[Collection and freezing of blood stem cells in acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia]

Blood-derived hemopoietic stem cells were collected using a continuous (10 patients) or a semi-continuous flow separator (2 patients) in some patients with acute non-lymphocytic leukemia. For ten out of those patients, five to seven leukaphereses were performed during a short period (median = 11 days) of marrow recovery following severe aplasia induced by an intensive chemotherapy. The mean number of CFU-GM cells collected per leukapheresis and per patient respectively was 6.7 X 10(4)/kg and 38.5 X 10(4)/kg. This latter number was similar to that obtained during a marrow harvest performed for a bone marrow transplantation, suggesting that high numbers of hemopoietic stem cells can be collected from the peripheral blood in leukemic patients and used for autologous transplantation.