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Clinical outcomes of allogeneic stem cell transplantation for relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma: a retrospective analysis by the Fukuoka Blood and Marrow Transplantation Group

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Abstract

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) is considered the only curative treatment for relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma (FL), but it has a high treatment-related mortality rate. Only a few reports, however, have described the efficacy of allo-SCT for FL in the Japanese population. We retrospectively analyzed the outcome of allo-SCT in 30 patients with FL. Seventeen (56.7 %) patients were chemorefractory, whereas 13 (43.3 %) were chemosensitive. An estimated 2-year overall survival rate (OS) and relapse rate of all patients was 46.7 and 20.0 %, respectively. There were no significant differences in the estimated 2-year OS rate between patients who received myeloablative conditioning and those who received reduced-intensity conditioning (P = 0.98), and among the recipients of related bone marrow (BM)/peripheral blood stem cell, unrelated BM and umbilical cord blood (P = 0.20). In patients who were either chemosensitive or chemorefractory at allo-SCT, the 2-year OS rate was 69.2 and 29.4 % (P = 0.06). Patients with mild-to-moderate acute GVHD had better 2-year PFS rate compared with patients who had severe acute GVHD (P = 0.01), but not better PFS compared with patients who had no acute GVHD (P = 0.12). Our results suggest that the graft-versus-lymphoma effects of allo-SCT may provide survival benefits even in patients with chemorefractory FL.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the nursing staff who cared for the patients at the Fukuoka BMT group. This work was supported, in part, by a Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology in Japan (23390254 & 24659462 to T.M.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology, Harasanshin Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan

    Yoshikiyo Ito & Tomohiko Kamimura

  2. Department of Medicine and Biosystemic Science, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

    Toshihiro Miyamoto, Koji Kato & Koichi Akashi

  3. Department of Hematology, Hamanomachi Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan

    Ken Takase, Hideho Henzan & Tetsuya Eto

  4. Department of Internal Medicine, Kitakyushu Municipal Medical Center, Kitakyushu, Japan

    Yasuo Sugio & Yuju Ohno

  5. Department of Hematology, National Kyushu Medical Center, Fukuoka, Japan

    Ken Takase

  6. Department of Hematology and Oncology, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Japan

    Takanori Teshima

  7. Medicine and Biosystemic Science, Kyushu University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-8582, Japan

    Toshihiro Miyamoto

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  1. Yoshikiyo Ito
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Correspondence to Toshihiro Miyamoto.

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Ito, Y., Miyamoto, T., Kamimura, T. et al. Clinical outcomes of allogeneic stem cell transplantation for relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma: a retrospective analysis by the Fukuoka Blood and Marrow Transplantation Group. Int J Hematol 98, 463–471 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12185-013-1430-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12185-013-1430-9

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