Stem Cell Mobilization Following Initial Therapy with Lenalidomide and Dexamethasone in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma

Background: Autologous stem cell transplantation is an effective therapy for patients with multiple myeloma. We and others have previously reported the influence of lenalidomide based regimens on the ability to harvest adequate number of stem cells for successful transplantation. In order to identify factors predicting for poor mobilization we studied a large group of patients who underwent an attempt at stem cell mobilization after receiving lenalidomide and dexamethasone as primary therapy for myeloma.

Methods: We identified sequential patients who received lenalidomide and dexamethasone as initial therapy for their myeloma and then underwent stem cell mobilization for immediate or future stem cell transplantation. Patients who received any other regimen prior to the stem cell mobilization were excluded. Between July 2004 and May 2008, 106 patients, satisfying the above criteria were identified from the Mayo Clinic transplant database. Medical records and collection sheets were examined for the data.

Results: The median (range) age at mobilization was 60 yrs (29–75); 34 (32%) were over 65 yrs and 59 (55%) were males. The median duration of lenalidomide therapy was 4 months (range; 1–13). The strategy for stem cell mobilization was GCSF alone in 92 patients (87%), cyclophosphamide (CTX) and GCSF in 11 pts and 3 pts received AMD3100 and GCSF. Among the GCSF mobilized patients, 10 pts (11%) failed to collect at least 2.5 million cells required for one transplant, including 8 patients who never achieved the minimum peripheral count threshold to initiate the collection. Two of the 11 pts undergoing primary mobilization with CTX/GCSF failed to collect any cells, while all of the 3 pts mobilized with AMD3100 were successful. Five of these pts subsequently underwent successful salvage mobilization with CTX/GCSF, 1 with AMD3100, one failed to mobilize with CTX and the rest did not repeat mobilization. Given that the total CD34 collection and the number of days of collection are influenced by the CD34 goal, we examined patient characteristics that correlated with the CD34 collections over the first 2 days. Increasing patient age and the duration of lenalidomide therapy, both correlated with decreasing 2-day CD34 collection, while the time between last dose of lenalidomide and the start of GCSF had no effect. We then performed ROC analysis to find best cut-off points that predicted the inability to collect adequate (2.5 million) CD34 cells in 3 days. Lenalidomide therapy of more than 4 months (P =0.03) and age > 63 yrs (P = 0.04) best predicted inability to achieve this endpoint. In addition, a peripheral blood CD34 count < 5/uL on day 5 after start of GCSF was highly predictive of failure to reach this endpoint.

Conclusions: Inability to collect adequate stem cells with lenalidomide appears to be related to patient age and the duration of lenalidomide therapy. We recommend early stem cell collection and storage, if a delayed transplantation approach is taken. Patients receiving more than 4 cycles of therapy and those over 65 years should undergo mobilization with CTX+G-CSF, rather than G-CSF alone. Majority of the patients who fail G-CSF based collection can be mobilized using CTX and G-CSF. Early identification of failures after G-CSF administration using the peripheral CD34 counts can potentially allow salvage using strategies such as AMD3100.