Minimal risk of chronic renal dysfunction in marrow transplant recipients treated with cyclosporine for 6 months

Abstract

To determine whether 6 months of cyclosporine therapy is associated with chronic renal dysfunction, we evaluated serum creatinine concentrations 1 year post-transplant in 82 marrow transplant recipients randomized to receive either cyclosporine (n = 40) or methotrexate (n = 42) as graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis. Nine patients in the methotrexate group were later given cyclosporine as treatment for acute or chronic GVHD (methotrexate----cyclosporine). Cyclosporine prophylaxis was started on the day before marrow infusion, given at full doses until day 50, then gradually tapered and discontinued by day 180. Methotrexate prophylaxis was started on day 1 and given intermittently until day 102. Patients in the cyclosporine and methotrexate----cyclosporine groups had significantly higher mean serum creatinine values during the first 100 days post-transplant than methotrexate-treated patients, but by 1 year mean serum creatinine values were not significantly different between the three groups. Serum creatinine values at 1 year were also not significantly different from baseline values in each of the groups. None of the patients who had their cyclosporine discontinued by day 180 developed chronic renal dysfunction, defined as a doubling of the baseline serum creatinine at 1 year. We conclude that chronic renal dysfunction occurs rarely in marrow transplant recipients treated with 6 months of cyclosporine and when it does occur, it appears to have minimal clinical significance.