Prognostic factors of Erdheim–Chester disease: a nationwide survey in Japan

Erdheim–Chester disease is a rare histiocytosis with insufficient clinical data. To clarify the clinical features and prognostic factors of Erdheim–Chester disease, we conducted a nationwide survey to collect the detailed data of 44 patients with Erdheim–Chester disease in Japan. The median age of onset of the participants was 51 (range: 23–76) years, and the median number of involved organs per patient was 4 (range: 1–11). The existence of central nervous system disease was correlated with older age (P=0.033), the presence of cardiovascular lesions (P=0.015), and an increased number of involved organs (P=0.0042). The median survival from the onset was 10.4 years, and >3.0 mg/dL C-reactive protein level at onset was associated with worse outcome (median survival, 14.6 vs. 7.4 years; P=0.0016). In a multivariate analysis, age >60 years (hazard ratio, 25.9; 95% confidence interval, 2.82–237; P=0.0040) and the presence of digestive organ involvement (hazard ratio, 4.74; 95% confidence interval, 1.05–21.4; P=0.043) were correlated with worse survival. Fourteen patients had available histological samples of Erdheim– Chester disease lesions. BRAFV600E mutation was detected in 11 patients (78%) by Sanger sequencing. A correlation between BRAF mutation status and clinical factors was not observed. Our study revealed that age and digestive organ involvement influence the outcome of Erdheim–Chester disease patients, and an inflammatory marker, such as C-reactive protein, might reflect the activity of this inflammatory myeloid neoplasm.