Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation - Blog Science Connections

Double CInpurged Autologous Bone Marrow
Transplantation in 41 Patients With
Acute Leukemias
D. Maraninchi, D. Blaise, G. Michel, M. H. Gaspard, A. M. Stoppa,
J. A. Gastaut, H. Perrimond, N. Tubiana, G. Sebahoun, G. Lepeu,
G. Nouakovitch, J. Camerlo, and Y. Carcassonne
Following the results obtained by allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in the
treatment of acute leukemias, autologous bone marrow transplantation
(ABMT) became a therapeutic approach, alternative to similarly intensive
radiochemotherapies, for patients who had no marrow donors.
The limits of such methods could be the inability of the conditioning
regimen to kill the last leukemic cell, the reinfusion of leukemic cells with the
marrow transplant, and the absence of an allogeneic graft-versus-leukemia
reaction. Because of melphalan's good record of tolerance and antitumoral
effects, we used it as a conditioning regimen for several malignant conditions
(1-3). After preliminary experience with one ABMT (4), we considered that a
second course of high-dose chemotherapy followed by another ABMT could
yield a superconsolidation useful for some patients with leukemia. Further, by
collecting the marrow after the first transplantation, we could presume that the
leukemic contamination was minimal at that time; we decided, therefore, to use
this second marrow transplantation after a new conditioning regimen which
was given to the recipient as a last therapeutic intensification. We report here
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