Immune Recovery after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation following Flu-TBI versus TLI-ATG Conditioning

Purpose: A conditioning regimen for allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) combining total lymphoid irradiation (TLI) plus anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) has been develop to induce graft-versus-tumor effects without graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Experimental Design: We compared immune recovery in 53 patients included in a phase II randomized study comparing nonmyeloablative HCT following either fludarabine plus 2 Gy total body irradiation (TBI arm, n=28) or 8 Gy TLI plus anti-thymocyte globulin (TLI arm, n=25). Results: In comparison to TBI patients, TLI patients had a similarly low 6-month incidence of grade II-IV acute GVHD, a lower incidence of moderate/severe chronic GVHD (P=0.02), a higher incidence of CMV reactivation (P<0.001), and a higher incidence of relapse (P=0.01). While recovery of total CD8+ T cells was similar in the two groups, with median CD8+ T cell counts reaching the normal values 40-60 days after allo-HCT, TLI patients had lower percentages of naïve CD8 T cells. Median CD4+ T cell counts did not reach the lower limit of normal values the first year after allo-HCT in the two groups. Further, CD4+ T cell counts were significantly lower in TLI than in TBI patients the first 6 months after transplantation. Interestingly, while median absolute regulatory T cell (Treg) counts were comparable in TBI and TLI patients, Treg/naïve CD4+ T cell ratios were significantly higher in TLI than in TBI patients the 2 first years after transplantation. Conclusions: Immune recovery differs substantially between these two conditioning regimens possibly explaining the different clinical outcomes observed (NCT00603954).