MOBILIZED VERSUS NON-MOBILIZED PERIPHERAL STEM-CELL TRANSPLANTATION AFTER HIGH-DOSE THERAPY FOR LOW-GRADE NONHODGKIN LYMPHOMA - EFFECT ON FAILURE-FREE SURVIVAL

Problem Investigators have recently reported that intentional mobiliza tion of progenitors into the circulation of cancer patients using myel osuppressive chemotherapy and/or hematopoietic growth factor is someti mes associated with an increased number of circulating malignant cells . Therefore, collections of mobilized autologous peripheral stem cells for transplantation could potentially contain more occult tumor cells than collections of non-mobilized cells. If these mobilized tumor cel ls were capable of restoring disease when reinfused to patients underg oing high dose therapy and peripheral stem cell transplantation (PSCT) , then patients receiving mobilized PSCT would be at risk for a poorer failure-free survival than patients autografted with non-mobilized ce lls. Methods To investigate this premise, the outcomes of all patients with low grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) treated at a single institu tion before April 15, 1994 with high dose therapy and PSCT were review ed. Results Thirty-seven patients received non-mobilized peripheral st em cells at the time of autografting and 64 patients were transplanted with autologous cells that had been mobilized with hematopoietic grow th factor. Following PSCT, no differences were found in the failure-fr ee survival of patients who received mobilized versus non-mobilized ce lls for transplant. Conclusion Growth factor mobilization did not infl uence the relapse rate for these patients with low grade NHL following peripheral stem cell autografting.