A prospective single-center study on CNI-free GVHD prophylaxis with everolimus plus mycophenolate mofetil in allogeneic HCT

We report a single-center phase I/II trial exploring the combination of everolimus (EVE) and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) as calcineurin inhibitor (CNI)-free GVHD prophylaxis for 24 patients with hematologic malignancies and indication for allogeneic HCT after a high dose or reduced-intensity ablative conditioning. The study was registered as EudraCT-2007-001892-12 and Clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00856505. All patients received PBSC grafts and no graft failure occurred. 7/24 patients (29%) developed acute grades III and IV GVHD (aGVHD), 16/19 evaluable patients (84%) developed chronic GVHD (cGVHD) of all grades, and 6/19 (31.6%) of higher grades. No severe toxicities related to study medication were observed. The median follow-up of all surviving patients is 2177 days. The 3-year OS was 45.2% (95% CI: 27.4–61.4%), and the 3-year PFS was 38.7% (95% CI: 22.0–55.1%). The cumulative incidence of relapse at 1 year and 3 year was 25% (95% CI: 12.5–50.0%), and 33.3% (95% CI: 18.9–58.7%), the cumulative incidence of NRM at 1 year and 3 years was 20.8% (95%CI: 9.6–45.5%), and 29.2% (95%CI: 15.6–54.4%), respectively. The utilization of CNI-free GVHD prophylaxis with EVE+MMF resulted in high rates of acute and chronic GVHD. Therefore, we do not recommend a CNI-free combination of mTOR inhibitor EVE with MMF as the sole GVHD prophylaxis. In subsequent studies, this combination should be modified, e.g., with further components like post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) or anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00277-021-04487-y.