De novo MS is a rare presentation of AML that can occur with or without synchronous BM involvement. Our single institution review of 83 patients with de novo MS adds to the limited available data to further characterize this rare disease and determine optimal treatment strategies in isolated and synchronous settings. In addition to the skin and soft tissue being the most commonly affected sites of extramedullary involvement, those with skin, gastrointestinal, soft tissue, and breast involvement seem to carry a worse prognosis compared to those with genitourinary or gynecological involvement, consistent with previous reports (2, 3). Age greater than 60 years was associated with worse survival outcomes in both iMS and sMS, but this may be attributable to older patients’ inability to tolerate intensive chemotherapy considering only 57.5% of patients above 60 years old received intensive therapy compared to 95.6% in those less than 60 years old in our study. Older patients may be unable to tolerate intensive therapies, as older patients treated with intensive therapy have a worse prognosis compared to localized therapy alone (2). Consistent with published literature, our study suggests that advanced age at diagnosis confers a worse prognosis in both iMS and sMS subgroups (2, 3).
Targeted cytogenetics (FISH) and/or molecular testing (NGS) of the BM and/or peripheral blood was performed in 52/83 (62%) patients in the current review, including 16 iMS patients. Abnormal results were discovered in 38/52 (73%) patients. According to ELN criteria (12), genomic risk profiling in our review directly correlated with survival in both iMS and sMS regardless of the treatment group. Interestingly, those with intermediate-risk genomics carried an equally poor prognosis compared to patients with adverse risk genomics (p = 0.20). In contrast to a previous series reporting normal BM karyotype in all iMS cases (5), the current series discovered an abnormal karyotype upon cytogenetic and FISH testing of the BM in 5/12 (41%) available iMS patients despite normal BM morphology; 3 patients carried a chromosome 7/7q deletion, one patient harbored inv(16)(p.13.1q22) with concomitant 13q deletion and trisomies 8 and 13, and 1 patient had a complex karyotype including t(1;11)(q21;p15) with trisomies 8 and 20. Chromosome 7/7q deletion was also found in 2 additional sMS patients, deeming it the most frequently encountered cytogenetic abnormality in the current series. In correlation with previous reports (13, 14), t(8;21) was also discovered in 3 sMS patients. Inv(16) was identified in 2 sMS patients, with 1 case having GI involvement (9). According to NGS, the most prevalent genetic aberrations involved RTK-RAS pathway mutations (12/27; 44%), including KRAS (5/27; 19%), FLT3 (4/27; 15%), and NRAS (3/27; 11%). Although previous reports document RTK-RAS pathway mutations primarily during extramedullary relapse (9, 15), our report of RTK-RAS mutations in the de novo setting at initial diagnosis runs contrary to the notion that RAS mutations likely represent later changes in the progression of AML (16). RAS mutations may play a critical role in the early development of extramedullary AML and provide a potential therapeutic opportunity using RAS inhibition in the future treatment of extramedullary AML (17). Also increased in prevalence when compared to AML at baseline were mutations in NPM1 (10/27; 37%), TET2 (6/27; 22%), and IDH2 (4/27; 15%).
Although the optimal therapy for MS has yet to be clearly defined, the consensus is that induction chemotherapy should be employed up front for de novo MS in the synchronous setting, but its role in iMS has remained unclear. The historic notion is that iMS evolves into AML with systemic involvement within six months and, therefore, should be treated as a systemic disease with systemic chemotherapy (3, 8, 11, 18, 19). Although previous studies have reported superior EFS and OS with induction chemotherapy compared to localized therapy alone in iMS (4, 9), the largest review to date involving 151 patients more recently described no survival benefit when adding intensive chemotherapy to localized therapy, suggesting the use of localized therapy alone +/- targeted therapies without systemic chemotherapies in iMS (20). This same review notably lacked descriptions of chemotherapy regimens and cytogenetic and molecular profiling. In contrast, our review discovered that iMS patients who received intensive chemotherapy, comprised primarily of anthracycline and cytarabine-based regimens, resulted in higher rates of CR at both the BM and MS site of involvement as well as improved OS outcomes when directly compared to localized therapy +/- non-intensive chemotherapy. Our findings, therefore, support the use of induction chemotherapy in the iMS setting with consideration of localized therapy in symptomatic patients despite a lack of proven survival benefits (3).
The role of alloSCT in de novo MS could not be assessed in our study due to the limited sample size. Although it has been proposed that alloSCT should only be employed in sMS patients with intermediate or adverse risk genomic profiling (21), the majority of evidence supports the use of alloSCT in all sMS patients who can tolerate intensive and ablative therapies. Previous studies have reported improved survival outcomes with alloSCT in both sMS and iMS, particularly in patients who have achieved CR following induction chemotherapy (22–26). Although not statistically significant, our review discovered an absolute superior mOS in sMS patients with pre-transplant CR who underwent alloSCT compared to those who did not receive alloSCT, regardless of genomic risk classification. In iMS, recent studies have described ambivalent outcomes following alloSCT without any significant survival advantage compared to chemotherapy alone (5, 9). Likewise, our review discovered no significant advantage following alloSCT in iMS. Moreover, alloSCT did not significantly improve OS in iMS patients who obtained CR compared to non-transplanted patients.
The main limitations of the current series are the retrospective nature of our investigation, the reliance upon documentation of myeloid sarcoma on chart review, the lack of phenotypic and morphologic descriptions, and the relatively small sample size in the setting of a rare disease process that does not lend itself to prospective, randomized trials. Further collaboration across multiple institutions would be beneficial to further characterize and determine optimal treatment strategies toward de novo MS, particularly in the iMS setting. The role of alloSCT in de novo MS should be explored further in future studies, including transplant factors that could influence outcomes (i.e., type of alloSCT, myeloablative versus non-ablative regimens, baseline performance score) as well as transplant-related outcomes (i.e., acute/chronic graft-versus-host disease).
In conclusion, de novo MS appears to be enriched with RTK-RAS pathway mutations, particularly in the sMS setting, and remains an aggressive form of AML, especially in patients with intermediate or high-risk genomic profiling and those above 60 years of age. Intensive chemotherapy should be administered to all eligible patients. There is no additional value towards OS in supplementing with localized therapy in sMS or iMS. AlloSCT may be considered in eligible patients with sMS, but its benefit in iMS remains uncertain. Further studies into this rare presentation of de novo AML, including the role of alloSCT, are needed to improve patient outcomes.