There has been mixed evidence on the association between obesity and outcomes in patients with AML. 2,6–8,15 Here, we made use of a uniform prospectively enrolled group of newly diagnosed younger patients with AML in SWOG trial 1203, where we could show class III obesity was associated with decreased OS both overall and after HCT in CR1. Our results suggest that the degree of obesity may be negatively correlated with outcomes. The pathophysiology of the effect is unknown, but notably while class III obesity was associated with increased early death rate, it was not associated with rate of composite CR. Similarly, for the subset who received HCT, class III obesity was correlated with decreased OS after HCT after adjusting for covariates.
This study evaluated the findings in one clinical trial in adult patients age 60 or younger that excluded patients with cardiac co-morbidities such as heart failure, new or unstable angina, and prolonged QTc. Class III obesity is known to be independently associated with increased mortality from heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, and overall reduction in life expectancy.16,17 No comorbidity data were available, and it would have been interesting to examine if comorbidities, such as diabetes, were associated with infection risk or other complications. In addition to comorbidity burden, there have been other proposed mechanisms for worse outcomes in class III versus class I obesity. The “obesity paradox” has been identified in cardiovascular disease, where patients with class I obesity have a more favorable prognosis compared to individuals who are normal or underweight. Some patients with BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 may have an athletic build and thus increased lean mass.18 Sarcopenic obesity, on the other hand, has been associated with worse prognosis and functional capacity in heart failure. 19,20 Future studies investigating the intersection of sarcopenia and obesity in patients with AML may help identify opportunities for intervention to improve outcomes.
Chemotherapy dosing strategy may also impact outcomes in obese patients, and patients in the S1203 study had a BSA cap for anthracycline dose. This study preceded the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) guideline recommending full weight-based cytotoxic chemotherapy in obese adults with cancer.21 Weight based chemotherapy dosing is generally not associated with increased toxicity in obese patients, and under-dosing can be associated with worse outcomes. Other studies indicate that different dosage strategies for AML (including total body weight, dosage capped, idealized body weight, and adjusted body weight) were not associated with changes in OS, CR or increased chemotoxicity. 22,23 Many AML patients ultimately undergo allogeneic HCT, and a study by Doney et al. found that patients with BMI ≥ 35.0 kg/m2 had worse non-relapse mortality associated with increased conditioning intensity.24
There have also been mixed findings on the association between obesity and outcomes after HCT in patients with myeloid malignancies.25–27 A multicenter study of 4215 patients with AML did not find any differences in transplant-related mortality or OS in obese patients (BMI > 30 to 34 kg/m2) and morbidly obese patients (BMI ≥ 35 kg/m2). 28 In contrast, another study of patients with AML undergoing allogeneic HCT found that obese patients (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) had higher rates of non-relapse mortality and shorter OS after HCT.29 The subjects included in our analyses were relatively homogenous, which may have reduced confounding factors present in prior studies. Our study also analyzed class III obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2) separately, and found that Class III obesity seemed to portend worse outcomes than class I and II obesity after HCT. It is unlikely that delayed transplantation in obese patients in our analyses contributed to the worse outcomes, since there was no significant difference in the time to transplant between different BMI groups. Interestingly, receipt of HCT was not associated with increased OS in multivariate analysis. This could be due to the study design: all adverse risk patients were recommended for HCT, and intermediate risk patients were recommended for HCT per local institutional standards.
Our study was limited by its retrospective nature and susceptibility to selection bias. A large majority of patients in our study (88%) had good performance status. Patients with the highest burden of comorbidities from obesity may have been disproportionally excluded due to the strict inclusion criteria. While this limits generalizability of our findings to patients with poor performance status, inclusion of more patients with poor performance status may have introduced more confounding factors in multiple BMI groups. There were also fewer patients with class II obesity than class III obesity in our study, and the sample size of patients with class I and II obesity may have limited our ability to identify a significant effect.
In conclusion, our study found that patients with class III obesity had increased rates of early death, worse OS, and worse OS after transplant as compared to normal weight patients undergoing intensive induction chemotherapy for previously untreated AML. In our cohort, class III obesity portended worse outcomes across multiple time points. Further studies are needed to better characterize patients with AML and class III obesity, and future directions include assessing lean body mass, identifying comorbidities, and prospective studies to assess outcomes. Identifying this at-risk patient population may help guide early weight management interventions for patients with AML.