Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Reduced-intensity conditioning is effective and safe for transplantation of patients with Shwachman-Diamond syndrome.

Bone Marrow Transplant. 2008 May 26.

Reduced-intensity conditioning is effective and safe for transplantation of patients with Shwachman-Diamond syndrome.
Bhatla D, Davies SM, Shenoy S, Harris RE, Crockett M, Shoultz L, Smolarek T, Bleesing J, Hansen M, Jodele S, Jordan M, Filipovich AH, Mehta PA.

[1] 1Department of Hematology Oncology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA [2] 2Division of Hematology Oncology, Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center, St Louis, MO, USA.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the only potentially curative treatment for the BM dysfunction seen in patients with Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (SDS). Historically, these patients have fared poorly with intensive conditioning regimens with increased regimen-related toxicity especially involving the heart and lungs. We report our institutional experience with a reduced-intensity-conditioning protocol in seven patients with SDS and BM aplasia or myelodysplastic syndrome/AML. The preparative regimen consisted of Campath-1H, fludarabine and melphalan. Four patients received matched related marrow and three received unrelated stem cells (two PBSCs and one marrow). All but one was 8 of 8 allele HLA matched. All patients established 100% donor-derived hematopoiesis. No patient in this cohort developed grades III-IV GVHD. One patient had grade II skin GVHD that responded to systemic corticosteroids and one had grade I skin GVHD, treated with topical corticosteroids. Two out of seven patients developed bacterial infections in the early post transplant period. Viral infections were seen in four out of seven patients and were successfully treated with appropriate antiviral therapy. All patients are currently alive. These data indicate that HSCT with reduced-intensity conditioning is feasible in patients with SDS and associated with excellent donor cell engraftment and modest morbidity.Bone Marrow Transplantation advance online publication, 26 May 2008; doi:10.1038/bmt.2008.151.


For information on Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome check out Shwachman-Diamond America