Bone marrow transplantation for secondary (therapy-related) acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia: report of a case associated with adoptive beta-thalassaemia.
A female patient with therapy-related acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia occurring after intensive combined modality treatment for IIIB Hodgkin's disease was transplanted from her HLA-identical brother. No attempt was made to induce a remission and the transplant was performed with standard chemoradiotherapeutic conditioning. Three years after the transplant the patient is alive in complete remission with a 46,XY karyotype. The donor has a mild, heterozygous beta-thalassaemia ('thalassaemia minima'). The recipient has much more pronounced thalassaemic features, similar to so-called thalassaemia intermedia, with peripheral blood smears indistinguishable from thalassaemia major. The erythrocytic alterations are undoubtedly due to the splenectomy which was performed during a staging procedure, but the marked difference between donor and recipient haemoglobin values cannot be attributed solely to the asplenic state.
Marmont
A M
AM
Divisione di Ematologia, Ospedale S. Martino, Genova, Italy.
van Lint
M T
MT
Bacigalupo
A
A
Sciaratta
G V
GV
Ivaldi
G
G
D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D005914:Globins / Q000235:genetics; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D013789:Thalassemia / Q000150:complications*; D014019:Tissue Donors
D005914:Globins