Investigation Of Therapeutic Effects Of A Reduced Dose Of Anti-Thymocyte Globulin To Prevent GVHD In Haploidentical Stem Cell Transplantation

Objective: To identify strategies to prevent graft-versus-host disease(GVHD)in haploidentical transplantation and to reduce the recurrence rate and infection post-transplantation.Methods: A retrospective analysis of 12 patients who were treated with a reduced dose of anti-thymocyte globulin(ATG)to prevent GVHD in haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.A reduced dose of ATG(Anti-thymocyte Globulin,a total dose of 5 mg/kg)was used in the pretreatment protocol for two consecutive days.Results: All patients had successful transplantation.The median age of all patients was 37 years.The median time of neutrophil engraftment was 12 days.The median time of platelet engraftment was 12.5 days.One patient developed human cytomegalovirus(CMV)infection after transplantation,and one had both Epstein–Barr(EB)and CMV infection.None of the 12 patients had acute graft-versus-host disease(aGVHD),while 3 patients had chonic graft-versus-host disease(25.0%),and 2 of 3patients had I–II degree chonic graft-versus-host disease(16.7%).Out ofthe 12 patients undergoing haploidentical stem cell transplantation,3 had disease progression during the post-transplantation remission period,1patient died of cGVHD and 8 had long-term disease-free survival.Conclusion: The reduced dose of ATG can effectively prevent the incidence of GVHD in haploidentical transplantation,and reduce the disease recurrence and infection.