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Allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation for adult and adolescent hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis: a single center analysis

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Abstract

Myeloablative conditioning-based allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) in the treatment of adult and adolescent hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is rarely reported. We conducted a retrospective study of 30 adult and adolescent HLH transplanted for primary HLH (n = 4), tumor-HLH (n = 8), EBV-HLH (n = 14), and underlying disease-unknown (UDU)-HLH (n = 4). Peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) were the stem-cell source in all patients. Twenty-three patients were transplanted from HLA-haploidentical family donors, six from HLA-identical sibling donors, and one from a matched unrelated donor. Four patients appeared with mixed chimerism (MC), and no patient presented with graft failure. There was a high risk for EBV reactivation with an incidence of 47 %. Two patients developed post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) and three were considered primary disease recurrent. With a median follow-up of 26 months, 19 patients survived and 11 patients died. The estimated 2-year overall survival (OS) was 63.3 ± 8.8 % in all patients, 100 % in primary HLH, 64.3 ± 12.8 % in EBV-HLH, 50.0 ± 17.7 % in tumor-HLH, and 50.0 ± 25.0 % in UDU-HLH. Myeloablative conditioning-based allo-HSCT is an effective treatment for adult and adolescent HLH to achieve complete remission and long-term survival.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Beijing Natural Science Foundation (7132087).

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Correspondence to Zhao Wang.

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Fu, L., Wang, J., Wei, N. et al. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation for adult and adolescent hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis: a single center analysis. Int J Hematol 104, 628–635 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12185-016-2062-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12185-016-2062-7

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