Successful peripheral blood stem cell autotransplantation in a child with advanced B-cell lymphoma

A 2-year-old boy with B-cell lymphoma (stage IV) in the first complete remission received myeloablative treatment followed by peripheral blood stem cell autotransplantation and is surviving event-free for 18 months. Reconstitution of all cell lines occurred very rapidly, ie, a level of 1000 leukocytes per microliter was reached after 9 days, that of 500 granulocytes per microliter after 10 days, and platelets were substituted only once. This result suggests that PBSCT can be safely employed during consolidation therapy for malignant disorders because of its short duration of bone marrow suppression.