We studied the incidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, clinical outcomes, and complications in 39 recipients of alemtuzumab-containing conditioning-stem cell transplantation, who were classified into two groups based on the median dose (35 mg) of alemtuzumab. All the recipients and donors were CMV-seropositive before transplantation. The median survival duration was 321 days (range, 46-1098 days) and the 2-year survival rate was 47.8%. The probability of nonrelapse mortality at 100 days and 2 years was 14.6% and 31.2%, respectively. The cumulative incidence of Grade II-IV acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) at Day 100 was 21.8%. The overall incidence of chronic GVHD (cGVHD) was 28.6%, including a 17.9% incidence of extensive cGVHD. The cumulative incidence of CMV antigenemia was 68.0%. There were no statistical differences in the engraftment, acute and cGVHD, relapse, CMV antigenemia, and overall survival (OS) between the two groups. Yet, the nonrelapse mortality (NRM) was significantly lower for the low-dose group (5.9% vs. 51.7%, P = 0.010). The present study showed that alemtuzumab was effective for GVHD prevention, yet caused a relatively high incidence of CMV antigenemia, regardless of the dose. Thus, a low dose of alemtuzumab (< or = 35 mg) would seem to be preferable in an allogeneic SCT setting when both the recipient and the donor are CMV seropositive.
Copyright 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.