AUTOLOGOUS STEM-CELL TRANSPLANTS IN LYMPHOMAS

Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas can be treated and, in a large number of cases, cured by first-line chemotherapy or radiothera py. Unlike many other malignancies, relapse is not uniformly fatal but the treatment is usually markedly myelotoxic with the high doses of c hemotherapy used in relapse. Haematopoietic reconstitution with either autologous marrow or peripheral stem cells post-chemotherapy has made high-dose chemotherapy relatively safe with mortality rates as low as 2% in some centres. The clinical indications for high-dose therapy in lymphoma management for patients with relapsed and bad prognosis dise ase are reviewed. The advantages of autologous bone marrow and periphe ral stem cell transplants are compared and current peripheral stem cel l mobilization and harvesting practice is discussed.