# Rasburicase vs. allopurinol: mortality in hematological malignancies post anti-hyperuricemic therapy - real-world study

## TL;DR

This real-world study found that rasburicase may reduce deaths from tumor lysis syndrome compared to allopurinol in patients with blood cancers.

## Contribution

The study provides real-world evidence that rasburicase is associated with lower TLS-related mortality than allopurinol in hematological malignancies.

## Key findings

- Rasburicase-treated patients had a 2.1% TLS-associated mortality compared to 7.1% with allopurinol.
- Propensity score matching confirmed a statistically significant reduction in TLS-related deaths with rasburicase.
- The study used 11 predictive covariates to match patients for TLS risk.

## Abstract

This retrospective, real-world (RW) study utilizing propensity score matching investigated tumor lysis syndrome (TLS)-related mortalities following anti-hyperuricemic (HU) monotherapy (allopurinol vs. rasburicase) in hematological malignancies. The study aim was to determine if a significant difference exists in the proportion of TLS-associated mortalities in hematological malignancy patients who received either rasburicase or allopurinol.

Following random selection of patient cases of rasburicase or allopurinol monotherapy, 141 in each group were PS-matched for TLS risk using 11 predictive covariates.

Rasburicase-treated patients had significantly lower TLS-associated mortality (2.1% (n = 3) vs. 7.1% (n = 10) (p = 0.047)).

Following successful PS matching of TLS-risk factors, this study suggests rasburicase statistically significantly reduces TLS-associated mortalities compared to allopurinol.