CELL CYCLE-BASED PURGING OF LYMPHOMA-CELLS FROM BONE-MARROW HARVESTS USING RADIOIODINATED 5-IODO-2'-DEOXYURIDINE

Minimal residual disease in lymphoma patients is a major problem in th e clinical management of their cancer, High-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous bone marrow transplantation has been used to treat the disease, However, residual lymphoma may be reintroduced along with the marrow if it is present in the bone marrow harvest. In this report we describe results of experiments testing the efficacy of 5-[I-125]-iod o-2'-deoxyuridine ((125)IdU) for purging murine RAW117 large cell lymp homa cells (Joshi et al., Oncology 44, 180-185, 1987; Cancer Res. 47, 3551-3557, 1987) from bone marrow in a relevant animal model, Donor BA LB/c mice were injected with murine RAW117 cells and euthanized on day 13, and their bone marrow that had been contaminated with tumor cells was harvested and treated in vitro with (125)IdU Or nonradioactive (1 27)IdU (control), Nine of 10 mice receiving (127)IdU-treated bone marr ow contaminated with tumor cells died at an average of 17 days after i njection. In comparison, 9 of 10 mice injected with (125)IdU-treated b one marrow contaminated with tumor cells were still alive after 82 day s, In addition, the (125)IdU treatment did not diminish the formation of hematopoietic progenitor cell colonies in normal mouse and human pe ripheral blood stem cells. (C) 1998 by Radiation Research Society.