Favourable outcome of patients older than 40 years of age after transplantation with marrow grafts depleted of lymphocytes by counterflow centrifugation

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Abstract
Nineteen patients with a median age of 43 years (range 40–48) were transplanted for acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML), refractory anaemia with excess of blasts in transformation (RAEBt), acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in first complete remission, multiple myeloma, and chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) in chronic or accelerated phase. Their outcome was compared with that of 35 patients with a median age of 34 years (range 30–39), and a group of patients with age younger than 30 years (median 24; range 16–29) transplanted for the same indications. Donors were human leucocyte antigen (HLA)‐identical, mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC) negative siblings. All marrow grafts were depleted of lymphocytes by counterflow centrifugation. The estimated event‐free survival at 3 years after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation was 60.7% for patients with age > 39 years, 57.8% for patients with age 0.3). The estimated transplant‐related mortality showed no tendency to increase with older age of recipients. The incidence of acute GVHD>grade 1 was 15.7% in patients with age > 39 years, 9.5% in patients younger than 30 years, and 23% in the intermediate age group. The incidence of chronic GVHD was higher in the older patients (39% compared to 24% in patients younger than 30 years, 19% in the intermediate age group). Chronic GVHD resolved completely in five out of seven patients aged 40 years or more. Reduction of the incidence of acute graft‐versus‐host disease by physical lymphocyte depletion allows allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for patients aged 40–50 years without increase of transplant‐related mortality resulting in similar event‐free survival in patients older than 40 years compared to those younger than 40 years.