Single-Agent Cyclosporine for Graft-versus-Host Disease Prophylaxis in Patients with Acquired Aplastic Anemia Receiving Fludarabine-Based Conditioning

Raheel Iftikhar, Qamar un Nisa Chaudhry, Syed Kamran Mahmood, Tariq Ghafoor, Humayun Shafique Satti, Nighat Shahbaz, Mehreen Ali Khan, Tariq Azam Khattak, Ghassan Umair Shamshad, Jahanzeb Rehman, Muhammad Farhan, Saima Humayun, Amina Risalat, Ahsan Wahab, Tariq Mehmood Satti, Faiz Anwer, Parvez Ahmed

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cyclosporine (CsA) combined with short-course methotrexate is considered standard-of-care graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis for patients with severe aplastic anemia (AA) who undergo transplantation using cyclophosphamide (Cy) plus anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) conditioning. However, there is no consensus on optimal post-transplant GVHD prophylaxis for patients undergoing matched related donor (MRD) transplantation using fludarabine (Flu)-based conditioning. We conducted a single-center retrospective analysis of patients with acquired AA (n = 106) undergoing MRD transplantation from July 2007 through January 2019. All patients received Flu-Cy-ATG conditioning and single-agent CsA as GVHD prophylaxis. Median age of the study cohort was 20 years (range, 3 to 52) and male to female ratio was 3.8:1. Median time from diagnosis to transplant was 11.5 months (range, 2.8 to 62). Graft source was bone marrow harvest in 71 (68%), combined bone marrow and peripheral blood stem cells in 34 (31%), and peripheral blood alone in 1 (1%) patient. Cumulative incidence of neutrophil engraftment at day 28 was 93.4% (95% confidence interval [CI], 87.3% to 97.1%) while that of platelet engraftment at day 100 was 90.5% (95% CI, 84% to 96%). Cumulative incidence of primary graft failure at day 28 was 6.6% (95% CI, 4% to 8%) while secondary graft failure occurred at a median of 190 days (range, 90 to 415) at a cumulative incidence of 3.7% (95% CI, 2% to 5%). Cumulative incidence of grade II to IV acute GVHD at day 100 was 3.8% (95% CI, 1.4% to 9.9%), while a 1-year probability of chronic GVHD was calculated as 7.5% (95% CI, 2.6% to 15%). Median follow-up post-transplant was 61 months (range, 6 to 144). Overall survival was 84.9%, disease-free survival was 80.2%, and GVHD-free relapse-free survival was 76.3%. This study indicates that single-agent cyclosporine is a feasible option for GVHD prophylaxis in MRD hematopoietic stem cell transplantation using Flu-Cy-ATG conditioning and is associated with very low rates of acute and chronic GVHD.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2245-2251
Number of pages7
JournalBiology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation
Volume26
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2020

Keywords

  • Aplastic anemia
  • Cyclosporine
  • Fludarabine
  • Graft-versus-host disease

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Hematology
  • Transplantation

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