Allogeneic stem cell transplantation in chronic myelogenous leukemia - experience of the center in Gdańsk

The paper presents nine-year experience of Gdańsk transplantation center in allogeneic hemopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) patients. That diagnosis led to the transplantation in 44 patients, constituting over 50% of all transplantations performed during that period. Methods of peripheral blood and bone marrow progenitor cells collection are described. We analyzed the course of transplantation and the time to engraftment. In the peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) the median time to engraftment was 14 days while in the bone marrow transplantation (BMT) it was 17 days. We also analyzed frequency of complications after HSCT. The acute graft versus host disease (aGvHD) occurred in 57% of patients in the whole group. In 43.1% of patients aGvHD required intensified immunosuppressive treatment. We also analyzed early treatment related mortality (TRM). AGvHD was the main cause of early mortality (5 of 7 cases). Similarly late TRM was caused by the chronic graft versus host disease (6 of 8 cases). We also described patients’ requirement of blood products support, frequency of veno-occlusive disease (2 cases of 44 transplants) and reactivation or primary cytomegalovirus infection (34%). Overall survival was estimated the Kaplan-Mayer method at 64%, which is similar to the results published by most European centers for unselected groups of CML patients.