Managing Stem Cell Apheresis Effectively

• Managing Stem Cell Apheresis Effectively

AUTHOR(S)

Sysmex Europe GmbH

SUMMARY

Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a treatment that involves suppressing a patient’s haematopoietic system by chemotherapy or radiotherapy and replacing it either with stem cells previously harvested from this patient or with cells from another individual (donor). One of the benefits of this treatment is that it lets one use more aggressive treatment in patients with resistant tumours. In addition, the transplanted cells themselves may have a curative effect on the patient’s haematological malignancies.

The advances in the clinical protocols for HSCT have led to a significant increase in the number of transplantations performed worldwide. The millionth HSCT was performed in 2013. Traditionally
haematopoietic stem cells have been harvested from bone marrow. Nowadays, peripheral blood enriched with mobilised stem cells is used several times more frequently than bone marrow. Some 40,000 peripheral blood stem cell transplants are performed in Europe annually.

Peripheral blood has several advantages over bone marrow as a source of stem cells. Collecting haematopoietic stem cells from peripheral blood is less invasive than sourcing them from bone marrow and does not require anaesthesia. Neutrophil and platelet reconstitution, the markers of successful post-transplantation engraftment, occurs earlier after peripheral blood stem cell transplantation than after bone marrow transplantation. Cord blood haematopoietic stem cells are also used to a smaller extent, usually in children, or in patients where a compatible bone marrow
donor or mobilised peripheral blood stem cells could not be found. It is predicted that peripheral blood will continue to be the major source of haematopoietic stem cells for HSCT in the future, and that the annual number of transplantations will continue to increase.

Apheresis is a procedure required to collect stem cells from peripheral blood and is a part of peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. The stem cell transplantation process can be summarised in distinct phases such as mobilisation, apheresis (collection), preparing the product for storage, infusing the transplant, and engraftment and recovery. This white paper focuses on the implementation of the ‘XN Stem Cells’ mode of the XN analyser for optimising the peripheral blood stem cell apheresis process.

NOTE(S)

Design and specifications may be subject to change due to further product development.
Changes are confirmed by their appearance on a newer document and verification according to its date of issue.