BACKGROUD:
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are known to have immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory and pro-angiogenic properties and thus have the potential to improve the likelihood of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) in the treatment of hematologic malignancies.
OBJECTIVE:
To explore the efficacy and safety of allo-HSCT by co-transplantation with MSCs in hematologic malignancies patients.
METHODS:
We conducted a single-center retrospective study to comparing the incidence and severity of acute GVHD, recurrence rate and overall survival (OS) of high risk and refractory/relapse hematologic malignancies patients undergoing allo-HSCT with or without co-injection of MSCs. A total of 175 patients (113males/62 females) at Fujian Medical University Union Hospital from January 2016 to June 2019 were analyzed. The median age of the patients is 22 (range 1-65 years). Patients received salvaged conditioning regimens FA5-BuCy as previous reported for high risk and refractory/relapse hematologic malignancies, registered on http://ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02328950), among whom 31(17.7%)were MSD-HSCT, 21(12%) MUD-HSCT and 123(70.3%)haplo-HSCT. All patients received ATG, cyclosporine A with short course methotrexate for prevention of GVHD. 85 patients transplanted with donor HSCs only, and 90 patients transplanted with HSCs and MSCs .MSCs infusion dose was 1-2×106/kg, at -1~+1 days following HSCs infusion.
RESULTS:
The two groups were well matched demographically. All patients achieved successful engraftment within one month post-HSCT. There was no difference in time to leukocyte and platelet engraftment in the two groups. The incidence of aGVHD (36.5 % versus 26.7 %, P =0.163) was similar in the HSC versus MSC groups. With a median follow-up time of 373 days (range:29-1265days), the 2-yr OS was much better in MSC co-injection groups (77.6% versus 48.4%, P =0.005). Moreover, there was no significant difference in the 2-yr cumulative recurrence rate between the two groups (25.1% vs 16.2%, P = 0.4).
CONCLUSION:
FA5-BUCY as an intensive conditioning regimen facilitates the outcome of advanced diseases with allo-HSCT, and co-transplantation with MSCs could further improve the survival of hematologic malignancies patients who did not reach remission.
No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Author notes
Asterisk with author names denotes non-ASH members.
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