title: Autologous stem cell transplantation in elderly (>60 years) patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a nation-wide analysis.
abstract: Limited experience is available on the feasibility and efficacy of autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in elderly patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). In 1994-2004 altogether 88 NHL patients > 60 years old received ASCT in six Finnish transplant centres. There were 57 male and 31 female patients with a median age of 63 years (range 60-70 years); 17 patients were>65 years. The histology included diffuse large B cell (n = 29), mantle cell (n = 27), follicular (n = 15), peripheral T cell (n = 12) and other (n = 5). Disease status at ASCT was I complete remission/partial remission (CR/PR) in 53 patients, II CR/PR in 30 patients and other in five patients. The conditioning regimens included BEAC (n = 49), BEAM (n = 34), TBI-CY (n = 4) and other (n = 1). Eighty-four patients received PB grafts. The medians to reach neutrophils > 0.5 and platelets > 20 were 10 and 14 days, respectively. The early treatment-related mortality (TRM) (<100 days) was 11%. With a median follow-up of 21 months for all patients, 45 patients (51%) are alive. A relapse or progression after ASCT has been observed in 32 patients (36%). ASCT is feasible in selected elderly patients with NHL, but the early TRM seems to be higher than in younger patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland. esa.jantunen@kuh.fi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jantunen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Itälä
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Juvonen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leppä
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Keskinen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vasala
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Remes
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wiklund
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Elonen
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nousiainen
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D018450:Disease Progression; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D015996:Survival Rate; D019172:Transplantation Conditioning / Q000379:methods; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous; D016896:Treatment Outcome