Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation with Full-Intensity Conditioning for Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: Results from a Single Center, 1998-2006

Abstract

A retrospective analysis identified 161 consecutive adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) with full-intensity (myeloablative) conditioning between 1998 and 2006. Median patient age was 36.1 years. Seventy-six patients were in first complete remission (CR1), and 85 were in second or greater CR or in relapse. Fifty-nine patients had Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. A total of 159 patients received chemotherapy plus total body irradiation for conditioning. Graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis included a calcineurin inhibitor plus methotrexate or mycophenolate mofetil. Sixty of the donors were related, and 101 were unrelated. A total of 110 patients received granulocyte-colony stimulating factor-stimulated peripheral blood, 47 received bone marrow, and 4 received cord blood as the stem cell source. Fifty-five patients relapsed at a median of 231 days after transplantation. The estimated 5-year probabilities of relapse-free survival, relapse, and nonrelapse mortality were 47%, 30%, and 29%, respectively. By multivariate analyses, transplantation while in CR1 was the most important predictor of successful transplantation. Pretransplantation evidence of minimal residual disease, especially as detected by flow cytometric analysis, was associated with both lower overall survival and lower relapse-free survival. Compared with a similar cohort of patients undergoing transplantation between 1990 and 1997, overall survival was similar for patients undergoing transplantation in CR1, with lower nonrelapse mortality being offset by higher rates of relapse in patients who underwent transplantation more recently.