1. The role of disease stage in the response to donor lymphocyte infusions as treatment for leukemic relapse.
- Author
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Carlens S, Remberger M, Aschan J, and Ringdén O
- Subjects
- Adolescent, Adult, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Graft vs Leukemia Effect, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Neoplasm Staging, Recurrence, Transplantation, Homologous, Leukemia pathology, Leukemia therapy, Lymphocyte Transfusion
- Abstract
Between 1991 and 1999, 44 leukemic patients received donor lymphocyte infusions (DLIs) at our center (22 patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia [CML]; 10 with acute myelogenous leukemia; 11 with acute lymphatic leukemia; and 1 with myelodysplastic syndrome). Seventeen patients received graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis with methotrexate (MTX) at the time of DLI. In CML patients, 15 of 22 (68%) re-entered complete remission after DLI. At 3 years post-DLI, patients with cytogenetic (n = 10) or molecular (n = 3) relapse had a current leukemia-free survival (cLFS) rate of 85% compared with 0% for patients with hematologic relapse (P < .001). Among 15 CML patients who initially responded to DLI, 4 patients relapsed within the first 2 years. Four of 16 patients (25%) with acute leukemia had an initial response with complete remission after DLI. Two of them subsequently relapsed within 1 year. Patients with acute leukemia who relapsed within 1 year of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (n = 9) had 0% cLFS at 18 months; patients with later relapse had 29% cLFS (P = .015). The overall probability of cLFS at 3 years for CML patients was 46%. For other diseases, cLFS was 13% at 18 months after DLI. Patients who developed chronic GVHD secondary to DLI showed a 3-year cLFS of 51% compared with 18% for patients without chronic GVHD (P = .022). This study emphasizes the importance of early disease stage and presence of chronic GVHD for effective DLI.
- Published
- 2001
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