Pediyatrik Kanser Hastalarında Otolog Kök Hücre Toplama İşlemine Etki Eden Faktörlerin Değerlendirilmesi

Objective: Pediatric cancer patients comprise a fragile patient group regarding age and intensive therapy. It is known that factors like apheresis machine, characteristics of patients, primary disease, and cellular parameters before the process impact the efficacy of stem cell apheresis. In this study, we aim to evaluate the characteristic features of stem cell apheresis and the influencing factors of the process. Patients and Methods: This study involves 42 patients who received a total of 88 aphereses, between August 2012-March 2021in our pediatric stem cell transplantation unit. All of the patients received chemotherapy and GCSF for mobilization. The patients received plerixafor in case of unsuccessful mobilization. Results: For most of the patients (n= 23, 55%), targeted cell numbers could be reached on the second day of apheresis. Especially the patients with neuroblastoma and lymphoma need to have more than one apheresis. Our results indicate that median MNC and CD 34 + cell counts before the apheresis were significantly associated with successful apheresis (p< 0.01 and p= 0.03 respectively). Regarding the influence of primary disease, we showed that successful apheresis was less in neuroblastoma and lymphoma compared to other pediatric cancers (p= 0.01). We reported successful apheresis with plerixafor for six patients who had unsuccessful apheresis before. Conclusion: In this study, it is shown that median MNC counts before apheresis, median CD 34 + cell counts before apheresis, and primary disease are influencing factors for successful apheresis. This study indicates that plerixafor may enhance the apheresis efficacy even in unsuccessful apheresis attempts with standard mobilization protocol. Identifying the influencing factors on apheresis for such a fragile patient population may help the procedure to be more efficient and safe for the children.