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Acute Leukemia Forum 2000, Advances and Controversies in the Therapy of Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

Who should be transplanted for AML?

Leukemia volume 15, pages 680–682 (2001)Cite this article

When considering who should be transplanted for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), it may be useful to consider four categories of patients. First, there are those who fail to achieve an initial remission with primary induction chemotherapy. Second, there are patients who achieve an initial complete remission, but subsequently relapse. Third are patients in first complete remission. Finally, there may be patients with AML who should be transplanted at diagnosis without first undergoing standard induction therapy.

Several studies have demonstrated that long-term survival is possible if patients who fail initial induction chemotherapy are then transplanted. For example, the European Bone Marrow Transplant Group reported 20% long-term survival with matched sibling transplantation in such patients.1 Similarly, there are now data that some patients who receive unrelated donor transplants as therapy for primary induction failure can still be cured. In order to improve the probability that patients who fail primary induction have an opportunity to be transplanted, HLA typing of patient and family members soon after initial diagnosis should be strongly considered. Undoubtedly, lives have been lost because physicians have neglected or delayed the process of searching for an appropriate donor until it is too late.

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  1. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA

    FR Appelbaum

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Appelbaum, F. Who should be transplanted for AML?. Leukemia 15, 680–682 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2402074

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