A new study in the journal Blood shows that adding Mozobil (plerixafor) to Neupogen (filgrastim) prior to stem cell harvesting significantly increases harvest efficiency.

Mozobil is a new drug designed to mobilize stem cells from the bone marrow into the bloodstream, where they can be collected. Neupogen, which is commonly given prior to stem cell harvesting, stimulates the body to make white blood cells.

When given together, Mozobil and Neupogen have been shown to increase harvest efficiency in myeloma patients prior to autologous peripheral stem cell transplantation. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration first approved Mozobil for use with Neupogen in patients with multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in December 2008.

Peripheral stem cell transplants aim to restore the immune system of patients who have undergone high-dose chemotherapy that destroyed their immune cells. In an autologous transplant, a patient’s stem cells are collected from the blood (versus the bone marrow) and returned to the same individual.

In this study, 148 patients received either Neupogen plus Mozobil or Neupogen plus placebo prior to stem cell harvesting. Harvests were then compared in the two groups. Of the Mozobil group, 72 percent of patients achieved a target harvest efficiency level set by the researchers, while only 34 percent of the placebo group achieved this same goal.

Of the Mozobil group, 54 percent achieved the target level in one collection. In contrast, 56 percent of the placebo group required four collections to reach this goal.

Stem cell transplants were performed in 96 percent of Mozobil patients and 88 percent of placebo patients. No differences in the growth of new bone marrow cells after transplantation were apparent between the two groups.

See the news article online at cancerconsultants.com for more information.