Autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation for Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia

We report a 50-year-old male patient with Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia poorly responsive to conventional chemotherapy, who went on to receive high-dose melphalan as conditioning before autologous PBSC infusion. Autologous hematopoiesis was reconstituted 5 weeks after transplant. Complete remission was confirmed by blood and marrow examination. The patient remains well at 12 months, with no detectable monoclonal IgM in his serum and absence of plasmacytoid lymphocytes in his marrow. Our results suggest that, at least in this case, high-dose chemotherapy with autologous PBSC support was an effective therapeutic approach for Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia.