Peripheral Blood Complete Remission Provides Added Value to the Classical Definition of Morphologic Complete Remission - a Prospective Cohort Study of 1441 Patients with MDS, CMML and AML Treated within the Austrian Azacitidine Registry

Background In myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) achievement of complete remission (CR) is a prerequisite for potential cure. In AML, CR/CR with incomplete recovery (CRi) is deemed the major outcome associated with improved overall survival (OS); patients (pts) without CR/CRi are considered non-responders, and hematologic improvement (HI) without (assessment of) bone marrow (BM) blast clearance is considered treatment (trt) failure. Achievement of CR may not be necessary for prolonged OS in pts treated with azacitidine (AZA) (Pleyer L, Annals Hematol 2014, 1825; Schuh AC, ASH 2015, P575).