ASH 2023: Molecular Characteristics of AML and MDS After CT/XRT Exposure

Dr. Pinkal Desai is an associate professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. We had the privilege of interviewing her at ASH 2023, where she presented the oral poster “Molecular and Cytogenetic Characteristics of Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) in Patients Exposed to Chemotherapy (CT) and Radiation (XRT).” Watch the video below or continue reading to learn more about Dr. Desai's study. 

The study focuses on 171 patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) or Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) who were exposed to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The research involves data from Weill Cornell and Northwestern University; the primary goal was to evaluate disease characteristics, treatment modalities (chemotherapy and radiation), and survival outcomes in patients with AML/MDS who have undergone CT/XRT exposure.

“We know that patients who had a previous exposure to chemotherapy or radiation are at higher risk of getting AML or myelodisplastic syndrome and we wanted to take a look at what these patients get and if it’s important having chemotherapy exposure in the past.”  Said Dr Pinkal as a motive for the research. 

Dr. Desai then lists the several findings this project led up to: 

• Certain chemotherapy types might increase the risk of adverse biological characteristics when the AML and MDS are diagnosed.
• Radiation exposure alone doesn’t increase biological risk, nor does it decrease survival from leukemia, concluding that it should probably not be considered as a damaging therapy in terms of leukemia risk. Chemotherapy exposure does seem to increase biological risk and survival in some groups of patients. 
• The abstract mentions that they also found an association between shorter latency and antimetabolite and platinum exposure to TP53 mutations, but it needs further validation in a larger dataset.

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