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With a new study, researchers hope to establish definitions for specific causes of death in patients who undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT).
The group noted that scientists conducting clinical trials commonly use committees to review and define endpoints.
However, investigators conducting genome-wide association studies rarely do, relying instead on center-reported outcomes, which are variable.
“It is important that we accurately define outcomes in these types of genomic studies as precisely as possible,” said Lara Sucheston-Campbell, PhD, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York.
To that end, she and her colleagues convened a consensus panel to review specific causes of death in HSCT recipients. The panel evaluated outcome data for 1484 patients who had been treated for acute leukemia or myelodysplasia at 1 of 11 US transplant centers and died within a year of undergoing HSCT.
Dr Sucheston-Campbell and her colleagues reported the results of this evaluation in Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.
In the cases where the transplant center reported disease-related mortality, the researchers found almost perfect agreement between the consensus panel and the transplant center, in terms of how those deaths were classified. The panel agreed with more than 99% of deaths that were reported as disease-related.
There was less agreement for transplant-related mortality, however. The panel agreed with about 80% of deaths reported to be transplant-related.
And the level of agreement/discordance varied depending on the specific cause of death. For example, the panel agreed with transplant centers on most of the deaths that were reportedly caused by graft-vs-host disease.
But the panel reclassified many of the deaths that reportedly resulted from organ failure, saying these deaths should be considered disease-related, a result of graft-vs-host disease, infection-related, or due to “other” causes.
These results indicate that transplant-related mortality needs to be better defined, the researchers said. They believe this study provides a mechanism for prioritizing those HSCT cases that should be reviewed.
“We need to make sure that patients who experienced similar clinical events after a transplant were consistently defined regardless of where they were treated,” said study author Theresa Hahn, PhD, also of Roswell Park Cancer Center.
“This is a difficult topic to consider, but we can’t make progress to improve transplant outcomes without these discussions.” 
With a new study, researchers hope to establish definitions for specific causes of death in patients who undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT).
The group noted that scientists conducting clinical trials commonly use committees to review and define endpoints.
However, investigators conducting genome-wide association studies rarely do, relying instead on center-reported outcomes, which are variable.
“It is important that we accurately define outcomes in these types of genomic studies as precisely as possible,” said Lara Sucheston-Campbell, PhD, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York.
To that end, she and her colleagues convened a consensus panel to review specific causes of death in HSCT recipients. The panel evaluated outcome data for 1484 patients who had been treated for acute leukemia or myelodysplasia at 1 of 11 US transplant centers and died within a year of undergoing HSCT.
Dr Sucheston-Campbell and her colleagues reported the results of this evaluation in Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.
In the cases where the transplant center reported disease-related mortality, the researchers found almost perfect agreement between the consensus panel and the transplant center, in terms of how those deaths were classified. The panel agreed with more than 99% of deaths that were reported as disease-related.
There was less agreement for transplant-related mortality, however. The panel agreed with about 80% of deaths reported to be transplant-related.
And the level of agreement/discordance varied depending on the specific cause of death. For example, the panel agreed with transplant centers on most of the deaths that were reportedly caused by graft-vs-host disease.
But the panel reclassified many of the deaths that reportedly resulted from organ failure, saying these deaths should be considered disease-related, a result of graft-vs-host disease, infection-related, or due to “other” causes.
These results indicate that transplant-related mortality needs to be better defined, the researchers said. They believe this study provides a mechanism for prioritizing those HSCT cases that should be reviewed.
“We need to make sure that patients who experienced similar clinical events after a transplant were consistently defined regardless of where they were treated,” said study author Theresa Hahn, PhD, also of Roswell Park Cancer Center.
“This is a difficult topic to consider, but we can’t make progress to improve transplant outcomes without these discussions.”
With a new study, researchers hope to establish definitions for specific causes of death in patients who undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT).
The group noted that scientists conducting clinical trials commonly use committees to review and define endpoints.
However, investigators conducting genome-wide association studies rarely do, relying instead on center-reported outcomes, which are variable.
“It is important that we accurately define outcomes in these types of genomic studies as precisely as possible,” said Lara Sucheston-Campbell, PhD, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York.
To that end, she and her colleagues convened a consensus panel to review specific causes of death in HSCT recipients. The panel evaluated outcome data for 1484 patients who had been treated for acute leukemia or myelodysplasia at 1 of 11 US transplant centers and died within a year of undergoing HSCT.
Dr Sucheston-Campbell and her colleagues reported the results of this evaluation in Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.
In the cases where the transplant center reported disease-related mortality, the researchers found almost perfect agreement between the consensus panel and the transplant center, in terms of how those deaths were classified. The panel agreed with more than 99% of deaths that were reported as disease-related.
There was less agreement for transplant-related mortality, however. The panel agreed with about 80% of deaths reported to be transplant-related.
And the level of agreement/discordance varied depending on the specific cause of death. For example, the panel agreed with transplant centers on most of the deaths that were reportedly caused by graft-vs-host disease.
But the panel reclassified many of the deaths that reportedly resulted from organ failure, saying these deaths should be considered disease-related, a result of graft-vs-host disease, infection-related, or due to “other” causes.
These results indicate that transplant-related mortality needs to be better defined, the researchers said. They believe this study provides a mechanism for prioritizing those HSCT cases that should be reviewed.
“We need to make sure that patients who experienced similar clinical events after a transplant were consistently defined regardless of where they were treated,” said study author Theresa Hahn, PhD, also of Roswell Park Cancer Center.
“This is a difficult topic to consider, but we can’t make progress to improve transplant outcomes without these discussions.”