One-year Non-relapse Mortality Research Articles

A conditioning platform based on fludarabine, busulfan, and 2 days of rabbit antithymocyte globulin results in promising results in patients undergoing allogeneic transplantation from both matched and mismatched unrelated donor

Conditioning regimen including fludarabine, intravenous busulfan (Bx), and 5 mg/kg total dose of rabbit antithymocyte globulin (r-ATG) (FBx-ATG) results in low incidence of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and non-relapse mortality (NRM) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (Allo-HSCT) from HLA-matched related or unrelated donors (MUD). However, whether this platform produces similar results in the setting of one mismatch unrelated donor (MMUD) Allo-HSCT is not known. We retrospectively analyzed patients aged less than 65 years who were diagnosed with hematological malignancies and received FBx-ATG regimen prior to Allo-HSCT from MUD (N = 74) or MMUD (N = 40). We compared outcome of MUD versus MMUD patients. There was no difference in the cumulative incidence of grades II-IV acute GVHD (MUD: 34% vs. MMUD: 35%, P = 0.918), but MMUD patients developed more grade III-IV acute GVHD (MUD: 5% vs. MMUD: 15%, P = 0.016). The cumulative incidences of overall chronic GVHD (MUD: 33% vs. MMUD: 22%, P = 0.088) and extensive chronic GVHD (MUD: 20% vs. MMUD: 19%, P = 0.594) were comparable. One-year NRM was similar in both groups (MUD: 16% vs. MMUD: 14%, P = 0.292); similarly, progression-free survival (MUD: 59% vs. MMUD: 55%, P = 0.476) and overall survival (MUD: 63% vs. MMUD: 61%, P = 0.762) were not different between both groups. With a median follow up of 24 months, 35 of 74 MUD patients (47%) and 19 of 40 MMUD patients (48%) were free of both disease progression and immunosuppressive treatment. We conclude that the FBx-ATG regimen results in low incidences of NRM and GVHD in both MUD and the MMUD recipients.

Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Comorbidity Index Is Predictive of Survival after Autologous Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in Multiple Myeloma

Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHCT) improves survival in patients with multiple myeloma (MM) but is associated with morbidity and nonrelapse mortality (NRM). Hematopoietic cell transplant comorbidity index (HCT-CI) was shown to predict risk of NRM and survival after allogeneic transplantation. We tested the utility of HCT-CI as a predictor of NRM and survival in patients with MM undergoing AHCT. We analyzed outcomes of 1156 patients of AHCT after high-dose melphalan reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. Individual comorbidities were prospectively collected at the time of AHCT. The impact of HCT-CI and other potential prognostic factors, including Karnofsky performance score (KPS), on NRM and survival were studied in multivariate Cox regression models. HCT-CI score was 0, 1, 2, 3, and >3 in 42%, 18%, 13%, 13%, and 14% of the study cohort, respectively. Subjects were stratified into 3 risk groups: HCT-CI score of 0 (42%) versus HCT-CI score of 1 to 2 (32%) versus HCT-CI score > 2 (26%). Higher HCT-CI was associated with lower KPS < 90 (33% of subjects score of 0 versus 50% in HCT-CI score > 2). HCT-CI score > 2 was associated with melphalan dose reduction (22% versus 10% in score 0 cohort). One-year NRM was low at 2% (95% confidence interval, 1% to 4%) and did not correlate with HCT-CI score (P = .9). On multivariate analysis, overall survival was inferior in groups with HCT-CI score of 1 to 2 (relative risk, 1.37, [95% confidence interval, 1.01 to 1.87], P = .04) and HCT-CI score > 2 (relative risk, 1.5 [95% confidence interval, 1.09 to 2.08], P = .01). Overall survival was also inferior with KPS < 90 (P < .001), IgA subtype (P ≤ .001), those receiving >1 pretransplant induction regimen (P = .007), and those with resistant disease at the time of AHCT (P < .001). AHCT for MM is associated with low NRM, and death is predominantly related to disease progression. Although a higher HCT-CI score did not predict NRM, it was associated with inferior survival.

Donor compatibility and performance status affect outcome of allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplant in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia

We retrospectively analysed 78 patients with relapsed (n = 38), primary refractory (n = 34) or untreated (n = 6) acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) who underwent allogeneic HSCT at our Institution between 2002 and 2011, to verify outcome and to identify factors that can affect long-term outcome. Myeloablative conditioning regimens were used in 48 patients (24 siblings, 24 matched unrelated donor (MUD)), while 30 patients (18 siblings, 12 MUD) received reduced-intensity conditioning. Acute graft versus host disease (GVHD) developed in 37 (47%) patients, while chronic GVHD occurred in 19 of the 65 evaluable patients (29%). With a median follow-up time of 5years, 13 of 78 patients (17%) are alive and in complete remission (CR), while 64 have died. Cause of death was disease recurrence in 37 patients (58%), infection in ten patients (16%) and GVHD in six (9%). One-year non-relapse mortality was 35%. In multivariate analysis, performance status ≥80% WHO and a full-matched donor were associated with a better outcome: these two variables allowed for risk stratification, identifying three groups with significantly different survival after transplant (P = 0.0001). Considering post-transplant variables, only CR at recovery and development of cGVHD were correlated with a longer survival. Our data confirm the capacity of allogeneic transplant to prolong survival in a significant proportion of extremely high-risk AML patients.

Multicenter Experience Using Total Lymphoid Irradiation and Antithymocyte Globulin as Conditioning for Allografting in Hematological Malignancies

A non myeloablative conditioning with total lymphoid irradiation (TLI) and antithymocyte globulin (ATG) was shown to protect against graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). To evaluate the effects of TLI-ATG in a multicenter study, 45 heavily pretreated patients, median age 51, with lymphoid (n = 38) and myeloid (n = 7) malignancies were enrolled at 9 centers. Twenty-eight patients (62%) received at least 3 lines of treatment before allografting, and 13 (29%) had refractory/relapsed disease at the time of transplantation. Peripheral blood hematopoietic cells were from HLA identical sibling (n = 30), HLA-matched (n = 9), or 1 antigen HLA-mismatched (n = 6) unrelated donors. A cumulative TLI dose of 8 Gy was administered from day -11 through -1 with ATG at the dose of 1.5 mg/kg/day (from day -11 through -7). GVHD prophylaxis consisted of cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetil. Donor engraftment was reached in 95% of patients. Grade II to IV acute GVHD (aGVHD) developed in 6 patients (13.3%), and in 2 of these patients, it developed beyond day 100. Incidence of chronic GVHD (cGVHD) was 35.8%. One-year nonrelapse mortality was 9.1%. After a median follow-up of 28 months (range, 3-57 months) from transplantation, median overall survival was not reached, whereas median event-free survival was 20 months. This multicenter experience confirms that TLI-ATG protects against GVHD and maintains graft-vs-tumor effects.

Cotransplantation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Might Prevent Death from Graft-versus-Host Disease (GVHD) without Abrogating Graft-versus-Tumor Effects after HLA-Mismatched Allogeneic Transplantation following Nonmyeloablative Conditioning

Recent studies have suggested that coinfusion of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) the day of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) might promote engraftment and prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after myeloablative allogeneic HCT. This prompted us to investigate in a pilot study whether MSC infusion before HCT could allow nonmyeloablative (NMA) HCT (a transplant strategy based nearly exclusively on graft-versus-tumor effects for tumor eradication) from HLA-mismatched donors to be performed safely. Twenty patients with hematologic malignancies were given MSCs from third party unrelated donors 30-120 minutes before peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) from HLA-mismatched unrelated donors, after conditioning with 2 Gy total body irradiation (TBI) and fludarabine. The primary endpoint was safety, defined as a 100-day incidence of nonrelapse mortality (NRM) <35%. One patient had primary graft rejection, whereas the remaining 19 patients had sustained engraftment. The 100-day cumulative incidence of grade II-IV acute GVHD (aGVHD) was 35%, whereas 65% of the patients experienced moderate/severe chronic GVHD (cGVHD). One-year NRM (10%), relapse (30%), overall survival (OS) (80%) and progression-free survival (PFS) (60%), and 1-year incidence of death from GVHD or infection with GVHD (10%) were encouraging. These figures compare favorably with those observed in a historic group of 16 patients given HLA-mismatched PBSCs (but no MSCs) after NMA conditioning, which had a 1-year incidence of NRM of 37% (P = .02), a 1-year incidence of relapse of 25% (NS), a 1-year OS and PFS of 44% (P = .02), and 38% (P = .1), respectively, and a 1-year rate of death from GVHD or infection with GVHD of 31% (P = .04). In conclusion, our data suggest that HLA-mismatched NMA HCT with MSC coinfusion appeared to be safe.

Improved Outcome After Reduced Intensity Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (RI-HCT) for Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) Using Tacrolimus/Sirolimus-Based Gvhd Prophylaxis.

Abstract 2771Poster Board II-747We previously reported an encouraging result with RI-HCT for MDS (Bone Marrow Transplant 2007; 40:843-50) using flugarabine/melphalan conditioning and cyclosporine (CSA)/mycophenolate (MMF) as GVHD prophylaxis. In order to further improve upon the outcome in the RI-HCT setting, we initiated a series of clinical trials at City of Hope National Medical Center designed to evaluate the impact of tacrolimus (FK)/sirolimus (SIRO)-based GVHD prophylaxis. Here we report the combined, updated results from a consecutive case-series of 89 patients with MDS (including AML progressed from MDS) who underwent RI-HCT from 2000 to 2008 and received either CSA/MMF (n =44) or FK/SIRO (n=45)-based GVHD prophylaxis. All patients received fludarabine 125 mg/m2 plus melphalan 140 mg/m2 followed by an allogeneic HCT (peripheral blood: n=83, bone marrow: n=6) from an HLA-identical sibling (SIB: n=35) or unrelated donor (MUD: n=54). Additional ATG was given to 12 patients. For MUD transplants a short course of methotrexate was added to CSA/MMF or FK/SIRO. The median age was 59 years (range: 20-71) and 31 (35%) patients were female, 58 (65%) were male. Diagnoses at transplant were RA (n=21), RARS (n=1), RAEB/RAEBT (n=36), and AML from prior MDS (n=31). Cytogenetic risk was low in 15 (17%), intermediate in 37 (41.5%), high in 37 (41.5%) patients. By IPSS criteria (for MDS only), 2 patients had low, 24 had int-1, 20 had int-2, and 12 had high-risk MDS. Twenty-seven patients had therapy-related MDS including 14 with prior autologous HCT. The median follow-up time for surviving patients was 39 months (range: 24-68) for the CSA/MMF group and 17 months (range: 4-39) for the FK/SIRO group. All but two patients (1 in CSA/MMF, 1 in FK/SIRO) engrafted with the median neutrophil recovery at 15 days (range: 11-55). The baseline patient, disease and transplant characteristics were similar between CSA/MMF and FK/SIRO, except for an increased percentage of therap-related MDS in the CSA/MMF group (43% vs. 18%, p<0.01). The median donor chimerism by STR at day 30 post-transplant was 100% in both groups (p=0.6). FK/SIRO was associated with a significantly reduced one-year non-relapse mortality (NRM) (11.4%) compared with CSA/MMF (36.2%, p=0.01). This improvement in NRM translated into a trend for improved overall survival (81.4% vs. 52.3%, p=0.1) and disease-free survival (72.2% vs. 52.3%, p=0.08) at one year. While we observed no significant difference in acute GVHD grade II-IV between CSA/MMF and FK/SIRO, FK/SIRO was associated with a significant reduction in grade IV GVHD (0% versus 26%, p<0.01) and a trend for III-IV GVHD (31% vs. 55%, p=0.1). There was no significant difference in chronic GVHD between FK/SIRO (60%) and CSA/MMF (56%, p=0.8). In multivariate analysis, the use of FK/SIRO was independently associated with improved NRM after adjusted for donor type, therapy-related MDS, %bone marrow blasts, and HLA match status (Table). In conclusion, FK/SIRO-based GVHD prophylaxis was associated with an improved outcome after RI-HCT for MDS attributable to the reduced risk for severe acute GVHD.Variables for NRMHazard Ratio (95% CI)p-valueDe novo (n=62) Therapy-related (n=27)baseline 0.75 (0.31–1.89)0.55Sibling donor (n=35) Unrelated donor (n=54)baseline 2.17 (0.70–6.74)0.18Bone marrow blasts < or =10% (n=67) Bone marrow blasts >10% (n=22)baseline 2.13 (0.92–4.96)0.08HLA match (sibling donor or 10/10 MUD, n=72)HLA < mismatch MUD (<10/10 match, n=17)baseline 6.26 (2.11–18.55)0.001FK/SIRO (n=45) CSA/MMF (n=44)baseline 6.58 (2.15–20.14)0.001 Disclosures:Off Label Use: cyclosporine, cellcept, tacrolimus, sirolimus, and methotrexate for GVHD prophylaxis.