Allogeneic peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) transplantation in children with haematological malignancies

We report on five children with haematological malignancies who underwent allogeneic peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) transplantation. PBPC were harvested from HLA-identical sibling donors after G-CSF (10 μg/kg/d s.c.) mobilization. Aphereses were carried out on day 5 after G-CSF using a Cobe Spectra blood cell separator. All PBPC allografts were cryopreserved before transplantation. The median of CD34+ cells and CD3+ cells infused were 14.1×106/kg recipient body weight (range 4.92–22.3) and 2.40×108/kg recipient body weight (range 0.54–4.82), respectively. Engraftment occurred in all cases. The median time to a neutrophil count >0.5×109/l and a platelet count >20×109/l were 15 and 14 d, respectively. The incidence of severe acute graft-versus-host disease was 20%. These data suggest that allogeneic PBPC transplantation might be an alternative to bone marrow transplantation in children.