Annals of hematology
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Annals of hematology · May 2017
Comparison of outcomes after donor lymphocyte infusion with or without prior chemotherapy for minimal residual disease in acute leukemia/myelodysplastic syndrome after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
The efficacy of donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) without chemotherapy was investigated and compared with that of chemotherapy prior to DLI (Chemo-DLI) in patients who were minimal residual disease (MRD)-positive after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). We enrolled 115 consecutive patients who received either DLI (n = 20) or Chemo-DLI (n = 95) during the same period. For each DLI recipient, three recipients matched for age at the HSCT, underlying diseases, and the year of the HSCT were randomly selected from the Chemo-DLI cohort (n = 60). ⋯ The 2-year probabilities of disease-free, overall, and GVHD-free/relapse-free survival after preemptive intervention were 58.9 versus 54.3% (P = 0.862), 69.3 versus 78.1% (P = 0.361), and 44.4 versus 35.1% (P = 0.489) in the DLI and Chemo-DLI groups, respectively. In multivariate analysis, the intervention method did not significantly influence the clinical outcomes. In summary, preemptive DLI alone may be effective for patients who are MRD-positive and may be a potential alternative for patients who refuse or are unable to receive Chemo-DLI after HSCT.