Clinical features and survival of patients with indolent systemic mastocytosis defined by the updated WHO classification

Abstract

Background In indolent systemic mastocytosis (ISM) several risk factors of disease progression have been identified. Previous studies, performed with limited patient numbers, have also shown that the clinical course in ISM is stable and comparable to that of cutaneous mastocytosis (CM). The aim of this project was to compare the prognosis of patients with ISM with that of patients with CM. Methods We employed a data set of 1993 patients from the registry of the European Competence Network on Mastocytosis (ECNM) to compare outcomes of ISM and CM. Results We found that overall survival (OS) is worse in ISM compared to CM. Moreover, in patients with typical ISM, bone marrow mastocytosis (BMM) and smouldering SM (SSM), 4.1% of disease progressions have been observed (4.9% of progressions in typical ISM group, 1.7% in BMM and 9.4% in SSM). Progressions to advanced SM were observed in 2.9% of these patients. In contrast, six patients with CM (1.7%) converted to ISM and no definitive progression to advanced SM was found. No significant differences in OS and event‐free survival (EFS) were found when comparing ISM, BMM and SSM. Higher risk of both progression and death was significantly associated with male gender, worse performance status and organomegaly. Conclusion Our data confirm the clinical impact of the WHO classification that separates ISM from CM and from other SM variants.