title: Splenectomy for poor graft function after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.
abstract: We report four patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) that showed poor graft function after a non-T-depleted bone marrow transplantation (BMT) from an HLA-compatible sibling donor and who were successfully treated with splenectomy. Conditioning was done with cyclophosphamide (CY) and total body irradiation (TBI) without additional splenic irradiation. Three patients had enlarged spleens before BMT. The nucleated cell dose infused ranged from 2.3-3.2 x 10(8)/kg. Bone marrow (BM) examination prior to splenectomy showed BM aplasia (three cases) or hypocellularity (one case). At splenectomy no patient had evidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection or severe acute GVHD; and three patients had moderately enlarged spleens. All patients were transfusion dependent. Complete hematological recovery was obtained in all patients. BM cellularity was normal 1 month after splenectomy. Complete chimerism of donor origin was documented. The four patients are alive (+16 to +58 months after BMT). Thus, in patients with CML, a poor graft function may be successfully corrected by splenectomy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Marqués de Valdecillá University Hospital, Santander, Spain.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Romón
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perez-Encinas
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Baro
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Rabuñal
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mazorra
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Garcia de Polavieja
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Briz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ortin
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iriondo
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hermida
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Conde
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Bello
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zubizarreta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013154:Spleen / Q000473:pathology; D013156:Splenectomy; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous