Reassessing blood product irradiation in haploidentical transplantation: a single-center perspective

Abstract

Objectives: The main objective was to investigate the incidence of transfusion-associated graft-versus-host disease (TA-GVHD) in patients who underwent haploidentical hematopoietic cell transplants (HCT) and received non-irradiated leukoreduced blood components. The secondary objective was to describe our leukodepletion results in blood products obtained by the filters employed at our center.Study Design and Methods: Clinical records from 2018 to 2023 were retrospectively analyzed, along with a prospective evaluation of residual leukocytes in blood components from June to November 2023 in order to confirm effectivity of our leukodepletion method.Results: 150 patients were included, no cases of TA-GVHD were reported after using non-irradiated blood products. The incidence of grade 3–4 acute and moderate-severe chronic GVHD was 12.7% (n = 19) and 2.7% (n = 4), respectively. The cumulative incidence of death was 39.3% (n = 52) with a 3.7-year overall survival (CI 95%, 3.3- 4.1 years). Leukodepletion analysis showed a reduction of 99.93% in platelet concentrates and 99.98% in packed red blood cells.Discussion: TA-GVHD in HCT remains a concern traditionally mitigated using blood product irradiation. Recent evidence obtained in favor of leukoreduction techniques question this need, especially in resource-limited settings.Conclusion: These findings support leukoreduction as a primary TA-GVHD preventive measure,along with the advantage in cost reduction.

Keywords

• TA-GVHD
• haploidentical HCT
• non-irradiated leukodepleted blood products