Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Dreger, P.
Right arrow Articles by Schmitz, N.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Dreger, P.
Right arrow Articles by Schmitz, N.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Annals of Oncology 11:S49-S53, 2000
© 2000 European Society for Medical Oncology

Symposium Articles

Stem-cell transplantation for chronic lymphocytic leukemia: The 1999 perspective

P. Dreger1, M. Michallet2 and N. Schmitz1

1 Second Department of Medicine, University of Kiel Germany
2 Unite de Greffe de Cellules Souches Hématopoïétiques, Hôpital Edouard Herriot Lyon, France

Correspondence to: Dr P. Dreger Second Department of Medicine Chemmtzstr. 33 24116 Kiel Germany

Background: The use of myeloablative intensive therapy followed by autologous or allogeneic stem-cell transplantation (SCT) for treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has largely increased over the last years.

Design: The present overview updates the available clinical results and discusses important aspects of SCT in patients with CLL including the type of SCT (autologous vs. allogeneic), myeloablative regimens, purging, the predictive value of molecular monitoring of residual disease, and prognostic factors for the outcome of transplant approaches.

Results: With appropriate supportive care, autologous SCT is safe and can induce long-lasting clinical and molecular remissions, which may improve the prognosis of patients with CLL. Feasibiliy and efficacy of autologous SCT appears to be best early during the course of the disease, but it is still unclear if autotransplantation can cure the disease even in this favorable subgroup. The role of purging is still unclear. The better disease control observed after allografting appears to be due to graft-versus-leukemia activity and may allow cure in at least a subset of poor-risk patients. Due to the extraordinarily high treatment-related mortality, however, the outcome after allogeneic SCT is still inferior to that after autologous SCT.

Conclusions: Autologous transplantation is a valuable treatment option for younger patients with early or sensitive poor-risk CLL. Selected patients with advanced poor-risk disease and low probability of successful auto-SCT should be considered for allografting. However, it must be kept in mind that both autologous and allogeneic stem-cell transplantation are still experimental procedures and clinical trials further elucidating their value in the treatment of patients with CLL are warranted.

CLL, therapy, stem-cell transplantation, prognosis


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 ASH Education BookHome page
K. R. Rai, H. Dohner, M. J. Keating, and E. Montserrat
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Case-Based Session
Hematology, January 1, 2001; 2001(1): 140 - 156.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.