LENOGRASTIM ADMINISTRATION TO HLA-IDENTICAL DONOR-RECIPIENT PAIRS TO ACCELERATE MARROW RECOVERY POSTTRANSPLANT

In an attempt to accelerate marrow recovery after HLA-identical siblin g bone marrow transplantation, the donors of 12 patients with haematol ogical malignancy were given recombinant human granulocyte colony-stim ulating factor (rHuG-CSF; lenograstim; Granocyte) 5 mu g/kg/day for se ven doses prior to marrow harvest. All 12 recipients also received len ograstim 5 mu g/kg/day from the day of transplant until their neutroph il count was 1.0 x 10(9)/l, In addition to lenograstim post-transplant and lenograstim-stimulated donor bone marrow the first six recipients also received donor peripheral blood stem cells that had been enriche d for CD34(+) stem/progenitor cells and T cell depleted on an immune a bsorption column (cohort 1), The second six patients (cohort 2) receiv ed lenograstim post-transplant and lenograstim-stimulated donor marrow only. All 12 patients showed a marked elevation of their circulating white blood cell count (predominantly neutrophils) on day 1 post-trans plant. Compared to carefully matched historical control patients the r ate of neutrophil engraftment was significantly accelerated in both pa tient cohorts and platelet engraftment was accelerated in cohort 2.