Impact of infectious comorbidity and overall time of hospitalization in total outpatient management of acute myeloid leukemia patients following venetoclax and hypomethylating agents

Abstract

Venetoclax (VEN) and hypomethylating agent (HMAs) regimens are emerging as the standard of care for unfit for chemotherapy acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, but the safety and feasibility of a total outpatient management have not been fully investigated. Fifty-nine AML patients with active disease received VEN and HMAs. Nineteen out of 59 (32.2%) patients received the first cycle as inpatients, whereas 40/59 (67.8%) patients were treated in the outpatient setting. No significant differences were observed with regard to incidence of adverse events (AEs), including tumor lysis syndrome (TLS), and the 30-day and 60-day mortality was comparable. Notably, an infectious prophylaxis inspired to that adopted during intensive chemotherapy resulted in a low infection rate with a reduced bacterial infections incidence in out- versus hospitalized patients (p