HELPER T CELLS (CD3~+/CD4~+) WITHIN THE AUTOLOGOUSPERIPHERAL BLOOD STEM CELL GRAFT POSITIVELY CORRELATEWITH EVENT FREE SURVIVAL OF MULTIPLE MYELOMA PATIENTS

摘要

High dose chemotherapy followed by autologousblood stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is standard treat-ment for younger patients with symptomatic multiplemyeloma (MM). The lymphocytes in the microenviron-ment of MM cells are an essential part of the patho-physiology of this incurable disease [1]. It has beenpreviously shown that lymphocytes within the graft arelinked to the survival of MM patients [2]. However, onlylittle is known which lymphocyte subsets are responsiblefor this tumor protective effect. In the presented studywe have analyzed the lymphocytes by immunopheno-typing in the peripheral blood (PB) and in the apheresisproduct (AP) of 41 consecutive patients.