Hyperferritinemia is associated with low incidence of graft versus host disease, high relapse rate, and impaired survival in patients with blood disorders receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell grafts

High pre-transplantation serum ferritin levels have been reported to be associated with impaired survival post-transplantation in patients with acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome. We performed a retrospective study of 309 patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation at two transplantation centers. The aim was to determine the effect of pre-transplantation hyperferritinemia on survival, graft versus host disease, and relapse. In both univariate and multivariate analysis, elevated ferritin levels were significantly associated with shorter overall and relapse-free survival times and increased relapse rate, but lower risk of chronic graft versus host disease. Elevated ferritin levels were not associated with non-relapse mortality. We hypothesize that ferritin may exert an immunosuppressive effect, reducing graft versus host disease and graft versus leukemia effects, resulting in increased risk of relapse and impaired survival.