Current opinion in oncology
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Comparative Study
Reduced-toxicity conditioning therapy with allogeneic stem cell transplantation for acute leukemia.
We hypothesized that standardized systemic drug delivery would improve treatment safety and provide better leukemia control. We therefore developed an intravenous busulfan formulation and combined it with fludarabine instead of cyclophosphamide in preparation for allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT). We used a Bayesian method to compare the outcomes of 67 acute myeloid leukemia (AML)/myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients who received intravenous busulfan-cyclophosphamide (BuCy2) with 148 subsequent AML/MDS patients who received busulfan-fludarabine (Bu-Flu). ⋯ Overall, the data support replacing BuCy2 with or without antithymocyte globulin (ATG) with Bu-Flu with or without rabbit-ATG for AML or MDS. We further suggest that the high level of safety and fast recovery from conditioning therapy-related side effects after the Bu-Flu regimen makes it a suitable platform technology for testing additional adjuncts for improved posttransplant immune recovery and long-term disease control in patients who are at high risk of rapidly recurrent disease after alloSCT. The extremely low one-year treatment-related mortality as well as high overall and event-free survival of patients in the Bu-Flu group indicate that it is time to revisit the value of alloSCT compared with conventional maintenance chemotherapy for patients in first complete remission of AML/MDS.
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Reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) has allowed the use of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) for haematological malignancies in elderly patients. A major problem of this type of transplantation is the high incidence of persisting chronic graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), leading to increased morbidity and mortality. The inclusion of alemtuzumab added to the graft ('Campath in the bag') for donor T-cell depletion offers an easy procedure to diminish the incidence of GvHD. ⋯ Most patients become mixed chimeric after transplantation, requiring donor lymphocyte infusion for conversion to full donor chimerism. Although subsequent acute and chronic GvHD is observed in 50-60% of patients, it is responsive to therapy in many patients, resulting in a low incidence of persisting chronic GvHD. AlloSCT with RIC and alemtuzumab-induced T-cell depletion offers a suitable platform for the investigation of novel cellular immunotherapy.