Excellent Stem Cell Mobilization Using Escalated BEACOPP in High-Risk Patients with Hodgkin’s Disease.

Introduction: After intensive treatment regimens have been established, the survival rate for patients with advanced Hodgkin’s disease is approximately 91 % after five years and 13 % of the patients have a relapse or have primary progressive disease (2 %) within the first five years. For patients with relapse after conventional chemotherapy +/− radiotherapy, however, there is a real chance of achieving remission again. Since it is often difficult to harvest autologous stem cells following an intensive pretreatment, our center embarks on the strategy to harvest autologous blood stem cells in high-risk patients, defined according to the risk stratification of the German Hodgkin Study Group, already as part of the initial polychemotherapy.

Results: Between 9/2003 and 5/2005, we analyzed the results of the stem cell harvest of 12 consecutive patients with Hodgkin’s disease who were mobilized with the escalated BEACOPP regimen. There were 7 female and 5 male patients. Escalated BEACOPP was the primary therapy in ten patients and a relapse was treated in two patients; the previous treatment was 4 or 6 cycles of the ABVD regime + involved field radiation. The ten patients who did not receive previous treatment were classified as having Ann Arbor stage IIA/2 IIB/5, IIIB/2 and IVB/1 and all of them had a large mediastinal bulk as an additional risk factor. The two patients who did receive a previous treatment were classified as having an initial Ann Arbor stage IIA or IIB, without an additional risk factor. The stem cells were collected in 1 patient from cycle 2, in 8 patients from cycle 3 and in 3 patients from cycle 4 of the escalated BEACOPP regimen. A total of 11 patients received a standard dose of filgrastim, 5μg/kg body weight s.c., from day 8 up to the last apheresis and 1 patient received pegfilgrastim 6mg s.c. All aphereses were performed using an Amicus cell separator^® (Baxter, MNC set, closed two-arm). 7 patients required only 1 apheresis and the remaining 5 patients required 2 aphereses. An apheresis result sufficient for a possible reinfusion could be achieved in all patients (4.26 – 14.4 x10e6 CD34 pos. cells/kg/body weight, mean: 7.7).

Summary: According to our experience, escalated BEACOPP regimen is very suitable for the harvesting of stem cells in high-risk patients with Hodgkin’s disease even though they are receiving procarbazine. A sufficient quantity of stem cells can also be collected from pretreated patients. The stem cell mobilization can be integrated into the escalated BEACOPP regimen safely and without a delay in treatment and thus creates, already at an early stage, the pre-condition for a high-dose therapy, which might be required in high-risk patients.