S. Armitage et al., CD34 COUNTS TO PREDICT THE ADEQUATE COLLECTION OF PERIPHERAL-BLOOD PROGENITOR CELLS, Bone marrow transplantation, 20(7), 1997, pp. 587-591
An essential prerequisite for successful procurement of sufficient aut
ologous peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC) for engraftment is th
e optimal timing of collection. A number of surrogate markers of perip
heral blood progenitor cells were analysed to identify a single test w
hich could predict the optimum time to harvest, providing at least 2 x
10(6) CD34(+) cells/kg patient body weight. The study comprised 95 pa
tients undergoing varied mobilisation regimens with chemotherapy and G
-CSF for both solid tumours and haematological malignancies. One hundr
ed and fifty-seven PBPC harvests mere collected. Full blood counts (FB
C) and CD34(+) cell enumeration was performed on blood samples taken d
uring the mobilisation period and immediately prior to leucapheresis (
pre-harvest). All PBPC collections were assayed for colony-forming cel
ls and CD34(+) cells in addition to a FBC. The white cell count on the
day of harvest showed only weak correlation with the total number of
CD34(+) cells in the collection (r = 0.30). In contrast, the absolute
number of circulating CD34(+) cells strongly correlated with the CD34(
+) cell and CFU-GM yield of the corresponding apheresis product. Provi
ded the mobilisation sample contained greater than or equal to 20 x 10
(6) CD34(+) cells/ml, 94% of single collections, performed the followi
ng day, contained greater than or equal to 2 x 10(6) CD34(+) cells/kg.