Allogeneic bone marrow vs. peripheral blood stem cell transplantation: a long-term retrospective single-center analysis in 329 patients.

OBJECTIVES

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-mobilized peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) provides a valuable and increasingly used alternative to bone marrow transplantation (BMT). This retrospective study aimed at determining whether the stem cell source is predictive for outcome, relapse incidence, non-relapse mortality, and severity and incidence of both, acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in patients undergoing allogeneic HSCT.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Between 1983 and 2007, 329 adult patients (median age 40, range 18-76) received a first allogeneic HSCT from either sibling (n = 203) or volunteer unrelated donors (n = 126) at our institution. The source of stem cells was bone marrow in 177 (54%) and peripheral blood in the remaining 152 (46%) patients.

RESULTS

Overall survival was 37% (31-43%, 95% confidence interval, CI), the relapse incidence was 30% (25-36%, 95% CI), and the non-relapse mortality was 43% (38-49%, 95% CI) for the entire cohort with no significant differences between peripheral blood stem cell or BMT. In patients receiving myeloablative conditioning, peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) was associated with a significantly lower non-relapse mortality (32% vs. 46%, P = 0.05), which, however, was restricted to standard-risk disease (23% vs. 42%, P = 0.02). The overall cumulative incidences of acute GVHD II-IV were 51% and 54% following bone marrow and PBSCT, respectively. Severe acute GVHD III-IV was significantly more frequent after BMT (24% vs. 14%, P = 0.04), whereas chronic GVHD was significantly more frequent following PBSCT (48% vs. 24%, P = 0.0001). By multivariate analysis, PBSCT was only predictive for chronic GVHD (RR 2.29, P = 0.02).

CONCLUSION

Although we failed to demonstrate any advantage of PBSCT over conventional BMT with regard to overall survival, relapse incidence and non-relapse mortality PBSCT were associated with a significantly higher incidence of chronic graft-versus-host disease. Therefore, and by virtue of observations, that some patient groups might benefit from either stem cell source, there is still need for prospective randomized trials with special emphasize on quality of life in long-term survivors.