The following is a summary of “Clinical significance of total nucleated cell count in bone marrow of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation,” published in the December 2023 issue of Hematology by Nukui et al.
Before allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), the role of recipient bone marrow nucleated cell count (NCC) in predicting outcomes remains unclear.
They examined the clinical relevance of bone marrow NCC before allo-HSCT in acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients. Patients in remission undergoing the first allo-HSCT were included and categorized into high- and low-NCC groups with an NCC cut-off of 10 × 10-4/µL.
The results showed the high-NCC group experienced a 3-year OS of 51.2%, whereas the low-NCC group had a higher OS of 84.5% (P<0.001). Non-relapse mortality (NRM) rates were significantly different between the high-NCC group (27.5%) and the low-NCC group (6.5%) (P<0.001). Relapse rates showed no significant difference, with 31.1% for the high-NCC group and 24.4% for the low-NCC group (P=0.322). The high-NCC group demonstrated notably inferior OS and elevated NRM compared to the low-NCC group.
Investigators concluded that pre-transplant bone marrow cell count was linked to worse survival and complications after stem cell transplant.
Source: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12185-023-03688-7
