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Successful mobilization of peripheral blood stem cells in heavily pretreated myeloma patients with G-CSF alone

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 We investigated the feasibility of mobilizing peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) with G-CSF alone in 24 patients with multiple myeloma. The median age was 53 years (range 33–62). All patients had stage II/III disease and responded to standard first-line (n=6) or salvage chemotherapy (n=18). The median number of previous chemotherapy cycles was 7 (4–18) and the median number of prior melphalan-cycles was 6 (0–14). Nine (35%) patients had experienced prior radiation therapy. The patients received either 10 μg/kg G-CSF (n=18) or 24 μg/kg G-CSF (n=7, including one patient with previous 10 μg/kg G-CSF stimulation) daily s.c. for 5 or more consecutive days until completion of harvesting, starting apheresis on the fifth day. G-CSF treatment was well tolerated, with only slight bone pain in half of the patients (51%). After a median of three (range 1–7) apheresis procedures, medians of 3.8 (0.3–17)×106 CD34+ cells/kg, 8.5 (4.5–24)×108 MNC/kg, 2.9 (0.6–39.4)×104 CFU-GM/kg, and 5.6 (0.9–49)×104 BFU-E/kg were harvested. Three patients (12%) with extensive melphalan pretreatment failed the target collection of at least 2.0×106 CD34+ cell/kg. Pretreatment with six or more cycles of melphalan yielded a smaller number of CD34+ cells than pretreatment with fewer than six cycles (2.5 vs 5.3×106/kg;p=0.001). Nineteen patients underwent high-dose chemotherapy consisting of either total marrow irradiation (9 Gy)/busulfan (12 mg/kg) and cyclophosphamide (120 mg/kg) (n=10), or busulfan (14 mg/kg)/cyclophosphamide (120 mg/kg) (n=5), or tandem melphalan (200 mg/m2). The median time for granulocyte (>1.0/nl) and platelet (>50/nl) recovery was 10 and 14 days (ranges 7–12 and 8–40), respectively.

G-CSF alone is a safe, alternative approach to mobilizing sufficient PBSC in patients with multiple myeloma and allows an exact prediction of harvest time. G-CSF-mobilized PBSCs ensure rapid engraftment after myeloablative therapy. Melphalan treatment should be avoided in patients who are candidates for high-dose chemotherapy.

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Received: February 5, 1998 / Accepted: April 14, 1998

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Kröger, N., Zeller, W., Hassan, H. et al. Successful mobilization of peripheral blood stem cells in heavily pretreated myeloma patients with G-CSF alone. Ann Hematol 76, 257–262 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002770050398

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002770050398

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