Use of white blood cell growth factors and risk of acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome among elderly patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Abstract

BACKGROUND. The current study was conducted to evaluate the association between colony-stimulating factor (CSF) use and the risk of developing therapy-related myelodysplastic syndromes or acute myeloid leukemia (t-MDS/AML) among a large cohort of elderly patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) who were treated with chemotherapy. METHODS. A total of 13,203 NHL patients were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database who were diagnosed from 1992 through 2002. Patients were followed from their initial chemotherapy date until the date they were diagnosed with t-MDS/AML, death, or last follow-up (October 31, 2006), whichever occurred first. RESULTS. Overall, 40% (n = 5266) of patients received CSF. During the follow-up period (median follow-up, 2.9 years [range, 1-14.7 years]), 272 (5.2%) patients who were treated with CSF developed t-MDS/AML, compared with 230 (2.9%) patients who did not (P