Chemotherapy for patients with lymphoid malignancies

Prof. Christian Chabannon, of the Institute Paoli Calmettes, Marseille, France, talks about chemotherapy treatment for patients with lymphoid malignancies. Often, for many patients, high dose chemotherapy is supported with autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Prior to delivering the chemotherapy, stem cells and proginator cells are collected from the blood. This will then be proceeded by mobilisation treatment, which increases the number of these cells. Some patients however do not respond appropriately to mobilisation and for these patients, the mobilisation regimen might be needed to change. One of the tools to help the mobilisation process, is a drug called plerixafor that is quite efficient when combined with the drug G-CSF. However, Prof. Chabannon explains that this combination raises the issue of its high cost. Recorded at the annual meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) in Marseille, France.