Autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation in acute myeloblastic leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndrome patients: evaluation of tumour cell contamination of leukaphereses by cytogenetic and molecular methods
N. Testoni et al., Autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation in acute myeloblastic leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndrome patients: evaluation of tumour cell contamination of leukaphereses by cytogenetic and molecular methods, BONE MAR TR, 22(11), 1998, pp. 1065-1070
Citations number
24
Categorie Soggetti
Hematology,"Medical Research Diagnosis & Treatment
We evaluated 18 acute myeloblastic leukaemia (AML) and myelodysplastic synd
rome (MDS) patients with abnormal karyotype at diagnosis who underwent peri
pheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplantation, To evaluate the presence of
residual tumour cells, bone marrow (BM) samples and PBSC collections were a
nalysed by cytogenetics and in selected cases also by fluorescence ill situ
hybridisation (FISH) and molecular studies. All patients were considered t
o be in morphologic and cytogenetic complete remission (CR) at the time of
mobilisation, Seven patients showed neoplastic cells in PBSC harvest and/or
BM specimen before reinfusion, Cytogenetic studies revealed contamination
in apheretic collections in one patient only, while three patients had BM b
ut not PBSC contamination, Three more patients had leukaemic cells both in
the BM and PBSC, All but one (with only BM contamination) of these patients
relapsed within 9 months, However, five more patients relapsed after trans
plantion: in four cases there was no cytogenetic sign of contamination eith
er in PBSC or BM cells and in one case no molecular evidence was revealed e
ither, This study suggests that, whereas the presence of leukaemic cells in
autologous grafts correlates with a poor prognosis, the lack of detection
of tumour cells is not always predictive of long-term disease-free survival
. More importantly, PBSC collections from AML patients are not contaminated
by leukaemic cells if the BM is disease-free.