TREATMENT OF RELAPSE AFTER ALLOGENEIC BMT WITH DONOR LEUKOCYTE INFUSIONS IN 16 PATIENTS

Sixteen patients with relapse after allogeneic BMT were treated with d onor leukocyte infusions (DLI) from the original donor, The diagnoses at relapse were: CML in chronic phase (CP) (two patients), CML in acce lerated phase (AP) (four patients), AML (four patients), MDS (one pati ent), ALL (four patients) and relapse of Hodgkin's disease (one patien t), The patients received a mean of 5.2 x 10(8) leukocytes/kg with a r ange of 1.4-12.3 x 10(8) leukocytes/kg. Six patients obtained complete remission (CR), one with CML in CP, three with CML in AP, one MDS and one ALL, Partial remission (PR) was seen in three patients, one patie nt with CML in AP, one with AML and one with Hodgkin's disease, Seven patients had no response (NR) to the infusions, including one patient with CML in CP transplanted,vith a syngeneic donor, Four patients deve loped marrow hypoplasia after DLI (three CR and one PR) and two patien ts (ALL with CR and MDS with CR) were hypoplastic at relapse and marro w hypoplasia continued after DLI, GVHD occurred without GVL, but GVL o nly occurred in one patient with absence of GVHD, Eleven patients died of leukemia, six patients are alive, Three patients with CML are in C R 12, 12 and 32 months after DLI and one patient with ALL is in CR 15 months after DLI.