Summary:
Matched unrelated donor transplants have an increased risk of severe graft-versus-host disease and transplant-related mortality (TRM). ATG has been introduced to decrease GvHD and to facilitate engraftment. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 333 patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia, who were treated with Fresenius ATG (n=145, average=90 mg/kg bw, range 40–90 mg/kg bw) or standard immunosuppression without ATG (n=188). Both groups were comparable regarding distribution of age, sex, HLA-matched vs mismatched donors. ATG Fresenius led to a faster leukocyte engraftment, decreased the incidence of acute GvHD and TRM (P=0.01 and P=0.03) and led to a significant better overall survival (70 vs 57%, P=0.03). We concluded that a prospective randomized study is needed to evaluate the definite role of ATG in hemopoietic stem cell transplantation.
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Zander, A., Kröger, N., Schleuning, M. et al. ATG as part of the conditioning regimen reduces transplant-related mortality (TRM) and improves overall survival after unrelated stem cell transplantation in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Bone Marrow Transplant 32, 355–361 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1704157
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1704157
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