title: A pilot study of prophylactic donor lymphocyte infusions to prevent relapse in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemias after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
abstract: The outcome of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) receiving therapeutic donor lymphocyte infusions (DLIs) in relapse after stem cell transplantation (SCT) is poor. We analyzed the impact of prophylactic DLIs in ALL on chimerism and sustained complete remission (CR). Eighty-five patients with ALL were allografted between January 1998 and September 2004. Twenty-six of them received prophylactic DLIs and were included in this analysis. A total of 12 of 13 patients, who were treated with mixed chimerism (MC) converted to complete donor chimerism (92%) and 10 of 12 patients had persistent donor chimerism and sustained CR during subsequent follow-up. Overall, 18 of 26 patients developed graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after DLIs (69%), acute GVHD in 46 and chronic GVHD in 62%. After a median follow-up of 42 months (14-72) after SCT, 18 of 26 patients (70%) are alive, 16 in CR. Probability of event-free survival (EFS) for patients treated with DLIs is 62%, and overall survival is 70% at 3 years. Our preliminary data support a graft-versus-leukemia effect of prophylactic DLIs able to induce stable donor chimerism and ongoing CR after SCT. As the accompanying GVHD rate was considerable, careful selection of patients for prophylactic DLIs is mandatory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology and Oncology, Campus Virchow Klinikum, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lutz
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Massenkeil
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagy
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Neuburger
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tamm
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Rosen
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dörken
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Arnold
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D020544:Graft vs Leukemia Effect; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D019520:Living Donors; D017710:Lymphocyte Transfusion; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012008:Recurrence; D012074:Remission Induction; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors; D018183:Transplantation Chimera; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous