Autologous bone marrow transplantation in acute leukaemia

Intensive chemoradiotherapy with autologous bone marrow rescue has been widely explored as treatment for acute myeloblastic and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Encouraging preliminary results have been reported but in no situation has this modality of therapy been proved to be superior to conventional chemotherapy. Attempts to remove minimal residual disease from the harvested marrow have been made by both immunological and pharmacological means, but the value of such procedures has not been tested rigorously. Determination of the precise role of autologous bone marrow transplantation in the treatment of acute leukaemia must await the outcome of randomised controlled trials and will take several years.