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Lymphoma

Favorable survival after allogeneic stem cell transplantation with reduced-intensity conditioning regimens for relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma

Abstract

Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) is a curative option for patients with relapsed follicular lymphoma (FL). Prospective studies of reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) have revealed that chemosensitivity at allo-SCT is the most reliable predictor of outcome; however, limited data are available for progressive/refractory disease. We report here a retrospective analysis of RIC allo-SCT for patients with FL. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the role of allo-SCT for patients with relapsed/refractory FL. We analyzed 46 patients—11 (24%) transplanted in CR, 6 (13%) transplanted in PR and 29 (63%) with progressive/refractory disease. The estimated 5-year overall survival rate was 71.6% (95% confidence interval (CI), 51.5–84.5%). According to the disease status at transplantation, the 5-year survival rate was 80.7% (95% CI, 37.7–95.4%) in the patients with CR or PR and 66.1% (95% CI, 41.5–82.3%) in those with progressive/refractory disease (P=0.29). There were no differences in relapse/progression and non-relapse mortality between the patients with chemosensitive disease and progressive/refractory disease. Allo-SCT may be a valuable treatment option, even for patients with progressive/refractory FL.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the medical, nursing, data processing and laboratory staff at the Kanto Study Group for Cell Therapy in Japan.

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Correspondence to S Yano.

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Yano, S., Mori, T., Kanda, Y. et al. Favorable survival after allogeneic stem cell transplantation with reduced-intensity conditioning regimens for relapsed/refractory follicular lymphoma. Bone Marrow Transplant 50, 1299–1305 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2015.158

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