Long-Term Outcome after Bone Marrow Transplantation for Aplastic Anemia Using Cyclophosphamide and Total Lymphoid Irradiation as Conditioning Regimen

We retrospectively studied 49 patients in a single institute to evaluate the long-term outcome of total lymphoid irradiation (TLI) conditioning for allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) to treat aplastic anemia (AA). Most of the patients had received transfusions and had undergone previous treatment, with 33 receiving related transplants and 16 receiving unrelated transplants. Conditioning consisted of cyclophosphamide (Cy; 200 mg/kg) plus TLI (750 cGy) for related transplantation and Cy plus total body irradiation (TBI; 500 cGy) and TLI (500 cGy) for unrelated transplantation. Antithymocyte globulin (ATG) was added for 6 of the unrelated transplantations. Graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) prophylaxis consisted mainly of cyclosporine (CSA) and methotrexate (MTX). Graft failure developed in 2 patients (4.1%). With a median follow-up of 7 years, overall survival (OS) was 81% and was not statistically significantly different between the patients receiving related transplants and those receiving unrelated transplants. In multivariate analyses, a history of previous treatment with ATG was the sole factor associated with a worse survival rate, and the interval from diagnosis to treatment was not prognostic. The incidence of acute (grade II to IV) GVHD (aGVHD) was 23%, and that of chronic GVHD (cGVHD) was 29%. Female-to-male transplantation was the sole factor associated with chronic GVHD. B cell lymphoproliferative disorder developed only after the ATG-containing conditioning. No other secondary malignancies developed after long-term follow-up. Our findings suggest that TLI conditioning is feasible and effective for patients with AA.