Results for the PIPER Phase 4 study of psoralen-UVA pathogen reduced platelets (PRPC) (Cerus Corporation) following transfusion were recently presented at the 2021 Annual AABB meeting. In this prospective, open-label, two-arm study at 15 U.S. hospitals, 1068 hematology-oncology platelet-dependent patients (mean age, 57.0 years) received PRPC, and 1223 comparable patients (mean age, 50.6 years) received conventional platelet concentrates (CPC). Patients who received PRPC were less likely to have severe pulmonary injury; 2.9% of patients who received PRPC required mechanical ventilation compared to 4.6% of patients who received CPC (p=0.039). Furthermore, other clinically significant adverse events were comparable in both study arms. RBC utilization was similar, and no differences in safety were observed. However, data on increases in platelet count increment were not assessed. Preliminary results from the PIPER study suggest that PRPC are safe for routine clinical use in hematology-oncology patients.
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