Transfusion of donor peripheral blood buffy coat cells as effective treatment for relapsed acute leukemia after transplantation of allogeneic bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells from the same donor.

BACKGROUND

The transfusion of same-donor peripheral blood buffy coat (PBBC) cells to chronic myelocytic leukemia patients in relapse after bone marrow transplantation has been increasingly used as an effective antileukemic therapy. A graft-versus-leukemia effect mediated by immunocompetent donor T cells underlies its success. In acute leukemia, however, the effect of this adoptive cellular immunotherapy has not been established, and the results are generally poor.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS

Five patients, three with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and two with acute myelocytic leukemia, who relapsed within 6 months after allogeneic marrow transplantation were enrolled in a nonrandomized pilot study to receive donor PBBC cell transfusions either before or after undergoing cytoreductive chemotherapy. ABO genotyping and polymerase chain reaction amplification of human tetrameric short tandem repeats DNA typing were used to test for marrow chimerism.

RESULTS

Two acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients-both of whom underwent chemotherapy before PBBC cell transfusions, experienced a complete remission, and developed acute and then chronic, extensive graft-versus-host disease-have been leukemia-free for 9 and 7 months, respectively. Repeated molecular studies of their marrow as early as 2 weeks to 8 months after treatment confirmed that the marrow was of donor origin. The other three patients, who chose not to undergo chemotherapy before PBBC cell transfusions, failed to achieve remission and died 14, 16, and 30 days, respectively, after leukemia relapse.

CONCLUSION

Adoptive cellular immunotherapy may be effective for acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients in relapse after bone marrow transplantation if chemotherapy is administered before PBBC cell transfusions are initiated.