Quantification of marrow hematogones following autologous stem cell transplant in adult patients with plasma cell myeloma or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and correlation with outcome

Abstract

In this retrospective study, we quantified the hematogone (normal B-lineage precursor) population by flow cytometric immunophenotyping in post-transplant bone marrow biopsy specimens from adult patients who received an autologous stem cell transplant for either plasma cell myeloma (n = 57) or diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (n = 73). The majority of patients (80%) had <5% marrow hematogones post-transplant. Extreme (>10%) hematogone percentages were quite rare, seen in only four patients, and were not associated with disease progression. There was a positive association between the post-transplant day and hematogone percentage within the first year after transplant, and a negative association thereafter. Plasma cell myeloma patients with ≥5% hematogones in any post-transplant flow cytometry study had a worse overall survival as did plasma cell myeloma patients with increased hematogones (as defined by percentile) at 100 days post-transplant. These findings require further study, ideally in a prospective study design.

Keywords:

• Autologous stem cell transplant
• autotransplant
• hematogones
• plasma cell myeloma
• multiple myeloma
• B-lineage precursors
• diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2017.1352094.