Ahmet SARICI, Emin KAYA, İrfan KUKU, Mehmet Ali ERKURT, İlhami BERBER, Emine HIDAYET, Gökhan Vakkas ÇETİN
İstanbul Medical Journal - 2026;27(3):268-274
Introduction: Lymphomas are heterogeneous hematological malignancies, and despite effective frontline therapies, a subset of individuals develops relapsed or refractory disease. Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) remains the standard approach; however, outcomes are poor after relapse. Allogeneic HSCT (Allo-HSCT) offers a potentially curative graft-vs.-lymphoma effect, but its use has declined due to toxicity and the emergence of novel therapies. Thus, its role in modern lymphoma management remains to be elucidated. Methods: This retrospective investigation was performed at a single center. Patients with hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and non-HL who had undergone Allo-HSCT between January 2008 and May 2025 were evaluated for clinical characteristics, treatment outcomes, and survival parameters. A total of 25 patients were included in the study. Results: Among the evaluated variables, only febrile neutropenia (FEN) was significantly associated with a higher mortality and shorter overall survival (OS), while other clinical and demographic factors showed no significant association. CD34+ cell dose demonstrated limited predictive value for mortality (area under the curve: 0.654); the cohort's median OS was 6 months. Conclusion: FEN emerged as the only clinical factor significantly correlated with increased mortality and with inferior OS, whereas other demographic and transplantation-related variables had no significant impact. CD34+ cell dose demonstrated limited discriminative ability in predicting mortality, suggesting that post-transplant infectious complications may play a pivotal role in patient outcomes.
