Incidence, features, and outcomes of cytomegalovirus DNAemia in unmanipulated haploidentical allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with post‐transplantation cyclophosphamide

Abstract

Background: Conflicting data have been published as to the risk of cytomegalovirus (CMV) DNAemia and CMV disease in patients undergoing haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (haplo-HSCT) with post-transplantation cyclophosphamide. Methods: We conducted a multicenter retrospective study including 118 patients subjected to unmanipulated haplo-HSCT to further clarify this issue. An historic cohort comprising 165 patients undergoing other transplant modalities (HLA-matched related, matched unrelated or mismatched) was built for comparison purposes. Plasma CMV DNA monitoring was performed using two highly sensitive real-time PCR assays. Results: Overall, the cumulative incidence of CMV DNAemia, recurrent CMV DNAemia, and CMV DNAemia requiring preemptive antiviral therapy in patients undergoinghaplo-HSCT was 63.9%, 34.9%, and 50.1%, respectively. These figures were rathercomparable for other transplant modalities (P = .22, P = .13 and P = .72, respectively).A trend toward longer duration of episodes and shorter CMV DNA doubling timeswas observed in haplo-HSCT patients in comparison with other transplant modalities.Furthermore, median CMV DNA peak load was significantly higher in haplo-HSCTs(P = .008), yet overall mortality by day 180 and 365 was the same across comparisongroups. There were five cases of CMV disease, and all occurred in haplo-HSCT patients. This latter observation is worrying and merits further investigation. Conclusions: The incidence of initial and recurrent episodes of CMV DNAemia eitherrequiring or not antiviral therapy in unmanipulated haplo-HSCT was comparable toother transplant modalities in our cohort.