Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation - Blog Science Connections

High-Dose Carmustine and Transplantation for Gliomas 551
Table 2. Patients' Characteristics
Number 15
Age in years Median 50.9
Range 27-64
Gender Women 10
Men 5
Performance status
World Health Organization scale Grade 1 9
Grade 2 5
Grade 3 1
Histologic tumor Astrocytoma 3 4
type Astrocytoma 4
or glioblastoma 9
Depending on the feasibility or infeasibility of surgery, two treatment
strategies were used (Table 1).
Strategy 1: Surgery Followed by Chemotherapy
Cytoreductive surgery was performed on six patients on day 0. The first
course of chemotherapy was administered on day 3 after histologic confirmation.
The drugs (Table 1) were administered in the following fashion:
teniposide, diluted in 500 ml of 5% dextrose, over an 8-hour infusion;
carmustine, in a 5-minute intravenous short infusion through a peripheral
venous access; procarbazine, per os.
The autologous bone marrow harvesting was scheduled between days
21 and 24, as previously reported (11), with 1 x 10 8 mononuclear cells/kg
harvested, and a buffy coat performed to reduce the volume to 100-150 ml.
Then the buffy coat was mixed with 4% albumin in a 600-ml Travenol bag
(Travenol Laboratories, Norfolk, England) and stored at approximately 8° C.
On the afternoon of marrow harvest, the high-dose chemotherapy (800
mg/m 2
of carmustine) was administered diluted in 100 ml of 5% dextrose in a
2-hour infusion using a peripheral venous access. The marrow was
centrifuged at 1000