Neoplasma Vol.59, No.2, p.183-190, 2012

Iron overload increases the risk of infections, veno-occlusive disease and hepatic dysfunction in post-transplant period. Our objective was to investigate the association of pre-transplant ferritin levels with complications and survival after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (alloHSCT).

We retrospectively analysed 84 patients’ data who had undergone allogeneic HSCT into two groups: patients with a serum ferritin level≥1000ng/ml, and patients with <1000 ng/ml at the time of HSCT.

Cox-regression analysis showed that pre-transplant serum ferritin levels were significantly higher in patients who had at least one infectious event compared with those who had no any infectious event in the post-transplant 100 days (p<0.023).

Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) rates were significantly higher in patients with a time-to-tx interval 12 months (p=0.002 and p=0.008 respectively). A higher risk of death was observed in high-ferritin group (hazard ratio=2.27, CI:1.01-5.09, p=0.023 for OS and hazard ratio=2.49, CI:1.12-5.53 p=0.039 for DFS). No significant effect on OS and DFS among groups was observed for variables conditioning regimen, gender and diagnosis.

Acute GVHD was more common in patients with a ferritin level ≥1000 ng /mL, but this was not statistically significant (p>0.05).

There was no statistical significance in both groups (ferritin≥1000ng /mL and ferritin0.05). Platelet and neutrophil engaftment day was not found statistically significant compared with both groups (p=0.273 and p=0.882, respectively).
Pre-transplant ferritin levels may predict poor outcomes in patients who had undergone allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.