1. ¹Divisione di Ematologia, Niguarda Ca' Granda Hospital, Milan, Italy
2. ²Servizio Immuno-Trasfusionale, Onco-Hematology Department, Niguarda Ca' Granda Hospital, Milan, Italy

Correspondence: Dr A Nosari, Divisione di Ematologia, Niguarda Ca' Granda Hospital, Piazza Ospedale Maggiore 3, Milano 20162, Italy. E-mail: miccaimi@tin.it

Received 19 December 2005; Revised 13 June 2006; Accepted 15 June 2006; Published online 31 July 2006.

Abstract

Systematic data on the ability of pegfilgrastim to mobilize stem cells after chemotherapy are scarce. We evaluated the efficacy of a single 6 mg dose of pegfilgrastim for mobilizing peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) in aggressive lymphoma patients. Between July 2004 and October 2005, 17 aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and 11 poor-risk Hodgkin's lymphoma were treated with cycles containing cisplatin-aracytin. At the end of chemotherapy, the patients received 6 mg of pegfilgrastim. Duration of grade 4 neutropenia, adverse events, time to neutrophil recovery, peak and harvest of CD34+ cells were recorded. Twenty-seven out of 28 patients harvested a median of 17.3 10⁶/CD34+ cells (range 2.5–28.9) after a median of 9 days (range 8–12 days), with a single apheresis procedure in 25 cases. All patients had grade 3–4 neutropenia, median duration 3 days. The only adverse event was mild bone pain. To date, 13 patients have been autografted with a median of 15.4 10⁶ CD34+ pegfilgrastim-mobilized cells per kg (range 2.5–28.9) with rapid and sustained engraftment. Mobilization, harvesting and autografting of pegfilgrastim-mobilized PBC can be successfully achieved in pretreated patients with aggressive lymphoma.