High-dose chemotherapy supported by autologous bone marrow transplantation in solid tumors

High-dose chemotherapy supported by autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) was given 34 times on twenty six patients with solid tumor. Excluding 6 patients with adjuvant use and 2 patients with non-evaluable lesion, the response rate (CR + PR) of 44.4% was observed among 18 evaluable patients with advanced solid tumor. The results seem to be quite significant since many of the patients had become refractory to conventional treatments and intensity of chemotherapy was still moderate in some of the patients. ABMT following a course of chemotherapy is a promising approach of overcoming the toxic limitations of intensive chemotherapy since a dose-response relationship exists in many situations of cancer chemotherapy and ABMT appears to prevent fatal myelosuppression.