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Antithymocyte globulin and cyclosporine for severe aplastic anemia: association between hematologic response and
Stephen Rosenfeld1, Dean Follmann, Olga Nunez
1Hematology Branch, Bldg 10, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Md, USA.
Context:
In most patients, aplastic anemia results from T-cell-mediated immune destruction of bone marrow. Aplastic anemia can be effectively treated by stem cell transplantation or immunosuppression.
Objective:
To assess long-term outcomes after immunosuppressive therapy.
Design, Setting, And Patients:
Cohort of 122 patients (31 were < or =18 years and 91 were >18 years) with severe aplastic anemia, as determined by bone marrow cellularity and blood cell count criteria, were enrolled in a single-arm interventional research protocol from 1991 to 1998 at a federal government research hospital.
Interventions:
A dose of 40 mg/kg per day of antithymocyte globulin administered for 4 days, 10 to 12 mg/kg per day of cyclosporine for 6 months (adjusted for blood levels), and a short course of corticosteroids (1 mg/d of methylprednisolone for about 2 weeks).
Main Outcome Measures:
Survival, improvement of pancytopenia and transfusion-independence, relapse, and evolution to other hematologic diseases.
Results:
Response rates were 60% at 3 months after initiation of treatment, 61% at 6 months, and 58% at 1 year. The blood cell counts of patients who responded no longer satisfied severity criteria and they were transfusion-independent. Overall actuarial survival at 7 years was 55%. Survival was associated with early satisfaction of response criteria (86% vs 40% at 5 years; P<.001) and by blood counts at 3 months (reticulocyte count or platelet count of >50 x 10(3)/ microL predicted survival at 5 years of 90% [64/71] vs 42% [12/34] for patients with less robust recovery [P<.001 by log-rank test]). There were no deaths among responders more than 3 years after treatment. Relapse was common, but severe pancytopenia usually did not recur. Relapse did not influence survival. Thirteen patients showed evolution to other hematologic diseases, including monosomy 7.
Conclusions:
Approximately half of patients with severe aplastic anemia treated with antithymocyte globulin and cyclosporine have durable recovery and excellent long-term survival. These outcomes were related to the quality of hematologic recovery.
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