Role of autologous bone marrow transplantation as consolidation therapy in acute promyelocytic leukemia patients in complete remission.

Autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT), which consents a low mortality rate, has been proposed as an alternative approach to maintenance chemotherapy in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) in first complete remission irrespective of the patients' molecular status. Sixteen patients with acute APL in complete remission were submitted to ABMT and were analyzed for the presence of the PML-RARa fusion gene by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Our study demonstrated that continued positivity of PCR analysis before ABMT could predict subsequent relapse in patients who undergo un-purged ABMT procedures.