Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation - Blog Science Connections

A Single Institution's Experience of Autologous
Bone Marrow Transplantation
for Neuroblastoma
T. Philip, D. Frappaz, P. Biron, E. Bouffet, L. Dutou, I. Philip,
R. Pinkerton, B. Kremens, M. C. Faurot,
and M. Brunat-Mentigny
The experiences of single institutions concerning treatment of tumor are
frequently reported because of the homogeneity of clinical decisions, care,
and final evaluation. For a rare disease such as neuroblastoma, however,
referral of patients previously treated elsewhere by various modalities may
represent a bias of selection, and it may lead to false conclusions if these
patients are mixed with those referred at diagnosis at the institution. We
participate in the ongoing LMCE study of unselected stage IV patients older
than 1 year of age (1,2) but are also a referring center for bone marrow
transplantation in this disease. Our report here concerns 29 patients with
poor-prognosis neuroblastoma (patients referred at relapse were excluded)
who received grafts in Lyons since 1983 and the 4 patients with stage IV
neuroblastoma referred to us at diagnosis who received no grafts. These 33
patients were divided as follows:
Group 1 — Nineteen patients included in the LMCE study who received
autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT).
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