1. ¹Department of Medicine, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland
2. ²Department of Medicine, Turku University Central Hospital, Turku, Finland
3. ³Department of Medicine, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
4. ⁴Department of Oncology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland
5. ⁵Department of Oncology, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
6. ⁶Department of Oncology, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland

Correspondence: Dr E Jantunen, Department of Medicine, Kuopio University Hospital, POB 1777, Kuopio 70211, Finland. E-mail: esa.jantunen@kuh.fi

Received 30 September 2005; Revised 17 November 2005; Accepted 21 November 2005; Published online 16 January 2006.

Abstract

Limited experience is available on the feasibility and efficacy of autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in elderly patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). In 1994–2004 altogether 88 NHL patients>60 years old received ASCT in six Finnish transplant centres. There were 57 male and 31 female patients with a median age of 63 years (range 60–70 years); 17 patients were>65 years. The histology included diffuse large B cell (n=29), mantle cell (n=27), follicular (n=15), peripheral T cell (n=12) and other (n=5). Disease status at ASCT was I complete remission/partial remission (CR/PR) in 53 patients, II CR/PR in 30 patients and other in five patients. The conditioning regimens included BEAC (n=49), BEAM (n=34), TBI-CY (n=4) and other (n=1). Eighty-four patients received PB grafts. The medians to reach neutrophils>0.5 and platelets>20 were 10 and 14 days, respectively. The early treatment-related mortality (TRM) (<100 days) was 11%. With a median follow-up of 21 months for all patients, 45 patients (51%) are alive. A relapse or progression after ASCT has been observed in 32 patients (36%). ASCT is feasible in selected elderly patients with NHL, but the early TRM seems to be higher than in younger patients.