to younger patients. Therefore we did not find evidence that older age itself is associated with worse QOL or survival in patients with moderate or severe chronic GVHD. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Abstract Background: Chronic GVHD contributes to morbidity and mortality after allogeneic transplantation. Several phase 2 and 3 open label studies suggested that ATLG (formerly referred to as ATG-F) reduces cGVHD without impacting relapse or survival. This report describes the first prospective randomized double blind phase 3 trial to assess the effect of ATLG (Neovii) when added to tacrolimus / methotrexate prophylaxis on cGVHD free survival. Patients and Methods: This study was conducted at 27 sites in the United States and Australia. 260 patients were randomized (132 placebo, 128 ATLG). 6 patients who were randomized never received ATLG/placebo (4 placebo and 2 ATLG). Data presented include the 128 placebo and 126 ATLG patients who underwent treatment and transplant. Patients were ages 18-65 years with a diagnosis of acute myeloid (AML, 64%) or lymphoblastic (ALL, 21%) leukemia in first or subsequent complete remission or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS, 15%) with less than 10% marrow blasts. Median age was 48 years (18-65) with 55% males. All patients received 8/8 HLA (A, B, C, DR) allele matched unrelated products (80% mobilized peripheral blood, 20% bone marrow). Myeloablative conditioning was with cyclophosphamide and total body irradiation (Cy/TBI, 27%), busulfan and cyclophosphamide (Bu/Cy, 33%), or busulfan and fludarabine (Bu/Flu, 40%). All patients received tacrolimus starting on Day -1 and standard mtx on days 1, 3, 6, and 11 for GVHD prophylaxis. Patients received ATLG or placebo on Days -3, -2, -1 at an ATLG dose of 20 mg/kg per day (60 mg/kg total). The primary endpoint of the study was moderate/severe chronic GVHD free survival. cGVHD was scored by the investigator and then confirmed or overturned by an independent adjudication committee. Secondary endpoints included engraftment, acute GVHD , moderate/severe cGVHD, non-relapse mortality, GVHD and relapse free survival (GRFS), progression free (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The impact of ATLG on immune reconstitution was assessed in 91 patients. Results: Treatment arms were balanced with respect to age, diagnosis, remission status, cytogenetics, graft source (PB or BM), CMV serostatus and conditioning regimen. Median follow up of survivors was 745 days (61, 1425). Regarding the primary endpoint, there was no difference in 2 year moderate/severe cGVHD free survival between ATLG and placebo (48 vs 44%, p = 0.57), nor was there a difference in GRFS (Table 1). Neutrophil engraftment at Day 30 was less in the ATLG arm (85% vs 95%, p=0.00001). Grade 2 or higher infusion reactions were higher in the ATLG arm (16% vs 2.3%, p=0.0001). Reactivation of CMV was similar (27% vs 31%, p=0.58). The Day 180 cumulative incidence of grades 2-4 acute GVHD was lower in the ATLG arm (23 vs 40%, p = 0.003) as was the 2-year cumulative incidence of moderate/severe cGVHD (12 vs 33%, p = 0.000006). However, both 2-year OS and PFS were lower in ATLG treated patients (58 v 76% and 47 vs 67%, respectively) due in part to a higher incidence of relapse (32 vs 19%, p=0.068). Multivariable models confirmed that ATLG was associated with inferior OS, HR 1.85 (1.1-2.9, p=.0075) and PFS, HR 1.63 (1.1-2.41, p=0.015). We then conducted an unplanned post-hoc analysis and discovered a striking influence of conditioning regimen on outcomes. There were no differences in OS or PFS between ATLG and placebo arms in patients receiving Bu/Cy or Bu/Flu but a dramatic difference in patients receiving Cy/TBI conditioning (OS, 88% vs 48% p =0.006 and PFS, 75 vs 29%, p=0.007 in placebo and ATLG arms, respectively). 91 patients (44 ATLG, 47 placebo) participated in the immune reconstitution study. ATLG treatment was associated with lower CD3, CD4, and CD8 counts at Days 30, 100, and 360, respectively. In turn lower CD3, CD4, and CD8 counts assessed as time dependent variables were all associated with inferior OS and PFS as well as higher NRM (data not shown). Conclusion: In this first ever prospective, randomized, double blind trial of ATLG added to tacrolimus /methotrexate in recipients of matched unrelated donor grafts after myeloablative conditioning, there was no significant difference in 2 year moderate/severe cGVHD free survival or GRFS. ATLG did significantly reduce grades 2-4 acute and moderate/severe chronic GVHD. However, overall survival was higher in the placebo arm, driven mainly by patients who received Cy/TBI conditioning. Further analyses are needed to understand the proper role for ATLG in HCT. Disclosures Soiffer: Juno: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Kiadis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Porter:Genentech: Employment; Novartis: Patents & Royalties, Research Funding. Jagasia:Therakos: Consultancy. Szer:Alnylam: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Ra Pharma: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Ritz:Kiadis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Glavin:Neovii Biotech: Employment. Chen:Incyte Corporation: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding.

Abstract Abstract 1940 Background: Chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a significant source of morbidity, mortality, impaired patient-reported quality of life (QOL), greater symptom burden, and prolonged duration of immune suppressive therapy following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). While available data support the adverse prognosis of overlap subtype of chronic GVHD, the relative importance of site of gastrointestinal (GI) and type of hepatic involvement is not known. Methods: We analyzed prospectively acquired observational cohort data to examine whether the site of GI involvement (esophageal, upper GI, lower GI) and type of hepatic laboratory test abnormality (bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase (AP), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) elevation over the upper limit of normal based on study site-specific laboratory reference ranges) among chronic GVHD-affected patients are associated with overall survival (OS) and non-relapse mortality (NRM), symptoms (Lee Symptom Scale), and quality of life (QOL) per SF-36 and FACT-BMT instruments. Results: This analysis included 567 individual subjects with baseline and 1548 follow up visits. The majority were incident cases (59%), adults (98%), and predominantly White/Non-Hispanic. Median time from HCT to cohort enrollment was 11.9 months (range 3–294 months). Overall NIH chronic GVHD severity was mild in 10%, moderate in 52%, and severe in 38% at enrollment. Prior acute GVHD was noted in 66%, KPS < 80% in 17%, and platelet count at chronic GVHD onset of < 100 K/uL in 23%. At enrollment, GI involvement was seen in 40% (upper GI 20%, esophagus 16%, lower GI 13%), and liver involvement was seen in 52% (AP 38%, ALT 38%, bilirubin 10%). Time from transplant to cGVHD onset was not different for patients with or without GI involvement or hepatic involvement. In multivariate analysis utilizing data from enrollment visits only and adjusting for patient and transplant variables, lower GI involvement (HR 1.7, p=0.03) and elevated bilirubin (HR 2.36, p=0.001) were associated with OS; both were also associated with NRM. In multivariable analysis using all visits (time-dependent covariates), GI score greater than zero (HR 1.7, p=0.01) and elevated bilirubin (HR 3.7, p<0.001) were associated with OS; results were similar for NRM. Separate models were constructed to examine the relationship of severity of GI and hepatic involvement (0–3 severity score per NIH consensus) and mortality: Increasing lower GI severity at enrollment was significantly associated with non-relapse mortality, with progressively increasing HR for greater severity levels (lower GI score 2/3 vs. 0: HR 5.5, 95% CI 2.3–13.1, p = 0.0001). Increasing bilirubin was also associated with NRM (bilirubin score 2/3 vs. 0: HR 3.3, 95% CI 1.3–8.4, p=0.01). A similar association was observed for bilirubin elevation and NRM in the time-dependent model (bilirubin 2/3 vs. 0: HR 8.9, 95% CI 3.3–24, p < 0.0001). When analyzing all visits, any esophageal involvement and GI score greater than zero were associated with both symptoms and QOL while elevated bilirubin was associated with QOL. We found no consistent evidence that upper GI involvement, AP, ALT, or NIH liver score add prognostic value for survival, overall symptom burden, or quality of life. Conclusion: These data support important differences in patient-reported outcomes according to GI and hepatic involvement among chronic GVHD affected patients, and identify those with elevated bilirubin or higher GI score at any time, or lower GI involvement at cohort enrollment, as patients at greater risk for mortality under current treatment approaches. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Abstract Purpose: To develop a prognostic model and cytogenetic risk classification for previously treated patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) undergoing reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Experimental Design: We performed a retrospective analysis of outcomes of 606 patients with CLL who underwent RIC allogeneic HCT between 2008 and 2014 reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. Results: On the basis of multivariable models, disease status, comorbidity index, lymphocyte count, and white blood cell count at HCT were selected for the development of prognostic model. Using the prognostic score, we stratified patients into low-, intermediate-, high-, and very-high-risk [4-year progression-free survival (PFS) 58%, 42%, 33%, and 25%, respectively, P &lt; 0.0001; 4-year overall survival (OS) 70%, 57%, 54%, and 38%, respectively, P &lt; 0.0001]. We also evaluated karyotypic abnormalities together with del(17p) and found that del(17p) or ≥5 abnormalities showed inferior PFS. Using a multivariable model, we classified cytogenetic risk into low, intermediate, and high (P &lt; 0.0001). When the prognostic score and cytogenetic risk were combined, patients with low prognostic score and low cytogenetic risk had prolonged PFS (61% at 4 years) and OS (75% at 4 years). Conclusions: In this large cohort of patients with previously treated CLL who underwent RIC HCT, we developed a robust prognostic scoring system of HCT outcomes and a novel cytogenetic-based risk stratification system. These prognostic models can be used for counseling patients, comparing data across studies, and providing a benchmark for future interventions. For future study, we will further validate these models for patients receiving targeted therapies prior to HCT.

Abstract HLA-haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplantation (Haplo-HCT) using posttransplantation cyclophosphamide (PT-Cy) has improved donor availability. However, a matched sibling donor (MSD) is still considered the optimal donor. Using the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research database, we compared outcomes after Haplo-HCT vs MSD in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in first complete remission (CR1). Data from 1205 adult CR1 AML patients (2008-2015) were analyzed. A total of 336 patients underwent PT-Cy–based Haplo-HCT and 869 underwent MSD using calcineurin inhibitor–based graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis. The Haplo-HCT group included more reduced-intensity conditioning (65% vs 30%) and bone marrow grafts (62% vs 7%), consistent with current practice. In multivariable analysis, Haplo-HCT and MSD groups were not different with regard to overall survival (P = .15), leukemia-free survival (P = .50), nonrelapse mortality (P = .16), relapse (P = .90), or grade II-IV acute GVHD (P = .98). However, the Haplo-HCT group had a significantly lower rate of chronic GVHD (hazard ratio, 0.38; 95% confidence interval, 0.30-0.48; P &lt; .001). Results of subgroup analyses by conditioning intensity and graft source suggested that the reduced incidence of chronic GVHD in Haplo-HCT is not limited to a specific graft source or conditioning intensity. Center effect and minimal residual disease–donor type interaction were not predictors of outcome. Our results indicate a lower rate of chronic GVHD after PT-Cy–based Haplo-HCT vs MSD using calcineurin inhibitor–based GVHD prophylaxis, but similar other outcomes, in patients with AML in CR1. Haplo-HCT is a viable alternative to MSD in these patients.

Key PointsHigh-circulating AREG (≥33 pg/mL) reclassifies additional patients into HR categories and further refines the Minnesota aGVHD risk score. Patients with aGVHD and AREG ≥33 pg/mL have lower rates of steroid response, higher NRM, and poorer OS.

Key Points Compared with parous female sibling donors, male URDs confer more aGVHD in all patients and more cGVHD in females. There was no difference in survival, relapse, or transplant mortality between recipients of parous female sibling or male URD grafts.

Key Points Complete or partial response at 1 year without secondary systemic treatment provides clinical benefit in patients with chronic GVHD. Success defined by this endpoint is currently observed in fewer than 20% of patients after initial systemic treatment of chronic GVHD.

Key Points Under current treatment approaches, patients with LA GVHD have poor overall and failure-free survival. Levels of AREG are elevated in LA GVHD, and the AREG/EGF ratio is predictive of overall survival and nonrelapse mortality in LA GVHD.