¹Department of Internal Medicine C (Haematology and Oncology, Marrow Transplantation), Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Correspondence: Dr WH Krüger, Medizinische Klinik C (Hämatologie und Onkologie, Transplantationszentrum), Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität-Greifswald, Ferdinand-Sauerbruch-Strae, Greifswald 17475, Germany. E-mail: william.krueger@uni-greifswald.de

Received 15 September 2005; Revised 30 March 2006; Accepted 5 April 2006; Published online 8 May 2006.

Abstract

Infections during neutropaenia contribute still significantly to mortality and morbidity after high-dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation. Further acceleration of haemopoietic recovery seems impossible for biological reasons. Another approach to shorten neutropaenia could be to remove drugs from high-dose therapy protocols with strong contribution to immunosuppression and neutropaenia and unproven antineoplastic activity. In this retrospective matched-pair analysis, conventional busulphan/cyclophosphamide (Bu/Cy) high-dose therapy was compared to single-agent busulphan conditioning before autologous stem cell transplantation. This modification led to a significant shorter neutropaenic interval by protraction of cell decrease and to a significant mitigation of neutropaenia. After single-agent busulphan conditioning, leucocytes dropped below 1/nl at median 1.5 days later when compared to the patients from the busulphanBu/Cy control group (P=0.001). In a significant percentage of patients (n=6, 60%) leucocytes did not fall below 0.5 cells/nl at any time. In contrast, all patients from the Bu/Cy control group experienced deep neutropaenia (P=0.004). Thrombocytopaenia and requirement for transfusions of platelets or red cells were not influenced. Antineoplastic activity seemed to be preserved as determined by survival analysis. In conclusion, modification of high-dose regimen with the intention to shorten neutropaenia with preserved antitumour activity could be an approach to reduce infection-related morbidity and mortality and to consider economic necessities.