title: Early treatment-related mortality in adult autologous stem cell transplant recipients: a nation-wide survey of 1482 transplanted patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate early (<100 d) treatment-related mortality (TRM) in autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) recipients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Altogether 1482 adult patients received ASCT in six Finnish centres 1990-2003. The most common diagnoses were non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) (n = 542), multiple myeloma (MM) (n = 528), breast cancer (BC) (n = 132), Hodgkin's lymphoma (n = 86) and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) (n = 63).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-two patients (2.8%) died from treatment-related reasons <100 d from ASCT. The median time to death was 38 d from ASCT (0-99). The risk of TRM varied according to the diagnoses. The highest risk was observed in patients with AL amyloidosis (24%) followed by NHL (4.4%) and MM (1.9%). No early TRM was observed in patients transplanted for BC or CLL. Infections were the cause of death in 16 patients (fungal 7, bacterial 6, viral 3). Organ toxicity was responsible for early death in 26 patients (heart 9, lungs 7, other 10).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This nation-wide survey indicated a low early TRM in ASCT recipients in general, but higher risks in patients with AL amyloidosis or NHL. In addition to patient selection, also optimization of transplant procedure may be needed in these patient groups to reduce early TRM.
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: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lehtinen
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kuittinen
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Koivunen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Leppä
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Juvonen
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Koistinen
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wiklund
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nousiainen
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Remes
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Volin
mesh_terms: D000686:Amyloidosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D002423:Cause of Death; D003625:Data Collection; D005387:Finland; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000401:mortality* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015451:Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D009101:Multiple Myeloma / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D015996:Survival Rate; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous