Patient characteristics
Baseline patient characteristics in the two cohorts are summarized in Table 1. Among the 83 analyzed patients, 64 underwent the ordinarily scheduled conditioning regimen and 19 had their conditioning regimen interrupted. The mean number of interrupted days was 1.4 days, and the interval during TBI was set for eight out of 19 patients with interrupted conditioning. The median age at HCT in the scheduled group was 9.5 years old (a range of 1.5–19.9), and 10.9 years old (range, 3.5–19.5) in the interrupted group.
No significant differences between the groups were detected in the stage at transplantation (P = 0.721). TBI combined with etoposide and cyclophosphamide was the most frequently used regimen in this study. The type of conditioning regimen adopted and the drug used in conditioning were also not significantly different between the two groups (P = 0.537 and P = 0.803, respectively).
Regarding transplantation status, cord blood grafts were occasionally utilized. This procedure was mostly used for unrelated donor grafts and the minority of HLA-matched grafts in this study. The type of graft source was statistically well matched between the two groups (P = 0.660). Regarding the drugs used for GVHD prophylaxis, tacrolimus was used more frequently in the interrupted group than in the scheduled group (P = 0.022).