0000000000524365
AUTHOR
Herbert G. Sayer
Filgrastim mobilization and collection of allogeneic blood progenitor cells from adult family donors: first interim report of a prospective German multicenter study.
Recombinant human granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (rhG-CSF) mobilized peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPCs) from healthy individuals are a rapidly emerging alternative source to bone marrow for allogeneic transplantation. Although widely applied in the meantime, only limited information on feasibility and safety of mobilization and collection of PBPCs is currently available from prospective multicenter studies specifically designed to investigate this donation modality. This ongoing multicenter study on the performance as well as the short- and long-term safety profile of rhG-CSF-induced mobilization and collection of PBPCs was initiated in October 1999. The study is designed to r…
Dynamics of BCR-ABL mRNA expression in first-line therapy of chronic myelogenous leukemia patients with imatinib or interferon alpha/ara-C.
We sought to determine dynamics of BCR-ABL mRNA expression levels in 139 patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in early chronic phase, randomized to receive imatinib (n=69) or interferon (IFN)/Ara-C (n=70). The response was sequentially monitored by cytogenetics from bone marrow metaphases (n=803) and qualitative and quantitative RT-PCR from peripheral blood samples (n=1117). Complete cytogenetic response (CCR) was achieved in 60 (imatinib, 87%) vs 10 patients (IFN/Ara-C, 14%) after a median observation time of 24 months. Within the first year after CCR, best median ratio BCR-ABL/ABL was 0.087%, (imatinib, n=48) vs 0.27% (IFN/Ara-C, n=9, P=0.025). BCR-ABL was undetectable in 25 c…
Nonmyeloablative stem cell transplantation in adults with high-risk ALL may be effective in early but not in advanced disease
The feasibility of nonmyeloablative stem cell transplantation (NST) was evaluated in 22 adults with high-risk ALL. 16/22 patients had advanced disease and 11/22 had Ph+ ALL. Eleven patients received NST as first stem cell transplantation (SCT). Eleven patients had relapses after allogeneic or autologous SCT and underwent a salvage NST. 18/22 patients (82%) engrafted after NST. 13/16 patients (81%) with active disease reached complete remission (CR). 11 of 13 patients developed GVHD. After first NST 10/11 patients (91%) engrafted. Six of seven patients with active disease reached CR. Three of five relapsing patients reached subsequent CR after donor lymphocyte infusions, termination of immun…
Treatment of Newly Diagnosed Moderate or Severe Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease with Prednisone and Everolimus (PredEver first): A Prospective Multicenter Phase IIa Study
Background Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is the major cause of treatment related morbidity and mortality after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). Recently Paul Martin et al. reported that treatment success at 1 year (defined as a patient being in partial (PR) or complete remission (CR) of cGVHD, in ongoing remission of underlying disease and not requiring any secondary treatment for cGVHD) was the only endpoint associated with clinical benefit. Strikingly this robust endpoint was only achieved in less than 20% of patients undergoing primary treatment for cGVHD. Therefore, although most patients show initial response to first-line therapy, long-term clinically mean…