title: No advantage for patients who receive splenic irradiation before bone marrow transplantation for chronic myeloid leukaemia: results of a prospective randomized study.
abstract: A total of 239 patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) in chronic phase awaiting bone marrow transplantation (BMT) from an HLA-identical sibling donor were randomized to receive, as part of their conditioning, splenic irradiation (SI+) or no splenic irradiation (SI-). There was no difference between the SI+ and SI- groups regarding the distribution of age, sex, donor/recipient sex combination and blood counts at diagnosis and at BMT. Survival, leukaemia-free survival (LFS), incidence of transplant-related mortality, incidence of rejection and probability of relapse do not differ between the 117 SI+ and the 118 SI- patients at a median follow-up time of 2.5 years (minimum 0.5 years). LFS at 30 months is 56% (SE 5%) for the SI+ and 51% (SE 6%) for the SI- group (p = 0.65). LFS is better for younger patients (less than 25 years), for patients without T cell depletion and for those with a low white blood cell count at diagnosis (less than 30 x 10(9)/l) (p less than 0.05). It is worst for male recipients of a female marrow (p less than 0.05). The incidence of graft-versus-host disease grade greater than or equal to II was higher in the SI+ group, though not significantly. We conclude that routine splenic irradiation prior to BMT for patients with CML is of no benefit and should not be used as a routine procedure.
authors.affiliation: Kantonsspital Basel, Department of Internal Medicine, Switzerland.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gratwohl
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hermans
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: von Biezen
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Arcese
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: de Witte
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Debusscher
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ferrant
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Frassoni
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gahrton
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002648:Child; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013154:Spleen / Q000528:radiation effects*; D015996:Survival Rate