The Effect of Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor Use on Hospital Length of Stay after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation: A Retrospective Multicenter Cohort Study

Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) is administered after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) to aid neutrophil recovery. We compared the effect of empiric G-CSF administration on the duration of index inpatient hospitalization stay after HCT for patients aged ≥18 years with a hematologic malignancy. G-CSF was considered empiric if administered between day -3 and day +6 in relation to graft infusion. We studied 3562 HCTs (1487 HLA-matched sibling donor HCTs and 2075 HLA-matched unrelated donor HCTs) between 2007 and 2016. Three hundred and thirteen (21%) recipients of HLA-matched sibling donor HCT and 417 (20%) recipients of HLA-matched unrelated donor HCT received empiric G-CSF therapy. The effect of G-CSF therapy on the index hospitalization stay was examined in generalized linear models (GLMs) with adjustment for other patient, disease, and transplantation characteristics and acute graft-versus-host disease and infection post-transplantation. The duration of index hospitalization by treatment group did not differ for HLA-matched sibling donor HCT but was shorter with G-CSF for HLA-matched unrelated donor HCT (15 days versus 19 days; P < .001). Our GLMs confirmed shorter hospitalization with the use of G-CSF therapy for HLA-matched unrelated donor HCT (P = .01). G-CSF therapy was not associated with early survival for either donor type, and there was no benefit or disadvantage of giving G-CSF to promote neutrophil recovery.