Articles tagged with: Autologous Stem Cell Transplant
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Findings from a recent analysis show that autologous (own) stem cell transplantation became significantly more common among North American multiple myeloma patients between 1994 and 2005.
During that period, the rate of autologous stem cell transplantation across all myeloma patients increased fivefold, driven by a twentyfold increase in the number of transplants carried out in myeloma patients as part of their initial therapy.
The findings also show that short-term overall survival for myeloma patients who received transplants increased significantly during the 12-year study period.
The results of the current study are in …
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Results from a recent retrospective study conducted in Germany suggest that treatment with novel agents followed by an autologous stem cell transplant may be an effective and safe salvage therapy for relapsed multiple myeloma patients who previously received a transplant.
The study investigators believe that this course of treatment could potentially "serve as a bridge" to a late donor transplant in certain patients.
However, the researchers point out that many of the patients included in the analysis did not receive novel agents as initial treatment. It is therefore unclear if similar results …
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BMI, Not Physical Activity, Associated With Risk Of Myeloma – Results of a large U.S.-based study sponsored by the AARP found that across all age groups, people with higher body mass index (BMI) were more likely to develop multiple myeloma. However, physical activity level at any age did not impact the likelihood of developing myeloma. Previous studies have investigated whether obesity increases a person’s risk of developing myeloma, but the results have been inconsistent. For more information, see the study in American Journal of Epidemiology (abstract).
Study On Timing Of Stem Cell Transplantation Shows Early Transplant Improves Progression-Free Survival – Results from a small, retrospective study conducted in China show that newly diagnosed myeloma patients who received Velcade (bortezomib)-based initial therapy and a stem cell transplant had significantly longer progression-free survival (42 months) compared to previously-treated patients who received the same combination of treatments at relapse (27 months). Although there was not a statistically significant difference in overall survival between the two groups of patients, there was a trend favoring early transplantation: five years from diagnosis, about 80 percent of the early-transplant patients were still alive, versus about 50 percent of the delayed-transplant patients. The trend to better survival in the early-transplant group, however, may be due to the fact that all patients in this group received a novel therapy (Velcade) as part of their initial therapy immediately after diagnosis. This was not the case for the late-transplant patients, some of whom received older treatment regimens as their initial treatment immediately after diagnosis. In both groups of patients, stem cell transplantation deepened the response to treatment. The transplant process increased the combined rate of near-complete and complete responses from 70 percent to 85 percent in the early-transplant patients, and from 56 percent to 81 percent in the late-transplant patients. For more information, see the study in the Chinese Journal of Cancer Research.
Study Sheds Light On Efficacy And Safety Of Preparative Therapy For Donor Stem Cell Transplantation – An Italian study of 196 myeloma patients who underwent donor (allogeneic) stem cell transplantation compared the outcomes of those who received myeloablative preparative therapy (high-intensity treatment that causes irreversibly low blood cell counts and requires stem cell transplantation) versus reduced-intensity preparative therapy (causes low blood cell counts and should be accompanied by stem cell transplantation) versus non-myeloablative preparative therapy (causes minimal reductions in blood cell counts and does not need to be accompanied by stem cell transplantation). All transplants were done using stem cells donated by unrelated donors. Patients had received a median of three lines of therapy prior to their donor transplant, and 89 percent of the patients had previously undergone at least one autologous (own) stem cell transplant. The results of the study show that patients who received non-myeloablative or myeloablative therapy had longer event-free and overall survival than those who received reduced-intensity therapy. Event-free survival was 10 months for those who received myeloablative therapy, 6 months for reduced-intensity therapy, and 13 months for non-myeloablative therapy. Overall survival was 29 months, 11 months, and 32 months, respectively. However, patients who received myeloablative therapy were most likely to experience fatal transplant-related complications. The one-year treatment related mortality rates were 29 percent for myeloablative therapy, 20 percent for reduced-intensity therapy, and 25 percent for non-myeloablative therapy. At three years, the rates were 37 percent, 31 percent, and 30 percent, respectively. The study investigators conclude that long-term disease control is still challenging and that more studies are needed to define the role of donor transplantation for myeloma using stem cells from unrelated donors. For more information, see the study in Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (abstract).
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A recent retrospective study finds that initial treatment with Revlimid may not prevent myeloma patients from collecting enough stem cells for transplantation.
Many of the study's results confirm the findings of previous research, which has shown that Revlimid (lenalidomide) reduces a patient's ability to mobilize stem cells for stem cell collection (see related Beacon news).
However, only 2 percent of the patients in the new study were unable to mobilize enough stem cells for at least a single transplant, and this low overall rate of mobilization failure was the same in patients who …
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Findings from a small, retrospective French study show that an autologous stem cell transplant followed by a reduced-intensity donor stem cell transplant may lead to long-term control of multiple myeloma.
With a median follow-up time of seven years, the five-year progression-free and overall survival rates were 26 percent and 52 percent, respectively.
The results of the current study also show that myeloma patients who receive a donor transplant as part of their first-line of treatment appear to benefit more from the procedure than patients who receive the transplant after relapsing. These findings …
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Long-term results from a European study indicate that an autologous stem cell transplant followed by a reduced-intensity donor transplant may lead to better survival outcomes in multiple myeloma patients than either a single autologous transplant or two back-to-back autologous transplants.
After a median follow-up of eight years, patients who received an autologous stem cell transplant followed by a reduced-intensity donor (allogeneic) stem cell transplant had higher progression-free and overall survival rates than patients who received either a single autologous transplant or two back-to-back autologous transplants.
An important caveat to these results is …
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A new study indicates that patients treated with Mozobil prior to a stem cell transplant may have an increased risk of developing a secondary cancer.
The patients in the new study were being treated for either lymphoma or myeloma. They were given Mozobil (plerixafor) to improve their chances of harvesting enough stem cells to allow them to undergo an autologous (own) stem cell transplant.
All patients in the study were treated with Mozobil, and all had previously failed to collect enough stem cells for a transplant.
Among the patients in …