Transplantation potential of peripheral whole blood primed by VACOP-B chemotherapy plus filgrastim (r-metHuG-CSF) in patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lumphoma.

Large volumes of peripheral blood need to be processed to obtain sufficient stem cells for hematopoietic rescue after myeloablation, and more than one leukapheresis is necessary in most patients. We conceived the feasibility of harvesting sufficient numbers of hematopoietic cells from the whole blood, obtainable by venaepunctures, of patients treated with a standard dose chemotherapy regimen for high-grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. We evaluated the kinetics of mobilization, amount and quality of hematopoietic cells released into circulation during VACOB-B chemotherapy (which consists of a 12-week program), and G-CSF in 6 patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The median number of granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming cells (GM-CFC) x 10(3)/ml of blood (range), were 1.9 (0.3-8), and 1.16 (0.2-3.2) after the 7th and 11th weekly dose of drugs, respectively, showing an increase of 19- and 12-fold over patients' prechemotherapy values and of 53- and 33-fold over normal controls (p < 0.001). The median number of CD34+ cells x 10(3)/ml of blood (range), at the 7th and 11th cycle, was 135 (53.7-240.9) and 79.8 (69-173.5), respectively, showing an increase of 10- and 13-fold over patients prechemotherapy values (p < or = 0.04) and of 300- and 179-fold over normal controls (p < or = 0.001). Long-term culture initiating cells (LTC-IC) were released into circulation together with hematopoietic progenitors. We estimated that 1 liter of peripheral blood could yield on average 1.8 x 10(6)/kg CD34+ cells and 2 x 10(4)/kg GM-CFC with LTC-IC frequency comparable to a bone marrow harvest. These figures may be considered sufficient for hematopoietic rescue after myeloablation or hematopoietic support after high-dose chemotherapy.