Real-World Outcomes of Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in Taiwan: A Nationwide Population-Based Study, 2011-2015

Factors and Considerations in No-Treatment Decisions in Patients With Key Hematological Malignancies: A Nationwide, Population-Based Study in the Netherlands

Comprehensive insights are lacking into why patients with hematological malignancies (HMs) receive no cancer-directed treatment. We evaluated socio-demographic and cancer-related characteristics, decision-making rationales, and overall survival in patients with three common HMs-diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), symptomatic multiple myeloma (MM), and acute myeloid leukemia (AML)-who do not receive cancer-directed treatment, using the nationwide Netherlands Cancer Registry. A total of 26 945 patients diagnosed with DLBCL (47%), symptomatic MM (29%), or AML (25%) between 2014 and 2021 were included. About 16% of the patients did not receive cancer-directed treatment, ranging from 26% in AML to 15% in DLBCL and 10% in MM. The primary reason for not receiving cancer-directed treatment in all three HMs was related to physical condition. The second main reason was patient/family choice in DLBCL and MM, whereas in AML it was rapid disease progression. In female patients, patient/family choice was a more prevalent reason for not receiving cancer-directed treatment than in male patients. Patients with a lower socio-economic position more often did not receive cancer-directed treatment. Median OS varied by reason for not receiving cancer-directed treatment, with the shortest OS in patients experiencing rapid disease progression or death before treatment initiation (0·4 to 0·6 months).

The influence of hospital volume and physician volume on early mortality in acute promyelocytic leukemia patients

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a highly curable hematologic malignancy in the era of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) combination treatment. However, only a modest change in early mortality rate has been observed despite the wide availability of ATRA. In addition to the clinical characteristics of APL patients, studies on the hospital volume-outcome relationship and the physician volume-outcome relationship remained limited. We aim to evaluate the association between hospital and physician volume and the early mortality rate among APL patients. The patients were collected from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). Early mortality is defined as death within 30 days of diagnosis. Patients were categorized into four groups according to individual cumulative hospital and physician volume. The risk of all-cause mortality in APL patients with different cumulative volume groups was compared using a Cox proportional hazard model. The probability of overall survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. All 741 patients were divided into four quartile volume groups. In the multivariate analysis, only physician volume was significantly associated with early mortality rate. The physician volume of the highest quartile was a protective factor for early mortality compared with the physician volume of the lowest quartile (HR 0.10, 95% CI 0.02-0.65). Hospital characteristics were not associated with early mortality. In the sensitivity analyses, the results remained consistent using two other different definitions of early mortality. Higher physician volume was independently associated with lower early mortality, while hospital volume was not. Enhancing the clinical expertise of low-volume physicians may ensure better outcomes.