American journal of hematology
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We evaluated the efficacy of in vivo T-cell depletion with alemtuzumab in two prospective studies according to the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH)-Good Clinical Practice (ICH-GCP) guidelines; one was for patients with aplastic anemia (AA study) and the other was for patients who were undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from a 2- or 3-antigen-mismatched haploidentical donor (MM study). The final dose of alemtuzumab in these studies was 0.16 mg/kg/day for 6 days. At this dose, all of the 12 and 11 patients in the AA and MM studies, respectively, achieved initial engraftment and the incidences of Grade II-IV acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) were 0% and 18%. ⋯ The numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells and T-cell receptor rearrangement excision circles remained low within 1 year after HSCT. These findings suggest that the use of alemtuzumab at this dose in a conditioning regimen enables safe allogeneic HSCT even from a 2- or 3-antigen-mismatched donor. However, the use of a lower dose of alemtuzumab should be explored in future studies to accelerate immune recovery after HSCT.
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Tacrolimus-associated posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is a potential complication of allogeneic stem cell transplant (SCT). Due to the paucity of information on the management of PRES in SCT patients receiving tacrolimus, more information is needed on trends associated with the incidence of PRES and to characterize its management. A retrospective review was conducted of patients receiving tacrolimus for prevention of graft versus host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic SCT who developed PRES from September 2008 to July 2011. ⋯ When tacrolimus was not held, held then continued, or switched to another agent, 40% (2 of 5), 40% (4/10), and 50% (2/4) survived to discharge, respectively. PRES was associated with high blood pressure and adequate blood pressure control should be part of its management. No management strategy pertaining to tacrolimus usage appeared more beneficial over another.