Acute leukemia in Jehovah's Witnesses: a challenge for hematologists

With the aim of demonstrating the possibility of treating acute leukemia in Jehovah's Witnesses by protocols which include a marrow transplantation pr ocedure without need of transfusions, we report our experience on 5 patient s. Three patients had acute lymphocytic leukemia and two acute myeloid leuk emia, two received autologous bone marrow transplants and one bone marrow t ransplantation without transfusions. One died because of anemia during indu ction, Our conclusion is that acute leukemia in Jehovah's Witnesses can be treated with protocols employed in transfused patients.