Is there any difference in PBPC mobilization between cyclophosphamide plus G-CSF and G-CSF alone in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma?

We attempted to analyze whether the use of high-dose cyclophosphamide (CTX 7g/m ², group A) plus hematopoietic growth factor (G-CSF) or G-CSF alone (10 μg/Kg, group B) as a mobilizing regimen, could result in harvesting different numbers of CD34+ cells, committed progenitors and CD34+ cells subsets. The number of CD34+ cells considered as the target for each high-dose chemotherapy was ≥ 2 × 10 ⁶ /Kg/bw. Fifteen leukaphereses procedures were necessary in group A, while 16 procedures were performed in group B. We did not observe any difference between the two groups in terms of CD34+ cells/μl in the peripheral blood (117 vs 78; p=NS), whereas in the aphereses product we found a significant difference between the two groups of patients in terms of CD34+ cells (6.41 vs 2.89 × 10 ⁶/Kg/bw; p=.009), CFU-GM (82.5 vs 52.3 × 10 ⁴/Kg/bw; p=.04). Interestingly, we noted a different distribution of CD34+/33- cells between the 2 groups (mean value 39% vs 65%; p