Clinical studies have been performed to evaluate the potential of ex vivo expanded cells in cancer patients receiving autologous PBPC or allogeneic cord blood (CB) to support high dose chemotherapy. C 34+ cells were cultured for 10 days in 800 mL of defined media (Amgen Inc.) with 100 ng/ml each of rhSCF, rhG-CSF and rhMGDF in lL teflon bags (American Fluoroseal) Patients (N = 21) transplanted with expanded PBPC cells recovered neutrophil counts (ANC>500/µl) as early as day 4 post transplant with a median of 7 days (range 4 to 14 days).
In comparison, our historical control group of patients (N= 100) had a median time to neutrophil engraftment of 9 days (range 7 to 24 days).