Association between Body Mass Index and Outcomes in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treated with Hypomethylating Agents and Venetoclax
Authors: Weiss Julian J. , Yates Samuel J. , Badar Talha , Patel Anand Ashwin , Winer Eric S. , Litzow Mark R. , Cheng Wei , Lin Chenyu , Shallis Rory M. 
Published: December 2024

Background: Hypomethylating agent (HMA) and venetoclax (VEN) therapy is a standard of care frontline treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) amongst patients (pts) ineligible for intensive therapy. Despite its convenient flat dose, oral nature, and static excretion irrespective of body weight (wt), VEN has a large, variable volume of distribution and extensive protein binding (Yang, Molecules, 2022). Body mass index (BMI) is a more accurate, albeit imperfect, indicator of body fat that has not been evaluated as an independent predictor of differential VEN exposures and clinical outcomes. We sought to evaluate this possibility amongst pts treated with frontline HMA+VEN in a multi-center, real-world, retrospective study.
Methods: We conducted a multi-center, retrospective study through four US academic centers in the Consortium on Myeloid Malignancies and Neoplastic Diseases (COMMAND). 368 pts treated with frontline HMA+VEN from 6/2016-8/2023were evaluated based on BMI within 30 days of induction. Responses were defined by European LeukemiaNet (ELN) 2022 criteria. Pearson's chi-squared test and Wilcoxon rank-sum test were used for comparison between groups. The Kaplan-Meier method and multivariable Cox regression model were applied to overall survival (OS). Continuous variables were summarized as a median with interquartile range (IQR), and categorical variables were reported as a frequency (percentage).
Results: The median age was 75 (IQR: 70-79) years, 58% were male, and 76% were white. 107 (29%) had a normal BMI of 18-25 kg/m2, 141 (38%) were overweight (BMI 25-30 kg/m2), and 120 (33%) were obese (BMI &gt;30 kg/m2). There were no significant differences in baseline pt-, disease-, and treatment-specific factors when comparing pts with normal wt to BMI &gt;25.The cohort was enriched for complex karyotype and TP53-mutated disease (27% and 32%, respectively), with 73% categorized as adverse risk by ELN 2022.
There was no difference in 30-, 60-, and 90-day mortality rates (6-8%, 14-18%, 19-29%, respectively) by BMI group. Complete remission (CR/CRi) rate was 50% overall and was not impacted by BMI (41%, normal wt; 55%, overweight; 52%, obese) (p=0.10). Overall response rate (ORR) (CR/CRi/MLFS) was 59% overall and differed by BMI groups (50%, normal wt; 66%, overweight; 58%, obese) (p= 0.047). The median OS was 6.6 months for normal wt, 13.7 months for overweight, and 8.3 months for obese pts, and not significantly different when comparing normal to overweight (p=0.052) or obese pts (p=0.756).
In multivariable analysis, the effect of BMI varied by the composite remission rate used. Overweight was borderline significantly associated with higher likelihood of achieving CR compared to normal wt (odds ratio [OR] 1.98, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.99-4.03; p=.056), whereas obesity was not (OR 1.78, CI 0.86-3.74; p=.13). Other co-variates with a significant association with achieving CR included diagnosis of secondary AML (sAML) (OR 0.37, CI 0.18-0.74; p=.006) and presence of IDH (OR 2.81, CI 1.30-6.15; p=.009), ASXL (OR 0.39, CI 0.15-0.96; p=.046), TET2 (OR 2.43, CI 1.17-5.09; p=.02), and DNMT3A (OR 2.37, CI 1.19-4.78; p=.02) mutations. There was a trend towards higher likelihood of achieving CR/CRi for both overweight (OR 1.74, CI 0.92-3.32; p=.09) and obese pts (OR 1.88, CI 0.96-3.74; p=.07). Diagnosis of sAML and presence of TET2, ASXL, and DNMT3A mutations no longer had a significant association with achieving CR/CRi, while IDH mutations maintained an association (p=.01). None of these variables demonstrated a significant impact on ORR (inclusive of MLFS) except overweight (OR: 1.99, CI 1.06-3.80; p=.03) and sAML vs de novo (OR: 0.53, CI 0.29-0.99; p=.047).
In multivariable logistic regression, higher ECOG score was associated with risk of early mortality within 60 (p=.01) and 90 (p=.01) days, but not 30 days. sAML vs de novo associated with higher 90-day mortality, presence of NPM and TP53 mutation associated with higher 30-day mortality, and cytogenetic risk associated with higher 60- and 90-day mortality.
Conclusions: This multi-center, real-world study demonstrates that BMI may not have a linear effect on response to frontline HMA+VEN, with some indication of negative impact at both lower and higher BMI categories. However, additional dedicated studies are needed to determine if differences in BMI is associated with altered drug exposure as an explanation for these differences.