Peripheral blood progenitor cell collections in cancer patients: analysis of factors affecting the yields

Peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC) are now widely used to restore hematopoiesis following high dose chemotherapy in patients with malignancies. We sought to identify parameters that could predict the yield of PBPC after mobilization with chemotherapy (CT) with or without granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) in cancer patients.

One hundred and fifty patients underwent 627 PBPC collections during the recovery phase following CT with (n = 469) or without (n = 142) G-CSF. Hemogram, CFC-assays and CD34+ cell count were performed on peripheral blood and leukaphereses products. After log transformation of the data, differences between groups were assessed with the unpaired t-test or one-way analysis of variance.

Seventeen and two patients required 2 and 3 mobilization cycles respectively to reach our target of 15x10(4) CFU-GM/kg. In patients with lymphoma but not in those with leukemia, the yields of both CFU-GM and CD34+ cells/kg were dramatically increased when G-CSF was added to CT for mobilization. In collections primed with CT and G-CSF, better yields were obtained in patients with breast cancer or small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) as opposed to other solid tumors and leukemia. Among potential predictive factors of CT- and G-CSF-primed harvests, we found that the CD34+ cell count in peripheral blood (PB) was strongly correlated with both the CFU-GM and CD34+ cell yields. Except in leukemia patients, more than 1x10(6) CD34+ cells/kg were harvested when the CD34+ cell count in blood was above 20x10(6)/L. Similarly, better results were obtained in collections performed when the percentage of myeloid progenitors in blood on the day of apheresis was above 5 % or when the leukocyte count in blood was above 5x10(9)/L.

A diagnosis of breast cancer or SCLC, a leukocyte count in PB of more than 5x10(9)/L, more than 5% myeloid progenitors or more than 20x10(6) CD34+ cells/L in PB were associated with higher yields of PBPC in collections mobilized with CT+G-CSF.