Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation - Blog Science Connections

428 Purged Marrow Engraftment in Neuroblastoma
were stored in the liquid phase until immediately before use. For reinfusion the
bone marrow was thawed rapidly in the cannisters in a 37°C bath at the bedside.
All patients were nursed in isolation, and strict precautions were followed to
reduce contamination. Central venous catheters were placed to facilitate blood
drawing, blood component and antibiotic administration, and total parenteral
nutrition. All blood products were irradiated with 1,500 cGy to prevent graftversus-host
disease from transfused lymphocytes. Systemic antibiotics were
given for fever that developed during the neutropenic phase after appropriate
cultures were collected. Amphotericin was added if fever persisted for 7 days.
Patients were discharged when they were clinically stable, afebrile, off systemic
antibiotics, and taking adequate nutrition by mouth. This was most often
between 4 and 6 weeks after the bone marrow transplantation (BMT). They were
monitored closely in the outpatient clinic but received no further specific
therapy.
RESULTS
We show in Table 1 the clinical results achieved in this pilot study and the
current status of the patients. The data are divided according to whether the
patients were treated in initial remission (group 1) or following disease
progression (group 2). Sixteen patients (53.3%) are alive and disease free with a
mean follow-up of 7.6 months (range, 2-16 months) post-BMT. Nine patients
have relapsed a mean of 4.8 months (range,