Peripheral blood stem cell harvesting in young children weighing less than 15 kg

Autologous peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplantation is crucial in pediatric cancer treatment, and tandem transplantation is beneficial in certain malignancies. Collecting PBSCs in small children with low body weight is challenging. We retrospectively analyzed data of pediatric cancer patients weighing <15 kg who underwent autologous PBSC harvesting in our hospital. Collections were performed in the pediatric intensive care unit over 2 or 3 consecutive days, to harvest sufficient stem cells (goal ≥2 × 10⁶ CD34⁺ cells/kg per apheresate). From April 2006 to August 2021, we performed 129 collections after 50 mobilizations in 40 patients, with a median age of 1.9 (range, 0.6–5.6) years and a body weight of 11.0 (range, 6.6–14.7) kg. The median CD34⁺ cells in each apheresate were 4.2 (range, 0.01–40.13) × 10⁶/kg. 78% and 56% of mobilizations achieved sufficient cell dose for single or tandem transplantation, respectively, without additional aliquoting. The preapheresis hematopoietic progenitor cell (HPC) count was highly correlated with the CD34⁺ cell yield in the apheresate (r = 0.555, P < 0.001). Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor alone was not effective for mobilization in children ≥2 years of age, even without radiation exposure. By combining the preapheresis HPC count ≥20/μL and the 3 significant host factors, including age <2 years, no radiation exposure and use of chemotherapy, the prediction rate of goal achievement was increased (area under the curve 0.787).