title: Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for relapsed and refractory Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
abstract: The relative benefit of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (alloBMT) vs autologous BMT (autoBMT) for patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin's disease (HD) or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) remains uncertain. Toxicity from graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) may diminish the potential benefits both of graft-versus-tumor activity and of receiving uncontaminated donor marrow stem cells. From 1987 to 1995, 27 adults (ages 18-60 years; median 36) underwent alloBMT for lymphoma after failure of standard chemotherapy. Twenty-one had NHL and six had HD (nodular sclerosis). Thirteen patients had primary refractory disease or chemotherapy-resistant relapses; two of these had relapsed after autoBMT. Three patients had untested relapses (one of them had relapsed after autoBMT), and 11 had chemotherapy-sensitive relapses. Twenty-four received HLA-matched bone marrow from a sibling (one twin); three received haploidentical marrow cells. Nine (33%) died from lymphoma. Eleven (41%) died of treatment-related causes. Opportunistic infections were a substantial problem leading to eight of these deaths (30%). Six patients (22%) survive free of lymphoma 17-70 months post-BMT (median, 56 months); four had had sensitive relapses, one had had a resistant relapse, and one had had nontested relapse. Three have chronic GVHD (limited in one; extensive in two). One HD patient who had relapsed after autoBMT remains in remission 19 months after alloBMT. No therapy-related myelodysplasia has been observed. We conclude that alloBMT has substantial morbidity in heavily pretreated lymphoma patients due to acute toxicity, infections and GVHD. However, 22% of our HD/NHL patients have had long-term disease-free survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, IL 60637-1470, USA.
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Dann
authors.forename: C K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Daugherty
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Larson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D006562:Herpes Zoster / Q000097:blood / Q000209:etiology; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000097:blood / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D013997:Time Factors; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D016896:Treatment Outcome