Thymogen (ATG) before stem cell transplant
The regimen of busulafan. fludarabine and thymogen has been very quickly adopted and now studies of it as a base for adding additonal drugs have been initiated. However, there is room for caution. Thymoglobulin added to busulfan and fludarabine to conditioning before an allogeneic stem cell transplant may reduce the incidence and severity of graft versus host disease, especially in matched unrelated graft, but it can potentially promote higher reapse rates. In a retrospective review, Bredeson found exactly such an outcome. A recent study(McCune et al) confirmed low GVHD rates for this conditioning regimen and concluded: “The low rates of GvHD, particularly in its chronic form, were encouraging, and further biomarker studies are warranted to optimize the fludarabine/Tbusulfan/rATG conditioning regimen.” It standas to reason that mores studies on relapse rates should be performed before wide scale adoption of the addition of thymogen to busulfan-fludarabine.
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