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Updated: Aug 14, 2026
Megakaryocyte Differentiation and Platelet Formation from Human Cord Blood-derived CD34+ Cells
Published on: December 27, 2017
Low baseline platelet count predicts poor response to plerixafor in patients with multiple myeloma undergoing
Mohammed Bakeer1, Abba C Zubair2, Vivek Roy3
1Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida, USA; Division of Internal Medicine-Clinical Hematology, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
Background Aims:
Baseline platelet count has been shown to be a sensitive predictor of autologous peripheral blood progenitor cell collection yield in patients with multiple myeloma mobilized with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). Patients who mobilize poorly with G-CSF are often treated with plerixafor to enhance mobilization. There are no surrogate markers available to predict response to plerixafor.
Methods:
We retrospectively analyzed data from 73 patients with multiple myeloma who did not have adequate mobilization with G-CSF alone and were treated with plerixafor as a rescue agent.
Results:
We found that baseline platelet count directly correlated with peripheral blood CD34+ (PB-CD34+) count after plerixafor treatment (r = 0.36, P < 0.0001) and the number of PB-CD34+ cells collected on the first day of apheresis and inversely correlated with the number of apheresis sessions needed to collect the target number of PB-CD34+ cells (P = 0.0015). Baseline platelet count of 153 000/µL or less was associated with 90% specificity of predicting poor response to plerixafor with a sensitivity of 33%.
Conclusions:
Baseline platelet count is a good predictor of mobilization response to plerixafor in patients with multiple myeloma.
