Bone marrow transplantation: a children's hospital of New Orleans experience

Bone marrow transplantation has become an important therapeutic strategy in the treatment of pediatric malignancies and certain congenital disorders. We initiated a bone marrow transplant program at Children's Hospital in New Orleans at the start of January 1989. Both allogeneic and autologous bone marrow transplantations have been performed. To date, a total of 20 children have received transplants for a variety of diseases. Their ages ranged from 17 months to 20 years. The overall 2-year survival is 40%. For the good-risk patients, the projected 2-year disease-free survival is 85%, compared to 30% for the poor-risk patients. Regimen-related mortality has been extremely low in our settings primarily due to improvement of available supportive care. We conclude that bone marrow transplantation offers a potential cure for these otherwise fatal diseases.