Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation - Blog Science Connections

Double Autografting as Potential Curative Therapy
for Acute Leukemia
Anthony H. Goldstone, John G. Gribben, David C. Linch, and
John D. M. Richards for the Bloomsbury Transplant Group
We applied the same chemotherapeutic treatment protocol to 62 patients with
acute leukemia, using combination chemotherapy for bone marrow ablation.
The response to high-dose chemotherapy and autologous bone marrow
transplantation (ABMT) and its associated morbidity and mortality were
compared in 35 patients with acute myeloblasts leukemia (AML) and 27
patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
Eleven AML patients and seven ALL patients received second autografts
during first remission, whereas two AML and six ALL patients underwent
second autografts after that period.
PATIENTS AND TREATMENT PROTOCOLS
Induction remission for AML is based on Medical Research Council protocols,
Medical Research Council 9 for AML and C1KALL IX and CIKALL X for ALL.
Marrow remission was established in each patient by morphologic lightmicroscopic
examination of aspirate taken within 5 days of the harvest. Bone
marrow was harvested, processed, and cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen as
described previously (1). No ex vivo manipulation of marrow was performed in
an attempt to eliminate minimal residual disease.
Ill