Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation outcomes for children with B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia and early or late BM relapse.

Bone Marrow Transplant 46(7):950-5 (2011) PMID 20856210

Large registry studies have shown superior disease-free survival (DFS) with matched sibling donor (MSD) allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) over chemotherapy alone for patients with B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and a late BM relapse. As most of these patients will not have an MSD, the decision to pursue an unrelated allo-HCT in second remission (CR2) or await a future relapse and perform HCT in third remission (CR3) continues to be debated. Between 1990 and 2006, 41 children with relapsed B-precursor ALL received a myeloablative allo-HCT at the University of Minnesota. Graft sources consisted of matched related donor (n=11), matched unrelated donor (n=9), and unrelated umbilical cord blood (n=21). Before allo-HCT, 15 patients had an early relapse (