Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation - Blog Science Connections

Chemopurging of Autologous Bone Marrow With
Mafosfamide in Adult Acute Leukemia
L. Douay, J.-P. Laporte, J.-Y. Mary, M. Lopez, A. Najman,
and N.-C. Gorin
Following the initial report on the efficacy of cyclophosphamide (CY) derivatives
in eliminating residual marrow leukemic cells in brown Norway rat myelocytic
leukemia model (1), we studied the in vitro effect of Asta Z 7557 (International
Nonproprietary Name mafosfamide), kindly provided by Professor N. Brock,
Asta-Werke, Bielefeld, Federal Republic of Germany on human leukemic and
normal hematopoietic stem cells (2). We began a therapeutic trial using
autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) with marrow incubated with
this drug as consolidation therapy in adult patients who had acute leukemia in
remission. The two goals were 1) to treat each patient's marrow with the highest
possible dose of mafosfamide for maximum antileukemic activity, which would
also spare enough normal stem cells for successful engraftment; and 2) to
assess the potential benefit of high-dose consolidation followed by ABMT with
marrow cleansed as described above, in terms of duration of remission and
disease-free survival.
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