Allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is one of the effective therapy for several hematologic malignancies. Transplantation preparative regimen is designed to eradicate the patient's underlying disease and immunosuppress the patient adequately to prevent rejection of donor's hematopoietic stem cells. so, Conventional myeloablative preparative regimens with high-dose chemotherapy or radiotherapy are related to high rate of morbidity and mortality. however, It has become clear that the high-dose therapy dose not eradicate the malignancy in some patients, and that the therapeutic benefit of allogenic transplantation is largely related to graft-versus-leukemia/graft-versus-tumor (GVL/GVT) effect. An new approach is to utilize less toxic, nonmyeloablative preparative regimens to achieve engraftment and allow GVL/GVT effects to developed. This strategy reduces the risk of treatment-related mortality and allows transplantation for elderly and those with comorbidities that preclude high-dose chemoradiotherapy.
Aged ; Chemoradiotherapy ; Comorbidity ; Drug Therapy ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Humans ; Mortality ; Radiotherapy ; Stem Cell Transplantation* ; Stem Cells*

Allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is one of the effective therapy for several hematologic malignancies. Transplantation preparative regimen is designed to eradicate the patient's underlying disease and immunosuppress the patient adequately to prevent rejection of donor's hematopoietic stem cells. so, Conventional myeloablative preparative regimens with high-dose chemotherapy or radiotherapy are related to high rate of morbidity and mortality. however, It has become clear that the high-dose therapy dose not eradicate the malignancy in some patients, and that the therapeutic benefit of allogenic transplantation is largely related to graft-versus-leukemia/graft-versus-tumor (GVL/GVT) effect. An new approach is to utilize less toxic, nonmyeloablative preparative regimens to achieve engraftment and allow GVL/GVT effects to developed. This strategy reduces the risk of treatment-related mortality and allows transplantation for elderly and those with comorbidities that preclude high-dose chemoradiotherapy.
Aged ; Chemoradiotherapy ; Comorbidity ; Drug Therapy ; Hematologic Neoplasms ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells ; Humans ; Mortality ; Radiotherapy ; Stem Cell Transplantation* ; Stem Cells*

China ; Graft Survival ; HLA Antigens ; genetics ; Haplotypes ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; methods ; mortality ; Humans ; Transplantation, Homologous

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a well-established cause of morbidity and mortality in pediatric recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). CD8⁺ T-cells are important for controlling CMV infection. We conducted a prospective pilot study to investigate the clinical utility of measuring the CMV-specific T-cell immune response using the QuantiFERON-CMV assay (QF-CMV) in pediatric allo-HSCT recipients. Overall, 16 of 25 (64%) patients developed CMV infection. QF-CMV was evaluated in these 16 patients during the early and late phases of the first CMV infection post allo-HSCT. Whereas the initial QF-CMV results during the early phase of CMV infection did not correlate with the course of the corresponding infection, the QF-CMV results post resolution of the first CMV infection correlated with the recurrence of CMV infection until 12 months post allo-HSCT; no recurrent infections occurred in the four QF-CMV-positive patients, while recurrent infections manifested in five of eight QF-CMV-negative (62.5%) and all three QF-CMV-indeterminate patients (P=0.019). In spite of the small number of patients examined, this study supports the potential application of monitoring CMV-specific T-cell immunity using the QF-CMV assay to predict the recurrence of CMV infection in pediatric allo-HSCT recipients.
Cytomegalovirus ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells* ; Humans ; Mortality ; Pilot Projects ; Prospective Studies ; Recurrence ; T-Lymphocytes

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cardiovascular complications are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in childhood cancer survivors. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a curable therapy for pediatric cancer. However, changes in cardiac function in children after HSCT are not well known. We assessed left ventricular (LV) function in children after HSCT using speckle tracking echocardiography (STE). SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Forty consecutive patients with median age of 11.9 years (range, 1.5-16 years) who received HSCT for acute leukemia and had comprehensive echocardiography before and after (median 9.2 month) HSCT were included in this study. The LV function parameters including conventional tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and STE data were collected from pre- and post-HSCT echocardiography. These data were compared to those of 39 age-matched normal controls. RESULTS: Compared to normal controls, post HSCT patients had similar (p=0.06) LV ejection fraction. However, the following three LV function parameters were significantly decreased in post HSCT patients: rate-corrected velocity of circumferential fiber shortening (p=0.04), mitral inflow E velocity (p<0.001), and mitral septal annular E' velocity (p=0.03). The following four STE parameters were also significantly decreased in post HSCT patients: LV global circumferential systolic strain (p<0.01), strain rate (SR, p=0.01), circumferential diastolic SR (p<0.01), and longitudinal diastolic SR (p<0.001). There was no significant change in TDI or STE parameters after HSCT compared to pre-HSCT. Patients with anthracycline cumulative dose >400 mg/m2 showed significantly (p<0.05) lower circumferential systolic strain and circumferential diastolic SR. CONCLUSION: Subclinical cardiac dysfunction is evident in children after HSCT. It might be associated with pre-HSCT anthracycline exposure with little effect of conditioning regimens. Serial monitoring of cardiac function is mandatory for all children following HSCT.
Case-Control Studies* ; Child* ; Echocardiography* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation* ; Humans ; Leukemia* ; Mortality ; Stem Cell Transplantation ; Survivors ; Ventricular Dysfunction, Left*

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of autologous transplantation of peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) mobilized with high-dose consolidation chemotherapy and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Twenty patients received myeloablative chemotherapy or chemo-radiotherapy including total body irradiation followed by the infusion of PBSC. PBSC were collected by large-volume leukaphereses. The mean number of mononuclear cells and CD34-positive cells infused were 7.2 x 10(8)/kg (range, 2.2-16.6), and 6.6 x 106/kg (range, 2.1-27.7), respectively. Engraftment failure was not seen in the enrolled patients. The median time to neutrophil (> or = 500/microL) and platelet recovery (> or = 50,000/microL) from the transplant was 12 days (range, 8-20) and 28 days (range, 10-600), respectively. The 2-year probability of disease-free survival (DFS) and relapse were 43% and 57% for patients with AML transplanted in first complete remission (CR1). The outcome of the patients transplanted in the advanced status was significantly worse than the patients transplanted in CR1 (P=0.04). Most relapses occurred within 1 year after transplantation. Fatal hepatic veno-occlusive disease was observed in one case. Other transplantation-related toxicities were mild. Our results demonstrated that autologous transplantation of high-dose consolidation chemotherapy-mobilized peripheral blood progenitor cells is feasible in the patients with AML in CR1. To further reduce the risk of leukemia relapse, much effort should be contributed to the field of ex vivo purging and post-transplant immunotherapy.
Adult ; Female ; Hematopoiesis ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Mobilization* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation*/adverse effects ; Human ; Leukemia, Myelocytic, Acute/therapy* ; Leukemia, Myelocytic, Acute/mortality ; Male ; Middle Age ; Transplantation, Autologous

BACKGROUND: The mortality of patients with steroid resistant acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is high due to multiple organ failure and infection. Recently, the use of extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP), which is believed to have a low risk of infection, has been applied for the treatment of GVHD. METHODS: Of 23 patients who were steroid resistant acute GVHD that was resistant even to high dose steroid treatment as second-line treatment, 10 patients received ECP (ECP group) and 13 patients received a third-line treatment other than ECP (non-ECP group). The outcome including the response rate and survival for the ECP group and non-ECP group was analyzed. RESULTS: The response rate of the ECP group including complete remission and partial remission, was 30%. The survival rate was 30% for the ECP group and 0% for the non-ECP group. The estimated mean survival time was 229.3+/-89.3 days for the ECP group and 41.8+/-14.6 days for the non-ECP group (P=0.028). CONCLUSION: ECP can be considered as a treatment option for the steroid resistant acute GVHD that is refractory to high dose steroid treatment.
Graft vs Host Disease ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Mortality ; Multiple Organ Failure ; Photopheresis* ; Survival Rate

Chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) is a primary immunodeficiency disease caused by impaired phagocytic function. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a definitive cure for CGD; however, the use of HSCT is limited because of associated problems, including transplantation-related mortality and engraftment failure. We report a case of a patient with CGD who underwent successful HSCT following a targeted busulfan and fludarabine reduced-toxicity myeloablative conditioning. Intravenous busulfan was administered once daily for 4 consecutive days (days –8 to –5), and the target area under the curve was 75,000 µg·hr/L. Fludarabine (40 mg/m2) was administered once daily for 6 consecutive days from days –8 to –3. Antithymocyte globulin (2.5 mg/kg/day) was administered from days –4 to –2. The patient underwent successful engraftment and did not have any severe toxicity related to the transplantation. Conditioning with a targeted busulfan and fludarabine regimen could provide a better outcome for HSCT in CGD, with close regulation of the busulfan dose.
Antilymphocyte Serum ; Bone Marrow Transplantation* ; Bone Marrow* ; Busulfan* ; Granulomatous Disease, Chronic* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Humans ; Mortality ; Transplantation Conditioning

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a life-threatening hyperinflammatory clinical syndrome of uncontrolled immune response which results in hypercytokinemia due to underlying primary or secondary immune defect. A number of genetic defects in transport, processing and function of cytotoxic granules which result in defective granule exocytosis and cytotoxicity of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and natural killer (NK) cells have been well identified at the cellular and molecular level. Important advances have been made during the last 20 years in the diagnosis and treatment of HLH. The Histiocyte Society has proposed diagnostic guideline using both clinical and laboratory findings in HLH-2004 protocol, and this has been modified partly in 2009. HLH used to be a fatal disease, but the survival of HLH patients has improved to more than 60% with the use of chemoimmunotherapy combined with hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) over the past 2 decades. However, HCT is still the only curative option of treatment for primary HLH and refractory/relapsed HLH after proper chemoimmunotherapy. The outcome of HCT for HLH patients was also improved steadily during last decades, but HCT for HLH still carries significant mortality and morbidity. Moreover, there remain ongoing controversies in various aspects of HCT including indication of HCT, donor selection, timing of HCT, conditioning regimen, and mixed chimerism after HCT. This review summarized the important practical issues which were proven by previous studies on HCT for HLH, and tried to delineate the controversies among them.
Cell Transplantation* ; Chimerism ; Diagnosis ; Donor Selection ; Exocytosis ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation ; Histiocytes ; Humans ; Lymphohistiocytosis, Hemophagocytic* ; Mortality ; T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic ; Transplants*

BACKGROUND: Though fluconazole is widely used for antifungal prophylaxis, it is ineffective against mould infections including Aspergillus species. Itraconazole has a broader spectrum than fluconazole but the capsule form shows erratic bioavailability in neutropenic patients. In this study, we compared itraconazole oral solution (ITZS) with fluconazole syrup (FCZS) for the prevention of invasive fungal infection (IFI) in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adults receiving allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from september 2001 to June 2002, were randomly allocated to either the ITZS group or the FCZS group. We prospectively evaluated the safety and efficacy of each drug. RESULTS: Out of 78 patients (40 patients in the ITZS group and 38 patients in the FCZS group) who were eligible for this study, 37 patients completed the course of prophylaxis without any evidence of IFI. The mean duration of prophylaxis was 16.4 days for the ITZS group and 21.9 days for the FCZS group (P<0.006). Drug-related adverse events occurred in 28 patients (70.0%) and 19 patients (50.0%) in the ITZS group and the FCZS group, respectively. Common adverse events of ITZS were nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Drug-related reversible hepatotoxicity occurred in 4 patients in the ITZS group. There was a significant elevation of total bilirubin level in the ITZS group. The incidence of suspected IFI occurred in 5 patients (12.5%) who received ITZS, compared with 8 (21.1%) who received FCZS (P=0.372). There were no proven IFIs or superficial (oral/vaginal) fungal infections in both groups. Overall mortality was not different between the two groups (2.5% in the ITZS group versus 5.3% in the FCZS group, P=0.610). CONCLUSION: ITZS and FCZS showed similar protection against IFI during pre-engraftment period. Poor tolerability due to gastrointestinal troubles of ITZS might limit its success as prophylactic therapy. Well matched controlled study with large number of patients will be required in the future.
Adult ; Aspergillus ; Bilirubin ; Biological Availability ; Diarrhea ; Fluconazole* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation* ; Hematopoietic Stem Cells* ; Humans ; Incidence ; Itraconazole* ; Mortality ; Nausea ; Neutropenia ; Prospective Studies ; Transplantation ; Vomiting