Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Article
  • Published:

Allografting

Salvage transplantation for allograft failure using fludarabine and alemtuzumab as conditioning regimen

Abstract

Graft failure after allogeneic blood or marrow transplantation, although generally uncommon, can be a devastating complication. This report includes the outcome of nine patients who received a salvage transplant for failure to engraft after one (n=8) or 2 (n=1) prior transplants. Eight patients received allografts from the original donor. All received fludarabine 30 mg/m2 i.v. and alemtuzumab 20 mg i.v. daily from days −6 to −2. Daily CYA was begun on day −2, and the allograft was infused on day 0. The therapy was well tolerated with low toxicity, and all nine patients engrafted, recovering neutrophils at a median of 12 days after transplant. Four patients died: two of relapse, one of a fungal infection in the setting of GVHD and one of multiple sclerosis. The combination of fludarabine and alemtuzumab is an effective and well-tolerated salvage conditioning regimen for patients who experience graft failure after blood or marrow transplants.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Anasetti C, Amos D, Beatty PG, Appelbaum FR, Bensinger W, Buckner CD et al. Effect of HLA compatibility on engraftment of bone marrow transplants in patients with leukemia or lymphoma. N Engl J Med 1989; 320: 197–204.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Champlin RE, Horowitz MM, van Bekkum DW, Camitta BM, Elfenbein GE, Gale RP et al. Graft failure following bone marrow transplantation for severe aplastic anemia: risk factors and treatment results. Blood 1989; 73: 606–613.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Wagner JL, Deeg HJ, Seidel K, Anasetti C, Doney K, Sanders J et al. Bone marrow transplantation for severe aplastic anemia from genotypically HLA-nonidentical relatives. An update of the Seattle experience. Transplantation 1996; 61: 54–61.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Hansen JA, Gooley TA, Martin PJ, Appelbaum F, Chauncey TR, Clift RA et al. Bone marrow transplants from unrelated donors for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia. N Engl J Med 1998; 338: 962–968.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Storb R, Etzioni R, Anasetti C, Appelbaum FR, Buckner CD, Bensinger W et al. Cyclophosphamide combined with antithymocyte globulin in preparation for allogeneic marrow transplants in patients with aplastic anemia. Blood 1994; 84: 941–949.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Storb R, Weiden PL, Sullivan KM, Appelbaum FR, Beatty P, Buckner CD et al. Second marrow transplants in patients with aplastic anemia rejecting the first graft: use of a conditioning regimen including cyclophosphamide and antithymocyte globulin. Blood 1987; 70: 116–121.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Redei I, Waller EK, Holland HK, Devine SM, Wingard JR . Successful engraftment after primary graft failure in aplastic anemia using G-CSF mobilized peripheral stem cell transfusions. Bone Marrow Transplant 1997; 19: 175–177.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Advisory Committee of the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry. Bone marrow transplantation from donors with aplastic anemia. A report from the ACS/NIH bone marrow transplant registry. JAMA 1976; 236: 1131–1135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Stucki A, Leisenring W, Sandmaier BM, Sanders J, Anasetti C, Storb R . Decreased rejection and improved survival of first and second marrow transplants for severe aplastic anemia (a 26-year retrospective analysis). Blood 1998; 92: 2742–2749.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Kersey J, Roloff J, Hokeness S, Johnson FL, Nesbit M, Krivit W . Retransplantation of human bone marrow. Two immunosuppressive drug regimens. Transplantation 1975; 19: 475–478.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Meuwissen HJ, Moore EC, Strauss HS, Taft E, Britten A . Successful retransplantation of bone marrow following failure of initial engraftment in a patient with aplastic anemia. J Pediatr 1976; 89: 588–592.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Gmur J, Frick PG, von Felten FA . Successful allogeneic bone marrow retransplantation with the same donor after graft rejection: application of a modified conditioning regimen. Blut 1979; 39: 47–52.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Al-Qurashi F, Ayas M, Al Sharif F, Ibrahim E, Sahovic E, Al Mahr M et al. Second allogeneic bone marrow transplantation after myeloablative conditioning analysis of 43 cases from single institution. Hematology 2004; 9: 123–129.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Grandage VL, Cornish JM, Pamphilon DH, Potter MN, Steward CG, Oakhill A et al. Second allogeneic bone marrow transplants from unrelated donors for graft failure following initial unrelated donor bone marrow transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 1998; 21: 687–690.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Radich JP, Sanders JE, Buckner CD, Martin PJ, Petersen FB, Bensinger W et al. Second allogeneic marrow transplantation for patients with recurrent leukemia after initial transplant with total-body irradiation-containing regimens. J Clin Oncol 1993; 11: 304–313.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Jabbour E, Rondon G, Anderlini P, Giralt SA, Couriel DR, Champlin RE et al. Treatment of donor graft failure with nonmyeloablative conditioning of fludarabine, antithymocyte globulin and a second allogeneic hematopoietic transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 2007; 40: 431–435.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Elter T, Hallek M, Engert A . Fludarabine in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Expert Opin Pharmacother 2006; 7: 1641–1651.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Bolaños-Meade J, Vogelsang GB . Acute graft-versus-host disease. Clin Adv Hematol Oncol 2004; 2: 672–682.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Filipovich AH, Weisdorf D, Pavletic S, Socie G, Wingard JR, Lee SJ et al. National Institutes of Health consensus development project on criteria for clinical trials in chronic graft-versus-host disease: I. Diagnosis and staging working group report. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2005; 11: 945–956.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Shulman HM, Sullivan KM, Weiden PL, McDonald GB, Striker GE, Sale GE et al. Chronic graft-versus-host syndrome in man. A long-term clinicopathologic study of 20 Seattle patients. Am J Med 1980; 69: 204–217.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Chewning JH, Castro-Malaspina H, Jakubowski A, Kernan NA, Papadopoulos EB, Small TN et al. Fludarabine-based conditioning secures engraftment of second hematopoietic stem cell allografts (HSCT) in the treatment of initial graft failure. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2007; 13: 1313–1323.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Byrne BJ, Horwitz M, Long GD, Gasparetto C, Sullivan KM, Chute J et al. Outcomes of a second non-myeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplantation following graft rejection. Bone Marrow Transplant 2008; 41: 39–43.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Ayas M, Al-Jefri A, Al-Seraihi A, Al-Mahr M, Al-Ahmari A, El-Solh H . Second stem cell transplantation in patients with Fanconi anemia using antithymocyte globulin alone for conditioning. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2008; 14: 445–448.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Santos GW, Tutschka PJ, Brookmeyer R, Saral R, Beschorner WE, Bias WB et al. Marrow transplantation for acute nonlymphocytic leukemia after treatment with busulfan and cyclophosphamide. N Engl J Med 1983; 309: 1347–1353.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Wingard JR, Piantadosi S, Santos GW, Saral R, Vriesendorp HM, Yeager AM et al. Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for patients with high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia. J Clin Oncol 1990; 8: 820–830.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Luznik L, Fuchs EJ, Chen AR, Kaup M, Bright EC, Bolaños-Meade J et al. Post-transplantation high-dose cyclophosphamide (Cy) is effective single agent GVHD prophylaxis that permits prompt immune reconstitution after myeloablative HLA matched related and unrelated bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2007; 13: 4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Luznik L, O'Donnell PV, Symons HJ, Chen AR, Leffell MS, Zahurak M et al. HLA-haploidentical bone marrow transplantation for hematologic malignancies using nonmyeloablative conditioning and high-dose, posttransplantation cyclophosphamide. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant 2008; 14: 641–650.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by the Grant CA15396 from the NIH. This study was presented in part at the 2008 Meeting of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation in San Diego, CA, USA.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to J Bolaños-Meade.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bolaños-Meade, J., Luznik, L., Muth, M. et al. Salvage transplantation for allograft failure using fludarabine and alemtuzumab as conditioning regimen. Bone Marrow Transplant 43, 477–480 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2008.353

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2008.353

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links