Comparison between anti-thymocyte globulin and alemtuzumab and the possible impact of KIR-ligand mismatch in melphalan/fludarabine dose-reduced conditioning followed by HLA-matched and mismatched unrelated SCT in patients with multiple myeloma

We compared anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG-Fresenius median dose 60 mg/kg: n= 48) with alemtuzumab (Campath-1H 100mg: n=25) in 73 patients with multiple myeloma, who underwent dose-reduced conditioning with melphalan and fludarabine, followed by allogeneic stem cell transplantation from matched (n=63) or mismatched (n=10) unrelated donors. Patients of the ATG group had higher age (median 50 vs 47 years, p=0.05), more prior high-dose chemotherapies (p