Engraftment in Early and Late Autologous Stem Cells Transplantation in Multiple Myeloma

Background and Aim: Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) isconsidered the standard care for multiple myeloma (MM). According tothe results of a meta-analysis, early autologous hematopoietic stem celltransplantation prolongs PFS and OS in patients with newly diagnosedmultiple myeloma compared with delayed transplantation. The aim of thisstudy was to compare the differences of platelet and WBC engraftmentand hospitalization duration in Multiple Myeloma patients who receivedthe first ASCT within 12 months of diagnosis (early ASCT) and at a laterdate (late ASCT).Methods: We reviewed the results of 186 multiple myeloma ASCTs inTaleghani Hospital (Tehran, Iran) between 2010 and 2017 years. Datafrom 94 and 92 early and late auto-transplantation patients respectivelyanalyzed using. All Data were analyzed by parametric test (T-Test) andexpressed as means ± SD. Analyses were performed using the SPSSStatistical 22/0 program.Results: Result of 186 patients included in this study (50.54% earlyHSCT, 49.46% late HSCT) showed no significant difference in WBCengraftment in both groups of patients (P: 0.07). The means time ofplatelet engraftment was 14.01±6.09 days in early ASCT and 16.04±4.65days in late ASCT. The mean duration of hospitalization was 18.47± 8.9 in early ASCT and 19.53± 7.93 in late ASCT. Therefore, the time of plateletengraftment and hospitalization duration showed a significant increasein late ASCT compared to early ASCT (p-value: 0.009, 0.02 respectively).Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the time of transplantationin newly diagnosed MM patients can affect platelet engraftment andhospitalization while there was no difference in WBC engraftment inearly and late ASCT. Therefore, Autologous Stem Cells Transplantationwithin 12 months after diagnosis can improve the quality of engraftmentand reduce the time and cost in Multiple Myeloma patient and thesedifferences could be taken into account when designing strategies to treatMM patients.

Keywords:

Engraftment , Early ASCT , Late ASCT , Multiple Myeloma