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Autografting

Autologous stem cell transplantation in elderly (>60 years) patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a nation-wide analysis

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.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by a grant from the Blood Disease Research Foundation of Finland.

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Correspondence to E Jantunen.

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Jantunen, E., Itälä, M., Juvonen, E. et al. Autologous stem cell transplantation in elderly (>60 years) patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: a nation-wide analysis. Bone Marrow Transplant 37, 367–372 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1705266

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