Edmund K. Waller, MD, PhD, FACP

Clinical trials of the new thrombopoietin receptor agonists in the management of chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia are needed to address concerns about the safety and practical efficacy new agents before we accept them as standard therapies.

The graft-vs-tumor effect is an important part of the curative potential of allogeneic transplantation. We characterized the effect of transplanted donor mononuclear cells on relapse- and event-free survival after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). We studied 113 consecutive patients with hematologic malignancies who received non-T-cell-depleted BMT from human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched siblings. Most patients (n = 103) received busulfan (Myleran)-based conditioning, and all patients received standard short-course methotrexate and tacrolimus (Prograf) as graft-vs-host disease prophylaxis. Sixty-four patients had low-risk diagnoses (acute lymphoblastic leukemia/acute myeloid leukemia [first complete remission], myelodysplastic syndrome [refractory anemia/refractory anemia with ring sideroblasts], and chronic myeloid leukemia [first chronic phase]); 49 patients had high-risk diagnoses (all others). Cox regression analyses evaluated risk strata, age, gender, and the numbers of nucleated cells, CD3-positive T cells, CD34-positive hematopoietic cells, and type 2 dendritic cells (DC2) as covariates for event-free survival, relapse, and nonrelapse mortality. Recipients of larger numbers of DC2 cells had significantly lower event-free survival, a lower incidence of chronic graft-vs-host disease, and an increased incidence of relapse. Recipients of larger numbers of CD34-positive cells had improved event-free survival; recipients of fewer CD34-positive cells had delayed hematopoietic engraftment and increased death from infections. In conclusion, content of donor DC2 cells was associated with decreased chronic graft-vs-host disease and graft-vs-leukemia effects consistent with Th2/Tc2 polarization of donor T cells following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. [ONCOLOGY 16(Suppl 1):19-26, 2002]

The number of autologous periperal blood progenitor cell (PBPC) transplants performed annually has increased dramatically over the past decade. Autologous PBPC transplants have quickly moved from the exclusive province of the academic medical center to part of the armamentarium of the practicing community oncologist