title: The impact of cyclosporin A on acute graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
abstract: Experimental and clinical data demonstrate an antileukemia effect of acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD). In all, 58 pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who had received an allogeneic bone marrow transplant (BMT) at our institution were retrospectively analyzed for a correlation between the development of aGVHD and leukemic relapse. Probability of relapse after 5 (3) years was 13% (7%) in patients developing grade II-IV aGVHD vs 30% in patients with grade 0 or I aGVHD. There was a trend for a difference of the point estimates at 3 years, but no overall significance because of an unusual late relapse. Moreover, we analyzed the impact of cyclosporin A (CsA) on aGVHD in a subgroup of 22 children who had received a matched sibling donor (MSD) BMT. An increased dose of CsA within the first 2 weeks after BMT led to decreased occurrence and severity of aGVHD (P=0.035). The cumulative CsA dose appeared to have more impact than the average CsA whole-blood levels within the first 2 weeks and than the CsA dose given from day 15 to 40. In this subgroup, no life-threatening aGVHD or death from aGVHD occurred. In all cases (6/22), leukemic relapse was the cause of death. We therefore suggest that there is a relation between dose of CsA and relapse rate in childhood ALL transplanted from a MSD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Children's Hospital, Hannover Medical School (MHH), Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Teuffel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schrauder
authors.forename: K W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Sykora
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reiter
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Welte
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schrappe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016572:Cyclosporine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D006085:Graft Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000517:prevention & control*; D020544:Graft vs Leukemia Effect / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000628:therapy*; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D016572:Cyclosporine