RITUXIMAB DOES NOT ADVERSELY AFFECT THE STEM CELL MOBILIZATION AND ENGRAFTMENT AFTER HIGH-DOSE THERAPY AND AUTOLOGOUS TRANSPLANTATION IN PATIENTS WITH DIFFUSE LARGE B-CELL LYMPHOMA IN FIRST COMPLETE OR PARTIAL REMISSION

Key words: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma/Rituximab/Stem cell transplantation Aims and Methods: The goal was to investigate the effect of prior combined rituximab (R) and intensive chemo-therapy on peripheral blood stem cell mobilization and their engraftment after stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in 69 patients with poor-risk, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Results: A statistically comparable median number of CD34+ stem cells was collected in both groups (13.80x106/ kg in the non-R group and 7.81x106/kg in the R group; p = 0.110). A trend toward greater number of CFU-GM was found in the non-R group (98.1x104/kg) compared to the R group (76.6x104/kg; p = 0.068). The non-R patients had a much higher median number of BFU-E (90.9x104/kg) than the R patients (31.3x104/kg; p = 0.001). Conclusions: Hematopoietic engraftment was rapid for both groups and no different between them. The 3-year event-free survival was 90.4 % in the R group and 67.2 % in the non-R group (p = 0.04), but there was no significant difference in the 3-year overall survival (94,7 % vs 83,5 %; p = 0.179)