ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the treatment efficacy and tolerance of anti-human T lymphocyte porcine immunoglobulin (p-ALG) plus cyclosporine A (CsA) in acquired severe aplastic anemia (SAA). METHOD: Forty-eight SAA patients [31 males and 17 females; 17 with very SAA (VSAA)] were treated with p-ALG plus CsA and were analyzed retrospectively according to early mortality, response rate and quality, survival rate, toxicity, and complications. They were stratified further by gender, age, disease severity, interval from diagnosis to treatment, and preexisting infections. RESULT: The median age was 28 years (range 13-64). The interval from diagnosis to treatment was 45 days. The median neutrophil count was 0.178 × 109/l. The overall response was 83.3% (54.2% complete and 29.2% partial) with a 90-day median time (range 23-380), and 10.4% died of infection within 30 days. The 1.5-year survival was 87.5%. vSAA patients had less response, a higher early mortality, and less survival (64.7, 29.4, 51.8%) compared to SAA patients (93.5, 0, and 100%, respectively; p < 0.05). Groups with different age, gender, intervals between diagnosis and treatment, and preexisting infections had the same response. Mild toxicities were observed. CONCLUSION: p-ALG plus CsA is a reliable and well-tolerated treatment for SAA, and it has the great advantage of a much lower cost compared to horse/rabbit ATG. VSAA was a poor predictive factor for the response rate.
