Is There Any Difference in PBPC Mobilization Between Cyclophosphamide Plus G-CSF and G-CSF Alone in Patients with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma?

We attempted to analyze whether the use of high-dose cyclophosphamide (CTX 7g/m2, group A) plus hematopoietic growth factor (G-CSF) or G-CSF alone (10 μmlg/Kg, group B) as a mobilizing regimen, could result in harvesting different numbers of CD34+ cells, committed progenitors and CD34+ cells subsets. The number of CD34+ cells considered as the target for each high-dose chemotherapy was ≥ 2 × 106/Kg/bw. Fifteen leukaphereses procedures were necessary in group A, while 16 procedures were performed in group B. We did not observe any difference between the two groups in terms of CD34+ cells/μmll in the peripheral blood (117 vs 78: p=NS), whereas in the aphereses product we found a significant difference between the two groups of patients in terms of CD34+ cells (6.41 vs 2.89 × 106/Kg/bw: p=.009), CFU-GM(82.5 VS 52.3 × 104/Kg/bw: p=.04). Interestingly, we noted a different distribution of CD34+/33-cells between the 2 groups (mean value 39% vs 65%: p<.05), whereas we did not find any differences regarding CD34+...