Early treatment with ganciclovir to prevent cytomegalovirus disease after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

BACKGROUND: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. We conducted a controlled trial of ganciclovir for the early treatment of CMV infection in asymptomatic recipients of bone marrow transplants whose surveillance cultures for CMV became positive. METHODS: Bone marrow--allograft recipients who were seropositive for CMV antibodies or who received seropositive marrow were screened for CMV excretion by culture of throat swabs, blood, urine, or bronchoalveolar-lavage fluid. In this double-blind trial, 72 patients who had marrow engraftment and were excreting virus were randomly assigned to receive either placebo or ganciclovir (5 mg per kilogram of body weight twice a day for one week, followed by 5 mg per kilogram per day) for the first 100 days after transplantation. Patients were followed for the development of biopsy-confirmed CMV disease, ganciclovir-related toxicity, and survival. RESULTS: Between assignment to the study drug and day 100 after transplantation, CMV disease developed in only 1 of the 37 patients assigned to receive ganciclovir (3 percent), but in 15 of the 35 patients assigned to receive placebo (43 percent, P less than 0.00001). The ganciclovir recipients had rapid suppression of virus excretion; 85 percent had negative cultures after one week of treatment, as compared with 44 percent of the placebo group (P = 0.001). The principal toxic reaction was neutropenia; 11 ganciclovir recipients had an absolute neutrophil count below 0.75 x 10(9) per liter, as compared with 3 placebo recipients (P = 0.052). Treatment was discontinued in 11 ganciclovir recipients and 1 placebo recipient because of neutropenia (P = 0.003). After treatment was stopped, the neutrophil count recovered in all patients. Overall survival was significantly greater in the ganciclovir group than in the placebo group both 100 days and 180 days after transplantation (P = 0.041 and 0.027, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Early treatment with ganciclovir in patients with positive surveillance cultures reduces the incidence of CMV disease and improves survival after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

Ganciclovir prophylaxis of cytomegalovirus infection and disease in allogeneic bone marrow transplant recipients. Results of a placebo-controlled, double-blind trial.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of ganciclovir for prevention of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and disease. DESIGN: A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial. SETTING: University-affiliated bone marrow transplant center. PATIENTS: Cytomegalovirus-seropositive allogeneic bone marrow transplant recipients. INTERVENTIONS: Random assignment to receive either a placebo or ganciclovir at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg body weight every 8 hours for 1 week before transplant and then at a dose of 6 mg/kg once per day, Monday through Friday, after transplant when the post-transplant neutrophil count reached 1.0 x 10(9)/L. MEASUREMENTS: Cytomegalovirus infection (positive culture, seroconversion, positive histologic findings), CMV disease (pneumonia, gastroenteritis, the wasting syndrome), and study-drug toxicity. RESULTS: Cytomegalovirus infection developed in 25 of 45 placebo patients (56%) but in only 8 of 40 ganciclovir patients (20%) (P < 0.001). Cytomegalovirus disease may also have occurred less often in the ganciclovir patients (4 of 40 patients [10%] versus 11 of 45 patients [24%]; P = 0.09). The probability of CMV disease occurring within the first 120 days after transplantation was 0.29 among the placebo patients but only 0.12 among ganciclovir patients (P = 0.06). Reversible neutropenia was the only appreciable toxicity related to ganciclovir and required interruption of the study drug after transplant in 25 of 43 ganciclovir patients (58%) and in 13 of 47 placebo patients (28%) (P = 0.005). Overall survival was similar in both the placebo patients (29 of 45 [64%]) and ganciclovir patients (28 of 40 [70%]; P > 0.2). CONCLUSIONS: Prophylactic ganciclovir, started before transplant and continued after recovery of the post-transplant neutrophil count, reduces the incidence and severity of CMV infection in CMV-sero-positive bone marrow transplant recipients but is frequently associated with neutropenia.