Clinical Outcomes of Matched Unrelated Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant Patients: Low Dose ATG Vs. No ATG
Authors: Mountjoy Luke , Kunze Katie L. , Jain Tania , Slack James L. , Khera Nandita , Leis Jose F. , Noel Pierre , Sproat Lisa Z. , Palmer Jeanne 
Published: October 2019

Introduction - Allogenic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) remains potential curative treatment for hematologic malignancies. Anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) is an immunoglobulin directed to human T lymphocytes, and may decrease the risk of chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD). Use of ATG has been associated with higher incidence of disease relapse and infection.

While the optimal dosing of ATG has not been well established, higher doses (≥ 7.5 mg/kg) have a stronger association with infection and disease relapse. Our institution utilizes low dose rabbit ATG at 2.5 mg/kg for in-vivo T-cell depletion. In this retrospective study we evaluated outcomes in patients receiving low dose ATG to those not undergoing in-vivo T-cell depletion with the hypothesis that low dose ATG protects against cGVHD without impacting infectious complications or relapse.

Patients and Methods - We evaluated all patients with 8/8 HLA Matched unrelated Donors (MUD) undergoing HCT between 2007 and 2016. Patients were divided in to two cohorts, those receiving low dose ATG to those that did not. Both cohorts received standard GVHD prophylaxis with calcineurin inhibition plus methotrexate or mycophenolate. The primary outcome was overall survival (OS). Secondary outcomes included relapse free survival (RFS), EBV reactivation, CMV reactivation, CMV disease, invasive fungal infection, incidence of acute GVHD (aGVHD) grades III-IV, and moderate to severe cGVHD. A subset analysis was performed to assess relapse free survival (RFS) in patients with myeloid malignancies.

Descriptive statistics were utilized for baseline characteristics; and a series of univariate and multivariant Cox proportional hazard regression models were conducted for outcomes of interest. A Kaplan-Meier (K-M) survival curve was used to depict probability of survival by ATG cohort.

Results - We identified 209 patients, with 129 (62%) in ATG group and 80 (38%) in non-ATG group. At baseline, there were no differences in the age at transplant, sex, ABO incompatibility, or performance status. The ATG cohort had fewer low disease risk index (DRI) patients and more patients with intermediate or high DRI (2.4%, 64.6%, 28.3% vs 18.4%, 51.3%, 23.7% respectively), and Fisher's Exact test showed that this difference between ATG groups was statistically significant, p = <0.001. The ATG cohort also had significantly different rates of myeloablative (MA) conditioning regimens from the non-ATG cohort with fewer receiving MA (31% vs 53% p < 0.01).

No statistically significant differences in OS were observed between the two ATG cohorts at up to 5 years post-transplant (p=0.35; Fig. 1). The primary predictor of OS was DRI very high vs low [HR 6.0 (2-18) p < 0.01]. The ATG exposed cohort had significantly lower risk of cGVHD [HR 0.17 (0.08-0.37) p = <0.001]. There was no difference in risk of death from relapse, incidence of EBV or CMV reactivation, CMV disease, invasive fungal infection, or grade III-IV acute GVHD. Low dose ATG was not associated with inferior RFS, including in subset analysis of patients with myeloid malignancies [HR 0.85 (0.5-1.4) p = 0.549].

Conclusions - Our study shows no significant difference in survival or death from relapse for patients who receive ATG. Importantly, patients receiving ATG had a lower rate of cGVHD with no increased rates of infectious complications. Low dose ATG did not appear to increase the risk of relapse, even when considering only myeloid malignancies. These findings suggest that low dose ATG can improve cGVHD with no impact on survival, relapse, or infectious complications. Additional prospective trials using low dose ATG compared to no ATG are warranted.

Disclosures

Palmer: Novartis: Research Funding.