Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Collection in Elderly Patients

Introduction Intensive treatments like autologous stem cells transplantations are final standard treatment in lymphoma and myeloma for young people (1,2). In the context of population’s ageing, those treatments should be eligible for older patients. One of the major causes which did not allowed these procedures in elderly patients is the reports of the impact of the age on the process of mobilisation of peripheral stem cell (3). We proceed a retrospective study to explore the feasibility of stem cells collection in patients older than 65 years, compared to younger people. Material and patients During the period of 1999–2006, we identified all the patients older than 65 years, with myeloma and lymphoma, who performed peripheral stem cells collection in Brest’s blood collection centre. We excluded patients for bone marrow collection. Patients were eligible if they achieved more than 2.10⁶ CD34/kg. Then we compared the results obtained in older patients with the results obtained in younger people. Results We identified 100 patients older than 65 years between the 359 patients who underwent peripheral stem cell harvest in Brest’s harvest centre. We excluded 37 others patients for non-conformity. The elderly patients were significantly older (age 68.9 vs. 49.3 y, p<10⁻⁶). No differences were seen for the number of collection between the older and the younger patients (1.59 vs. 1.50, p>0.05). The number of CD34/kg per patient was sufficient to realise more than one autologous transplantation in both groups of patients (5.3 vs. 6.67, p=0.004). Samples were sufficiently rich for CD34/kg (4.36 vs. 5.54, p=0.02). Patients were harvested in one (60), two (25) or more than 2 collections (15). Among the older patients, 71% achieved a sufficient collection of more than 2.10⁶ CD34/kg in one sample only. Conclusion We identified one hundred patients older than 65 years, during a period of 8 years, who performed peripheral stem cells collection, with sufficient wealth (>2.10⁶ CD34/kg). The majority of patients, 60%, need only one stem cells harvesting. The study confirmed that old patients could be harvested like young people, and eligible for stem cells autologous transplantation.