title: Double umbilical cord blood transplantation with reduced intensity conditioning and sirolimus-based GVHD prophylaxis.
abstract: The main limitations to umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplantation (UCBT) in adults are delayed engraftment, poor immunological reconstitution and high rates of non-relapse mortality (NRM). Double UCBT (DUCBT) has been used to circumvent the issue of low cell dose, but acute GVHD remains a significant problem. We describe our experience in 32 subjects, who underwent DUCBT after reduced-intensity conditioning with fludarabine/melphalan/antithymocyte globulin and who received sirolimus and tacrolimus to prevent acute GVHD. Engraftment of neutrophils occurred in all patients at a median of 21 days, and platelet engraftment occurred at a median of 42 days. Three subjects had grade II-IV acute GVHD (9.4%) and chronic GVHD occurred in four subjects (cumulative incidence 12.5%). No deaths were caused by GVHD and NRM at 100 days was 12.5%. At 2 years, NRM, PFS and OS were 34.4, 31.2 and 53.1%, respectively. As expected, immunologic reconstitution was slow, but PFS and OS were associated with reconstitution of CD4(+) and CD8(+) lymphocyte subsets, suggesting that recovery of adaptive immunity is required for the prevention of infection and relapse after transplantation. In summary, sirolimus and tacrolimus provide excellent GVHD prophylaxis in DUCBT, and this regimen is associated with low NRM after DUCBT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA. corey_cutler@dfci.harvard.edu
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cutler
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.forename: H T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McDonough
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authors.lastname: Herrera
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authors.lastname: Reynolds
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authors.lastname: Liney
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authors.lastname: Kao
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authors.lastname: Ho
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authors.lastname: Armand
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authors.lastname: Koreth
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alyea
authors.forename: B R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Dey
authors.forename: E
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authors.lastname: Attar
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authors.lastname: Spitzer
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Boussiotis
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authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ritz
authors.forename: R
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authors.lastname: Soiffer
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Antin
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authors.lastname: Ballen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000961:Antilymphocyte Serum / Q000627:therapeutic use; D036101:Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000276:immunology*; D006085:Graft Survival; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007938:Leukemia / Q000601:surgery; D008558:Melphalan / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008875:Middle Aged; D020123:Sirolimus / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016559:Tacrolimus / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019172:Transplantation Conditioning / Q000379:methods*; D014740:Vidarabine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D000961:Antilymphocyte Serum; C512542:thymoglobulin; D014740:Vidarabine; C024352:fludarabine; D008558:Melphalan; D020123:Sirolimus; D016559:Tacrolimus