Autologous peripheral blood stem cell mobilization following dose-adjusted cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone chemotherapy alone or in combination with rituximab in treating high-risk non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

BACKGROUND: The regimen of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisolone (CHOP) is an efficient treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). This study aimed to assess the efficacy and toxicity of dose-adjusted CHOP alone or in combination with rituximab (R-CHOP) by examining the stem cell mobilization in NHL patients. Factors affecting the collection of CD34(+) cells were also explored. METHODS: Our retrospective study included 39 patients eligible for autologous stem cell transplantation: 14 patients who expressed CD20 and were financially eligible received R-CHOP for autologous peripheral blood stem cell (APBSC) mobilization; the remaining 25 patients received CHOP. RESULTS: The median CD34(+) cell yield was 7.01 × 10(6) cells/kg body weight (range 1.49–28.39 × 10(6) cells/kg body weight), with only two patients failing to meet the target CD34(+) cell harvest of ≥2.0 × 10(6) cells/kg body weight. The median number of apheresis procedures per patient was 1 (range 1–3). The APBSC mobilization yield of the CHOP group appeared to be higher than that of the R-CHOP group (P = 0.005), whereas the success rate was similar between groups. R-CHOP elevated the complete response (CR) rate in B cell lymphoma patients as compared with CHOP (P = 0.01). No significant differences in toxicity or engraftment were observed between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrated that dose-adjusted CHOP chemotherapy effectively mobilized APBSCs in NHL patients and that the addition of rituximab to dose-adjusted CHOP chemotherapy elevated the CR rate for patients with B-cell lymphoma.