EFFECT OF PENTOXIFYLLINE ON REGIMEN RELATED TOXICITY IN PATIENTS UNDERGOING ALLOGENEIC OR AUTOLOGOUS BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION

An unblinded, historical controlled study of 49 bone marrow transplant (BMT) patients was carried out in our institution to assess the effec t of oral pentoxifylline (PTX) on BMT regimen related toxicity (RRT). Twenty-eight consecutively treated BMT patients (17 allogeneic, 11 aut ologous) were entered into the PTX treatment group and treated with or al PTX 400 mg at intervals of 4 h from day -10 until day +35 or discha rge, whichever came sooner. These were compared with a control group o f 21 BMT patients (14 allogeneic, 7 autologous). Patient groups were v ery similar with respect to age, sex, conditioning regimen, graft-vers us-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis and baseline liver and renal functi on. Compliance with the drug was 85%. Despite this, no significant dif ference in days of mucositis or hyperalimentation, incidence or severi ty of renal or hepatic dysfunction, hypertension, GVHD, weight gain > 5%, day 100 mortality or length of hospitalization was observed. Media n follow-up is > 2 years in both groups and no difference in relapse o r survival was observed. We were unable to confirm an effect of oral P TX on BMT related morbidity or mortality.