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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Real-world survival analysis of elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Shaoli Zhang1 ,  Yuanyuan Wang2 ,  Jiazheng Sun2 ,  Zhuoying Chen2 ,  Fankai Meng3 ,  Yi Tang3 ,  Jie Zhao1 ,  Yunxia Xie1 ,  Weiwei Tian1 ,  Jia Wei3 ,  Yicheng Zhang3 ,  Xiangjie Liu2* ,  Lifang Huang1,3*
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1 Department of Hematology, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, Shanxi, China
2 Department of Gerontology, Liyuan Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
3 Department of Hematology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China
CP, 025060010 https://doi.org/10.36922/CP025060010
Received: 8 February 2025 | Revised: 28 April 2025 | Accepted: 6 May 2025 | Published online: 6 June 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) predominantly affects the elderly, who often have a poor prognosis due to age-related comorbidities, adverse genetic features, and limited tolerance to standard therapies. This study aimed to evaluate real-world survival outcomes and prognostic factors in elderly patients with AML to improve clinical management. A retrospective analysis was conducted on 179 elderly AML patients across multiple centers over 6 years. Clinical features, bone marrow characteristics, vital status, and prognostic factors were analyzed. Kaplan–Meier was used to estimate overall survival, while univariate and multivariate regression analyzes identified prognostic factors. The median overall survival (mOS) of the cohort was 5.3 months. Patients in the chemotherapy group (n = 126) showed better mOS than those in the support therapy group (n = 53) (7.567 vs. 3 months; p<0.0001). Among chemotherapy patients, those treated with hypomethylating agents (HMAs) (n = 54) had better mOS compared to cytotoxic chemotherapy (n = 72) (10.17 vs. 4.1 months; p<0.0001). Within the HMA group, no significant difference in mOS was found between HMA monotherapy (n = 9) and HMA plus venetoclax (VEN) (n = 45) (9.117 vs. 10.17 months; p=0.3407). In patients eligible for intensive chemotherapy, the HMA group had a superior mOS than the cytotoxic chemotherapy group (9.4 vs. 3.933 months; p<0.0001). The top five mutations identified were NPM1 (29.59%), FT3-internal tandem duplication (ITD) (26.53%), DNMT3A (25.51%), IDH2 (20.41%), and CEBPA (14.29%), with DNMT3A-FLT3-ITD, NPM1-FLT3-ITD, and NPM1-DNMT3A showing significantly higher co-mutation frequencies than the other combinations. In addition, infection was the most frequent complication (60%). Elderly AML patients have poor mOS and a high burden of adverse genetic features. Chemotherapy, especially HMAs alone or combined with VEN, is associated with improved survival and better clinical outcomes compared to supportive care or intensive regimens. These findings provide real-world evidence to inform treatment strategies.

Keywords
Elderly
Acute myeloid leukemia
Hypomethylating agents
Cytotoxic chemotherapy
Survival analysis
Prognostic factors
Funding
This study is supported by the Research and Innovation Team Project for Scientific Breakthroughs at Shanxi Bethune Hospital, No. 2024ZHANCHI12.
Conflict of interest
Jia Wei is an Associate Editor of this journal, but was not in any way involved in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. Separately, other authors declared that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.
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Cancer Plus, Electronic ISSN: 2661-3840 Print ISSN: 2661-3832, Published by AccScience Publishing
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