Donor telomeres and their magnitude of shortening post-allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplant impact survival for patients with early-stage leukaemia or myelodysplastic syndromeResearch in context

Summary: Background: Donor selection is a key success factor in allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplant (HCT). We evaluated the potential impact of donor leucocyte telomere length (LTL) and LTL shortening in recipients at three-month post-HCT (LTL-3MS) on the two-year HCT outcomes. Methods: We id...

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Main Authors: Shahinaz M. Gadalla, Hormuzd A. Katki, Tsung-Po Lai, Paul L. Auer, Casey L. Dagnall, Caitrin Bupp, Amy A. Hutchinson, James J. Anderson, Kyra J.W. Mendez, Stephen R. Spellman, Valerie Stewart, Sharon A. Savage, Stephanie J. Lee, John E. Levine, Wael Saber, Abraham Aviv
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-04-01
Series:EBioMedicine
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352396425000854
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Summary:Summary: Background: Donor selection is a key success factor in allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplant (HCT). We evaluated the potential impact of donor leucocyte telomere length (LTL) and LTL shortening in recipients at three-month post-HCT (LTL-3MS) on the two-year HCT outcomes. Methods: We identified a cohort of 384 HCT recipients for early-stage leukaemia or myelodysplastic syndrome in the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trial Network protocol#1202 with blood samples collected three-month post-HCT. Blood samples from respective donors were available at the Centre for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research biorepository. We used Cox proportional hazards models for statistical analyses. Findings: A better two-year overall survival (OS) was associated with longer donor LTL (adjusted-hazard ratio [HR] = 0.60, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.37–0.96, for LTL ≥6.7 kb vs LTL< 6.7 kb, p = 0.03), and higher LTL-3MS (HR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.34–0.80, for LTL-3MS ≥ 230 vs < 230 bp, p = 0.003). Longer donor LTL was associated with a lower risk of non-relapse mortality (NRM; HR = 0.48, p = 0.05), while higher LTL-3MS was associated with lower relapse risk (HR for relapse risk = 0.53, p = 0.008). The adjusted 2-year cumulative risk of all-cause mortality was reduced by about half for patients with both donor LTL ≥6.7 kb and LTL-3MS ≥ 230 bp vs patients with neither characteristic (21% vs 41%, respectively; p < 0.0001). Interpretation: Selection of donors with longer LTL may improve HCT outcomes. Limited LTL shortening in recipients post-HCT may guide relapse prediction. Funding: The NCI intramural research program and NIH grant U01AG066529.
ISSN:2352-3964