Monoclonal-antibody-purged autologous bone marrow transplantation for relapsed non-T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in childhood.

Abstract

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in childhood is a curable disease for the majority of patients [1]. Most children who relapse, however, have a poor prognosis. Although second complete remission can usually be obtained, the long-term diseasefree survival in most series is less than 10% [2, 3]. Therefore, allogeneic bone marrow transplantation has been considered the treatment of choice for children with ALL in second hematologic remission who have an HLA-identical mixed leukocyte culture (MLC) nonreactive sibling donor. An alternative approach has been autologous bone marrow transplantation.