Feasibility and cost analysis of day 4 granulocyte colony-stimulating factor mobilized peripheral blood progenitor cell collection from HLA-matched sibling donors.

BACKGROUND: Guidelines recommend treatment with 4-5 days of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) for optimal donor peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) mobilization followed by day 5 collection. Given that some autologous transplant recipients achieve adequate collection by day 4 and the possibility that some allogeneic donors may maximally mobilize PBPC before day 5, a feasibility study was performed evaluating day 4 allogeneic PBPC collection. METHODS: HLA-matched sibling donors underwent collection on day 4 of G-CSF for peripheral blood (PB) CD34+ counts ≥0.04 × 106/mL, otherwise they underwent collection on day 5. Those with inadequate collected CD34+ cells/kg recipient weight underwent repeat collection over 2 days. Transplant and PBPC characteristics and cost analysis were compared with a historical cohort collected on day 5 per our prior institutional algorithm. RESULTS: Of the 101 patient/donor pairs, 50 (49.5%) had adequate PBPC collection on day 4, with a median PB CD34+ cell count of 0.06 × 106/mL. Day 4 donors were more likely to develop bone pain and require analgesics. Median collected CD34+ count was significantly greater, whereas total nucleated, mononuclear and CD3+ cell counts were significantly lower, at time of transplant infusion for day 4 versus other collection cohorts. There were no significant differences in engraftment or graft-versus-host disease. Cost analysis revealed 6.7% direct cost savings for day 4 versus historical day 5 collection. DISCUSSION: Day 4 PB CD34+ threshold of ≥0.04 × 106/mL identified donors with high likelihood of adequate PBPC collection. Day 4 may be the optimal day of collection for healthy donors, without adverse effect on recipient transplant outcomes and with expected cost savings.

Ethnicity influences lymph node resection in colon cancer.

The purpose of this study is to determine the association between ethnicity and lymph node retrieval after colon cancer resection. Using the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database, patients who underwent colon cancer resection from 2000-2003 were evaluated. Subjects were classified as having <12 (N = 20,605) or ≥12 (N = 12,358) lymph nodes examined. Multivariate models were used to analyze the relationship between lymph nodes resected and independent variables. Out of a total of 32,936 patients, 62.5% had fewer than 12 lymph nodes resected. In multivariate analysis, Hispanic ethnicity was associated with a significantly lower chance of having ≥12 lymph nodes than the Caucasian population (OR = 0.61; CI, 0.50-0.74). Despite this, there was no understaging: the proportion of stage II and III diagnoses was the same. Both groups received the same rate of cancer-directed surgery and survival was equivalent. During this study period, a majority of colon cancer resections were inadequate based on the current standard of ≥12 nodes. Hispanic patients were less likely to have an adequate node resection when compared to Caucasians. Despite fewer lymph nodes harvested, they had equivalent staging and survival. These results suggest that ethnicity influences the lymph node count.