High-dose chemotherapy with frozen autologous marrow transplantation in patients with poor-prognosis tumors.
One hundred and ninety patients with poor-prognosis tumors, mainly advanced solid cancers were treated with a first course of high-dose chemotherapy. One hundred nine of them received frozen autologous bone marrow transplantation (FABMT) a total of 160 times. Thirty-four of the 109 patients were given a second course, and five of the 34 received a third course followed by FABMT. Eighty-four patients (77%) showed subjective and/or objective remissions; however, 59 (54%) died from the original malignant tumor, 27 (23%) from profound acquired immune deficiency, and the remaining 18 patients are now in follow-up. A comparison between the patients who received the high-dose chemotherapy followed by FABMT and those who received the high-dose chemotherapy alone because of the absence of marked myelosuppression remains as a future subject for study. We experienced some important cases, in which FABMT played a decisive role in rescuing the marrow abrasion from toxicity of the anticancer drugs. We feel certain that FABMT can accelerate hemopoietic recovery in cancer patients after high-dose chemotherapy. We also conclude that FABMT is an interesting approach to provide hope to the poor-prognosis patients who have failed or respond to conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy, although FABMT is still undergoing clinical trial and only in specialized hospitals.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005615:Freezing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D011379:Prognosis; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous