These findings show that CD34+33- cells are readily collected in most cancer patients and significantly influence engraftment kinetics and transfusion requirements in autologous blood stem-cell recipients. CD34+33- cell quantity of the blood stem-cell graft appears to be a more reliable predictor of hematopoietic recovery rates than total CD34+ cell quantity in this setting.

The incidence and clinical relevance of tumor cells contaminating the stem cell products of patients with advanced breast cancer treated with high-dose chemotherapy is uncertain because prior studies used small sample sizes and lacked standardization of the immunocytochemistry (ICC) detection method used. We evaluated blood stem cell and bone marrow samples obtained from 535 women with metastatic breast cancer who received high-dose chemotherapy and unmanipulated mobilized blood stem cell support. Of the patients tested, 20.6% and 26.3% had blood stem cell and bone marrow contamination, respectively. Blood stem cell contamination was significantly more frequent in patients with marrow involvement than in patients without marrow involvement (35% versus 18.4%, respectively; P = .009). In fact, according to multivariate analysis results, marrow involvement was the only significant predictor for blood stem cell product contamination. Patients without marrow involvement who had fewer apheresis procedures were also observed to have a significantly lower incidence rate of blood stem cell contamination than patients who had more procedures (P < or = .008), and patients who received combined chemotherapy and cytokine mobilization therapy had less contamination than patients who received cytokine alone (P = .0001). Combined mobilization therapy appears to be associated with a lower incidence of contamination as a result of fewer apheresis procedures rather than through an antitumor effect of chemotherapy (P < or = .001). Patients with ICC-negative blood stem cell products had significantly longer progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) than did patients with ICC-positive blood stem cell products (median PFS, 401 versus 291 days, respectively, P = .007; median OS, 1060 versus 697 days, P = .009) . However, multivariate analysis did not reveal any significant independent predictors of survival outcomes. Thus, further study is needed to determine if contaminating tumor cells in the stem cell products of breast cancer patients ever directly impact survival outcomes or are only indicative of residual in vivo disease in high-dose chemotherapy recipients.

BackgroundGastriccancer is a leading cause of cancer death worldwide and has significant ethnic and socioeconomic differences in distribution. The aim of this study was to compare clinicopathologic characteristics and survival between Hispanics (H) and non-Hispanic whites (NHW) with gastric cancer.MethodsWe reviewed the records of all patients diagnosed with gastric cancer between 1999 and 2013 at our institution. A total of 638 patients were studied. Demographics, tumor characteristics and survival rate were analyzed. Kaplan-Meier was used for survival analysis.ResultsThere were 101 H and 537 NHW. The median age at diagnosis was 63 years in H and 69 years in NHW. At diagnosis, 48 (48%) of H patients had stage IV disease compared with 195 (36%) of NHW (P<0.03). H were more likely to have distal cancers and poorly differentiated tumors compared to NHW (44% vs. 15%, P<0.0001; 70% vs. 50%, P<0.0002, respectively). There was a significant difference in median overall survival between the two groups, being 51 months for H (95% CI: 34.6-66.9) and 99 months for NHW (95% CI: 77.3-120.7) P<0.0001. In multivariate analysis, age (OR: 1.02, 95% CI: 1.02-1.03, P<0.0001), poor differentiation (OR: 1.21, 95% CI: 1.02-1.43, P<0.02), ethnicity (OR: 1.69, 95% CI: 1.07-2.55, P<0.02), and stage (OR: 1.95, 95% CI: 1.77-2.15, P<0.0001) were independent predictors of survival.ConclusionsH patients were diagnosed with gastric cancer at a younger age, to present with advanced disease at diagnosis, and had shorter overall survival compared to NHW.

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