Engraftment with peripheral blood stem cells using noncontrolled-rate cryopreservation: comparison with autologous bone marrow transplantation.

Peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) are used increasingly as a source of stem cell support following myeloablative therapy. In this report, the results of 33 patients undergoing PBSC transplantation were compared to 17 concurrent patients undergoing autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT). PBSC were cryopreserved using 6% pentastarch and 5% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) with noncontrolled-rate freezing. Many patients in the PBSC group were selected because they were excluded as candidates for ABMT due to prior pelvic irradiation, marrow tumor involvement, or other factors. PBSC were mobilized with high-dose cyclophosphamide (CY), CY+granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), or GM-CSF alone. Colony-stimulating factors were not administered after transplantation. A median of 7.4 x 10(8) mononuclear cells (MNC)/kg were collected containing a median of 3.2 x 10(4) granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming units (CFU-GM)/kg and 5.7 x 10(4) burst-forming units (BFU-E)/kg. After thawing, CFU-GM recovery was 67% and BFU-E recovery was 59%. The thawed, pooled PBSC contained 6.4 x 10(6) CD34+ cells/kg. The entire PBSC volume (median 870 mL) was infused over a median of 157 minutes. PBSC patients required a median of 15 days to achieve an ANC of 500/microL and 22 days for a platelet count of 50,000/microL. Neutrophil recovery was inversely correlated with the number of harvested progenitor cells (p = 0.014); the time to achieve a platelet count of 50,000/microL was inversely associated with CD34+ cells/kg (p = 0.005). PBSC transplant patients achieved an ANC of 500/microL 6 days faster (p < 0.05) and had a 10-day shorter hospitalization (p < 0.05) than ABMT patients. Use of noncontrolled-rate cryopreserved PBSC is associated with faster engraftment and shorter hospital duration than ABMT.