Faculty Collaboration Database

Post-Transplantation Cyclophosphamide-Based Graft-versus-Host Disease Prophylaxis. N Engl J Med 2023 Jun 22;388(25):2338-2348

Date

06/21/2023

Pubmed ID

37342922

Pubmed Central ID

PMC10575613

DOI

10.1056/NEJMoa2215943

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85164529275 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   22 Citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT), a calcineurin inhibitor plus methotrexate has been a standard prophylaxis against graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). A phase 2 study indicated the potential superiority of a post-transplantation regimen of cyclophosphamide, tacrolimus, and mycophenolate mofetil.

METHODS: In a phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned adults with hematologic cancers in a 1:1 ratio to receive cyclophosphamide-tacrolimus-mycophenolate mofetil (experimental prophylaxis) or tacrolimus-methotrexate (standard prophylaxis). The patients underwent HSCT from an HLA-matched related donor or a matched or 7/8 mismatched (i.e., mismatched at only one of the HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, and HLA-DRB1 loci) unrelated donor, after reduced-intensity conditioning. The primary end point was GVHD-free, relapse-free survival at 1 year, assessed in a time-to-event analysis, with events defined as grade III or IV acute GVHD, chronic GVHD warranting systemic immunosuppression, disease relapse or progression, and death from any cause.

RESULTS: In a multivariate Cox regression analysis, GVHD-free, relapse-free survival was significantly more common among the 214 patients in the experimental-prophylaxis group than among the 217 patients in the standard-prophylaxis group (hazard ratio for grade III or IV acute GVHD, chronic GVHD, disease relapse or progression, or death, 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.49 to 0.83; P = 0.001). At 1 year, the adjusted GVHD-free, relapse-free survival was 52.7% (95% CI, 45.8 to 59.2) with experimental prophylaxis and 34.9% (95% CI, 28.6 to 41.3) with standard prophylaxis. Patients in the experimental-prophylaxis group appeared to have less severe acute or chronic GVHD and a higher incidence of immunosuppression-free survival at 1 year. Overall and disease-free survival, relapse, transplantation-related death, and engraftment did not differ substantially between the groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Among patients undergoing allogeneic HLA-matched HSCT with reduced-intensity conditioning, GVHD-free, relapse-free survival at 1 year was significantly more common among those who received cyclophosphamide-tacrolimus-mycophenolate mofetil than among those who received tacrolimus-methotrexate. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and others; BMT CTN 1703 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT03959241.).

Author List

Bolaños-Meade J, Hamadani M, Wu J, Al Malki MM, Martens MJ, Runaas L, Elmariah H, Rezvani AR, Gooptu M, Larkin KT, Shaffer BC, El Jurdi N, Loren AW, Solh M, Hall AC, Alousi AM, Jamy OH, Perales MA, Yao JM, Applegate K, Bhatt AS, Kean LS, Efebera YA, Reshef R, Clark W, DiFronzo NL, Leifer E, Horowitz MM, Jones RJ, Holtan SG, BMT CTN 1703 Investigators

Authors

Mehdi H. Hamadani MD Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Mary M. Horowitz MD, MS Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Michael Martens PhD Assistant Professor in the Institute for Health and Equity department at Medical College of Wisconsin
Lyndsey Runaas MD Assistant Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adult
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols
Cyclophosphamide
Graft vs Host Disease
Hematologic Neoplasms
Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
Humans
Methotrexate
Mycophenolic Acid
Neoplasm Recurrence, Local
Tacrolimus
Unrelated Donors