title: Follow-up of patients with progressive multiple myeloma undergoing allografts after reduced-intensity conditioning.
abstract: Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) after reduced-intensity conditioning was evaluated in 22 patients (median age 53, range 36-66 years) with multiple myeloma with progression after an autologous SCT. Seven patients received a transplant from a human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-identical sibling and 15 patients (68%) from an unrelated donor [including 3/22 (14%) from a HLA-mismatched unrelated donor]. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis consisted of serotherapy with antithymocyte globulin (ATG) and cyclosporine (CSA) (n = 12) or CSA plus mycophenolate mofetil (n = 10). Despite of heavy pretreatment, the transplant-related mortality (TRM) for all grafted patients was acceptable at 5/22 patients (23%). Seven of 21 patients (33%) that were evaluated developed grade II GVHD and one (5%) patient developed grade III/IV acute GVHD. Seven patients developed chronic GVHD (cGVHD), but only one was extensive. Eleven patients died of progressive disease within a median of 7 months (2-19 months) post transplant. Thirteen of all 22 patients (59%) achieved a partial or complete remission with six of these 13 patients (46%) remaining event free at a median of 24 months (range 8-36 months) post allografting. Estimated 2 year overall and event-free survival was, respectively, 25.5% and 22.0% for the whole patient group, and 62.5% and 57.1% for patients with chemosensitive disease. Chemorefractory disease prior to allogeneic stem cell transplantation (P = 0.0182) and absence of cGVHD (P = 0.069) were associated with shorter event-free survival. Thus long-term disease control can be achieved, but is restricted to patients responding to prior salvage chemotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology and Oncology, Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany. hneinsel@med.uni-tuebingen.de
authors.forename: Hermann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Einsele
authors.forename: Hans-Jörg
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Schäfer
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hebart
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bader
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meisner
authors.forename: Ludwig
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Plasswilm
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liebisch
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bamberg
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Faul
authors.forename: Lothar
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kanz
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000903:Antibiotics, Antineoplastic / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002908:Chronic Disease; D016572:Cyclosporine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D018450:Disease Progression; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D008775:Methylprednisolone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008875:Middle Aged; D009101:Multiple Myeloma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D009173:Mycophenolic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000627:therapeutic use; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods* / Q000401:mortality; D015996:Survival Rate; D019172:Transplantation Conditioning / Q000379:methods*; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D000903:Antibiotics, Antineoplastic; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D016572:Cyclosporine; D009173:Mycophenolic Acid; D008775:Methylprednisolone