[Peripheral stem cell collection, search for predictive factors: a multicenter study. Working Group on Transfusion...

A multicentric study involving 12 centers was made to investigate the results of peripheral stem cell collection carried out between 1996 and 1997 from 655 patients with hemopathic syndromes or malignant tumors, The aim of this investigation was to determine the predictive factors for transplant quality, and to thereby optimize collection procedures.

Information sheets were completed for 1,346 cytapheretic sessions, i.e., 655 grafts. The samples were taken after induction chemotherapy and exposure to hematopoeitic colony-stimulating growth factors (except the LMCs). Each graft was defined as being of good or bad quality depending on the number of CD34+ cells that it contained. Based on the data available in the literature, a workgroup consensus was reached that a level of CD34+ cells +/- 2.10(6)/kg recipient body weight constituted a good transplant criterion. The 2 subgroups (good graft versus lower quality graft) were compared by univariate analysis followed by discriminant multivariate analysis.

It was established that a number of parameters were significantly linked to the criterion of collection quality; however, 3 predictive factors emerged from the multivariate analysis--the level of circulating CD34+ cells; the number of cytaphereses; the number of blood volumes treated.

It was concluded that the level of circulating CD34+ cells seems to be an essential aspect in predicting the quality of the transplant and the number of cytaphereses required to obtain a sufficiently rich collection. Moreover, it also appears that at least 2 blood volumes should be treated to optimize the results.