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Survival outcomes between haploidentical stem cell transplantation and chemotherapy for blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 60, pages 568–572 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) is an aggressive and rare hematological malignancy with poor clinical outcomes. Stem cell transplantation helps to achieve long-term survival in adults. However, the benefit of haploidentical stem cell transplantation (HID-SCT) versus chemotherapy is unclear with BPDCN. We retrospectively analyzed 32 patients diagnosed with BPDCN including 15 who underwent HID-SCT and 17 who only received chemotherapy. The median age was 52 (range, 19–78) years. The ratio of male/female was 2.2. Skin, bone marrow and lymph node were the most three common sites of disease involvement. Compared with the chemotherapy group, patients in the HID-SCT group had significantly better progression-free survival (PFS; median, 7 months versus not reached, P < 0.001) and overall survival (OS; median, 13 months versus not reached, P < 0.001). The 4-year rates for PFS and OS in transplant patients were 74% (95% Confidence Interval [CI], 47, 100%) and 93% (79, 100%), respectively, compared to 0 in non-transplant patients. In conclusion, our results demonstrated HID-SCT could provide long-term remissions in BPDCN patients.

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Fig. 1: Survival outcomes of patients.
Fig. 2: Progression-free survival and overall survival according to haploidentical stem cell transplantation (HID-SCT).

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

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Acknowledgements

RPG acknowledges support from the UK National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre. We thank all of the faculty members who participated in these studies.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Jian Zhou, Fengrong Wang.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peking University People’s Hospital, Peking University Institute of Hematology, National Clinical Research Center for Hematologic Disease, Beijing Key Laboratory of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, Beijing, China

    Jian Zhou, Fengrong Wang, Shenmiao Yang, Yuanyuan Zhang, Yang Liu, Ting Zhao, Yuqian Sun, Shen Zhang, Xiaodong Mo, Huan Chen, Pan Suo, Lei Wen, Jinsong Jia, Jing Wang & Jin Lu

  2. Centre for Hematology, Department of Immunology and Inflammation, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK

    Robert Peter Gale

  3. Collaborative Innovation Center of Hematology, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, China

    Jin Lu

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  1. Jian Zhou
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Contributions

JL designed the study. JZ, FRW, SMY and YL analyzed the data. JZ, JL, RPG, YL and XDM prepared the typescript. YYZ, TZ, YQS, SZ, HZ, HC, PS, LW, JSJ and JW provided and collected the clinical data. All authors took responsibility for the content and agreed to submit for publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jin Lu.

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Competing interests

RPG is a consultant to Antengene Biotech LLC; Medical Director, FFF Enterprises Inc.; A speaker for Janssen Pharma and Hengrui Pharma; Board of Directors: Russian Foundation for Cancer Research Support and Scientific Advisory Board, StemRad Ltd.

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Zhou, J., Wang, F., Yang, S. et al. Survival outcomes between haploidentical stem cell transplantation and chemotherapy for blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm. Bone Marrow Transplant 60, 568–572 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-025-02528-y

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