Hematopoietic progenitor cell count as a potential quantitative marker in apheresis products during allogeneic stem cell transplantation

Abstract Background The quality and quantity of hematopoietic stem cells in apheresis products are essential to the success of peripheral blood hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (PB‐HSCT). While the flow cytometry measurement of CD34+ cells as a golden standard for stem cell count is labor and cost‐intensive, hematopoietic progenitor cell number evaluated by XN Sysmex series automated hematology analyzers (XN‐HPC) is suggested as a surrogate marker. Materials and methods We evaluated the correlation and consistency of XN‐HPC and CD34+ cell count in apheresis samples from both allogeneic donors and autologous patients during PB‐HSCT. Results Good correlation and consistency were observed between XN‐HPC and CD34+ cell counts in harvests collected from healthy donors ( R = .852) rather than autologous patients ( R = .375). Subgroup analysis showed that the correlation was especially poor when autologous patients used plerixafor as an additional mobilizer or were diagnosed with multiple myeloma (MM). In the setting of allogeneic transplantation, the correlation coefficients were even better in samples from non‐first‐round apheresis ( R = .951), with high white blood cell (WBC) counts ( R = .941), or having successful engraftment within 2 weeks ( R = .895). ROC analysis suggested that an optimal XN‐HPC count of 1127 × 10 6 /L best predicted a sufficient yield of CD34 + stem cells, with diagnostic sensitivity and specificity being 92% and 72%, respectively (AUC = 0.852). Conclusions XN‐HPC is a sufficient quantitative marker for stem cell assessment of harvest yield in allogeneic but not autologous HSCT.