[Peripheral blood stem cell collection with high dose etoposide]

Peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) were collected from 24 patients who were treated with high dose etoposide. Studied patients included one with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, 4 with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), 1 with myelodysplastic syndrome, 13 with lymphoma, 1 with malignant histiocytosis, 2 with myeloma, and 4 with testicular tumor. Etoposide was infused at a dose of 500 mg/m2 for 4 days, followed by subcutaneous injection of recombinant human granulocyte-colony stimulating factor from the nadir of leukocyte. PBSC were collected by processing 15-20 liters of blood apheresis in the recovery phase of chemotherapy. In all patients, the number of CFU-GM collected per aphereresis ranged from 0.01 to 59.4 x 10(5)/kg, and more than 5 x 10(5)/kg CFU-GM were collected in 19 of the patients (73%). All leukemia patients treated along with our protocols have remained in complete remission, but one patient with AML relapsed within 1 month after the treatment. Ten lymphoma patients were assessable for antitumor effect, and complete response (CR) was observed in 2, partial response (PR) was 7, and no change (NC) in one patient. Two patients with myeloma were classified to be NC. Three of the 4 patients with testicular tumor were PR, and the other one was NC. Eleven patients subsequently underwent PBSCT. The number of days required to achieve an absolute granulocyte count of 0.5 x 10(9)/l was 7 to 11 days, with a mean of 8.6.