@article{3032521, title = "A prognostic index predicting survival in transformed Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia", author = "Durot, Eric and Kanagaratnam, Lukshe and Zanwar, Saurabh and Kastritis, and Efstathios and D'Sa, Shirley and Garcia-Sanz, Ramon and Tomowiak, Cecile and and Hivert, Benedicte and Toussaint, Elise and Protin, Caroline and and Abeykoon, Jithma P. and Guerrero-Garcia, Thomas and Itchaki, Gilad and and Vos, Josephine M. and Michallet, Anne-Sophie and Godet, Sophie and and Dupuis, Jehan and Lepretre, Stephane and Bomsztyk, Joshua and Morel, and Pierre and Leblond, Veronique and Treon, Steven P. and Dimopoulos, and Meletios A. and Kapoor, Prashant and Delmer, Alain and Castillo, Jorge and J.", journal = "Haematologica-the hematology journal", year = "2021", volume = "106", number = "11", pages = "2940-2946", publisher = "Ferrata Storti Foundation", doi = "10.3324/haematol.2020.262899", abstract = "Histological transformation into diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is a rare complication in patients with Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM) and is usually associated with a poor prognosis. The objective of this study was to develop and validate a prognostic index for survival of patients with transformed WM. Through this multicenter, international collaborative effort, we developed a scoring system based on data from 133 patients with transformed WM who were evaluated between 1995 and 2016 (training cohort). Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to propose a prognostic index with 2-year survival after transformation as an endpoint. For external validation, a dataset of 67 patients was used to evaluate the performance of the model (validation cohort). By multivariate analysis, three adverse covariates were identified as independent predictors of 2-year survival after transformation: elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase (2 points), platelet count <100x10(9)/L (1 point) and any previous treatment for WM (1 point). Three risk groups were defined: low-risk (0-1 point, 24% of patients), intermediate-risk (2-3 points, 59%; hazard ratio = 3.4) and high-risk (4 points, 17%; hazard ratio = 7.5). Two-year survival rates were 81%, 47%, and 21%, respectively (P<0.0001). This model appeared to be a better discriminant than either the International Prognostic Index or the revised International Prognostic Index. We validated this model in an independent cohort. This easy-to-compute scoring index is a robust tool that may allow identification of groups of transformed WM patients with different outcomes and could be used for improving the development of risk-adapted treatment strategies." }