Hepatic veno-occlusive disease after high-dose mitomycin C and autologous bone marrow transplantation therapy

Three cases of veno-occlusive disease of the liver were diagnosed in four autopsied patients who had received high-dose mitomycin C therapy followed by autologous bone marrow transplantation, and the pathologic finding are reported. Review of 27 liver, examined post mortem, of patients receiving other high-dose chemotherapeutic regimens, 15 of them with subsequent autologous bone marrow transplantation, revealed no evidence of veno-occlusive disease. Veno-occlusive disease may now become a dose-limiting factor in the use of the combined high-dose mitomycin C-bone marrow transplantation therapy. Attention is also drawn to the increasing number of veno-occlusive disease cases being reported in associated with alkylating agents.