Parous female donor is not inferior to the young male donor under the low-dose ATG/PTCy combination-based regimen for GVHD prophylaxis in haploidentical peripheral blood stem cell transplantation

Background

An optimal donor is critical for patient survival undergoing haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (haplo-HSCT). The impacts of different donors on outcomes under the combination regimens of anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) and post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis had limited data. Methods: Therefore, a single-center retrospective study was performed for patients undergoing haploidentical peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (haplo-PBSCT) with ATG/PTCy combination-based regimen. Results: The donors were divided into young male (age <30 years, n = 74), non-parous female (age <30 years, n = 22), older male (age ≥30 years, n = 117), and parous female (age ≥30 years, n = 42) donor groups. The cumulative incidences (CIs) of acute and chronic GVHD, and survival outcomes were similar between the 4 groups (P > 0.050), while the parous female donor could significantly reduce the cumulative incidence of relapse (CIR). Conclusions: The results showed that the parous female donor could significantly reduce CIR and might improve survival under the ATG and PTCy combination-based GVHD prophylaxis regimen after haplo-PBSCT.