Porcine Anti-Lymphocyte Globulin, Cyclosporine A Plus Thrombopoietin Receptor Agonists Achieved Similar Efficacy and Survival Compared to Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Patients with Aplastic Anemia

Abstract

Background Immunosuppressive therapy (IST) with horse or rabbit anti-human thymocyte immunoglobulin (h-/r-ATG) and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are two baseline treatments for severe aplastic anemia (SAA) and transfusion-dependent non-severe aplastic anemia (TD-NSAA) patients. Addition of thrombopoietin receptor agonists (TPO-RAs) to standard IST therapy (h-/r-ATG) has greatly improved the survival of SAA, whereas porcine anti-lymphocyte globulin (p-ALG) combined with TPO-RAs still had a matter of debate. Methods We retrospectively compared the data of 48 AA patients in our center between 2020 and 2022, 23 AA patients received with p-ALG ± TPO-RAs, 25 AA patients underwent matched sibling donor (MSD-) or haploidentical (haplo-) HSCT. Results For patients in the HSCT group, the ORR was 90.9% which was significantly higher than that in the IST±TPO-RAs group (45.5%, P = 0.001) at 3 months; moreover, patients who underwent HSCT achieved faster transfusion independence, better CR rate, shorter time of recovery normal blood routine, and the percentage of normal blood routine (all P < 0.05) compared with IST±TPO-RAs group. However, the ORR were similary at 6 months in the two groups (95.5% vs 81.8% P = 0.342), with a median follow up of 19.8 months (range, 0.3–38.2 months), the 2-year FFS and OS in the two cohorts has no different. Subgroup analysis further indicated that the 2-year FFS and OS were similar between IST+TPO-RAs and haplo-HSCT subgroups, as well as in IST+TPO-RAs and MSD-HSCT cohorts. Moreover, the first-time hospitalizations were much more expensive in the HSCT group than in the IST±TPO-RAs group (402 756 vs. 292 902 yuan, P = 0.002). Conclusion P-ALG-based-IST±TPO-RAs is a good treatment option with similar FFS and OS compared to allo- HSCT for AA patients without the opportunity of HSCT.