Cardiac complications after haploidentical HLA-mismatched hematopoietic stem cell transplantation using in vivo alemtuzumab.

ABSTRACT

Alemtuzumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody directed against human CD52 with a strong lympholytic effect. We have performed unmanipulated hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) from 2- or 3-locus-mismatched family donors in 14 patients using in vivo alemtuzumab. All achieved complete donor cell engraftment and grade III-IV acute graft-versus-host disease was observed in only one patient. However, eight of the 14 patients developed grade II-IV cardiac complications according to Bearman's criteria. Next, we retrospectively analyzed the records of 142 adult patients who underwent allogeneic HSCT from 1995 to 2004 to evaluate whether the use of alemtuzumab was an independent risk factor for cardiac complications. Among several factors that increased the incidence of grade II-IV cardiac complications with at least borderline significance, a multivariate analysis identified the cumulative dose of anthracyclines (P=0.0016) and the use of alemtuzumab (P=0.0001) as independent significant risk factors. All of the cardiac complications in the alemtuzumab group were successfully treated with diuretics and/or catecholamines. Patient selection and close monitoring of cardiac function may be important in HLA-mismatched HSCT using in vivo alemtuzumab.