title: A graft-versus-colonic cancer effect of allogeneic stem cell transplantation.
abstract: Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (ASCT) has proved to have an important immune-mediated anti-tumour effect in patients with haematologic malignancies. There is also evidence of such an effect in patients with malignant tumours. We studied this effect of ASCT in a patient with colorectal cancer. A 77-year-old man having a primarily resected colonic cancer with disseminated lymph node involvement received ASCT from his HLA-identical sibling as the only treatment. Mixed haematopoietic chimerism was monitored using PCR-amplification of variable number tandem repeats and tumour size, assessed by repeated CT scans. Recipient leucocytes were gradually replaced by donor cells for 1 month. Continuous resolution of lymph node metastases was seen together with clinical graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The patient died of pneumonia and cardiac insufficiency 4 months after transplantation. At autopsy, most of the metastases were necrotic, with few remaining tumour cells. Clinical and histopathological postmortem results showed a graft-versus-colorectal cancer effect.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Karolinska Institutet at Huddinge University Hospital, SE-141 86 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zetterquist
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hentschke
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thörne
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wernerson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mattsson
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uzunel
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martola
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Albiin
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aschan
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Papadogiannakis
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ringdén
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002678:Chimera; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D020350:Graft vs Tumor Effect; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous