The chernobyl governmental program: Two years of experience at the belarusian bone marrow transplant centre

Abstract

The Bone Marrow Transplantation Program in Belarus was founded in 1992, and in 1993, a Bone Marrow Transplantation Centre was created in Minsk. From February 1994 to April 1996, 19 allogeneic bone marrow, 16 autologous bone marrow and 10 autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantations were performed. Reasons for transplantation included chronic myeloid leukemia, multiple myeloma, severe aplastic anemia, acute myeloid leukemia, acute lymphoblastic leukemia, progressive myelofibrosis, Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and neuroblastoma. Among the patients were two liquidators involved in the Chernobyl cleanup activity, both of whom underwent allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. A variety of ablative preparative regimens were used, and blood progenitor cells were mobilized by treatment with Cytoxan and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. Therapy-related deaths resulted from graft-versus-host disease, septic shock, veno-occlusive disease bleeding and intestinal pulmonary fibrosis. Because the transplantation procedures were carried out on people who continued to be exposed to low-level irradiation, the post-transplantation period included a conservative strategy for prevention of graft-versus-host disease. There was nothing unusual about the post-transplantation period, although uncertainty about the continuing radiation dose should be taken into account when interpreting these data.