Total Lymphoid Irradiation–Antithymocyte Globulin Conditioning and Allogeneic Transplantation for Patients with Myelodysplastic Syndromes and Myeloproliferative Neoplasms

Abstract

Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo HCT) is the only curative therapy for the myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), but treatment toxicity has been a barrier to its more widespread use. The nonmyeloablative regimen of total lymphoid irradiation (TLI) and antithymocyte globulin (ATG) permits the establishment of donor hematopoiesis necessary for the graft-versus-malignancy effect and is protective against acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD), but it has minimal direct cytotoxicity against myeloid diseases. We explored the use of TLI-ATG conditioning to treat 61 patients with allo HCT for MDS (n = 32), therapy-related myeloid neoplasms (n = 15), MPN (n = 9), and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (n = 5). The median age of all patients was 63 years (range, 50 to 73). The cumulative incidence of aGVHD grades II to IV was 14% (95% confidence interval [CI], 4% to 23%) and for grades III to IV, 4% (95% CI, 0 to 9%), and it did not differ between patients who received allografts from related or unrelated donors. The cumulative incidence of nonrelapse mortality (NRM) at 100 days, 12 months, and 36 months was 0%, 7%, and 11%. Overall survival and progression-free survival were 41% (95% CI, 29% to 53%) and 35% (95% CI, 23% to 48%), respectively. The safety and tolerability of TLI-ATG, as exemplified by its low NRM, provides a foundation for further risk-adapted or prophylactic interventions to prevent disease progression.