Bone marrow transplantation for acute leukemia

Since the results of bone marrow transplantation for acute leukemia in relapse have been poor (less than 20% long term survival), an attempt of bone marrow transplantation for acute leukemia in remission has been performed since 1976 by the Seattle Group. The results are very encouraging. In ANL transplanted in first remission, 56 per cent of the patients became long term survivors and were disease-free. The number of relapse was very low (less than 10%). IN ALL transplanted in second or subsequent remission, 40 per cent of the patients became long term survivors but the number of relapse was high (50%). Some attempts of bone marrow transplantation using a non-HLA identical sibling have been performed with most encouraging results.