Engraftment failure following bone marrow transplantation in children with thalassemia major using busulfan and cyclophosphamide conditioning

Thirteen children older than 3 years of age with beta-thalassemia major underwent allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) from a full human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matched sibling donor in a single institution. These patients received busulfan (Bu). 16 mg/kg followed by cyclophosphamide (Cy) 200 mg/kg for conditioning. Eight of the 13 patients (Group 1) engrafted and have a median age of 13 years (range 5-15 years). The five patients (Group 2) who failed to engraft have a median age of 6 years (range 3-8 years). The association with the following factors was found to be statistically significant: age (older in Group 1), duration of nadir of white blood count (WBC) of < or = .1 x 10(9)/L (longer in Group 1), and the dose of Bu administered to each patient calculated on the basis of body surface area (higher dose in Group 1). The high rate of engraftment failure (5 out of 13) may be related to the suboptimal systemic exposure of Bu in younger children leading to inadequate bone marrow ablation when the standard dose of 16 mg/kg is used.

Bone marrow transplantation in patients with Fanconi anemia: experience with cyclophosphamide and total body irradiation conditioning regimen

Eleven patients with Fanconi anemia (FA) underwent bone marrow transplantation (BMT) between March 1985 and May 1990 in a single institution. Ten patients received bone marrow from healthy full human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matched siblings and one patient from her father (one antigen mismatch). Ten patients were conditioned with cyclophosphamide (Cy) at a dose of 5 mg/kg per day for 4 days followed by total body irradiation (TBI) for a total of 600 cGy over 3 days. Six of the 11 patients are alive and have normal reconstitution of their bone marrow. Median follow-up was 72 months (range 42-84). Three of the 10 patients who received Cy and TBI (two HLA compatible, one antigen mismatch) had graft failure. Five patients developed at least grade III acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The rates of graft failure and GVHD are, however, still significantly high. Modification of the conditioning regimen and GVHD prophylaxis is needed to improve the outcome.

Bone marrow transplantation for infantile malignant osteopetrosis

PURPOSE

Most patients diagnosed with malignant osteopetrosis die during infancy or early childhood from hemorrhage and infection due to bone marrow failure. Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has been reported to provide curative therapy for this disorder. We report our experience with eight patients with malignant osteopetrosis who underwent BMT.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Between May 1987 and August 1992, eight children with malignant osteopetrosis underwent allogeneic BMT. Median age at BMT was 9 months (range, 2-36 months). Six patients received marrow from HLA-identical sibling donors, one from phenotypically matched father, and one from a one antigen mismatched father. BMT conditioning for all patients was busulfan 16 mg/kg and cyclophosphamide 200 mg/kg each administered over 4 days. Graft versus host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis included cyclosporin A in six patients or cyclosporin A and methotrexate in two patients.

RESULTS

Six patients, including those who received bone marrow from their father's, engrafted as documented by bone marrow biopsy showing an increase in osteoclasts in all cases and by chromosomal analysis in four patients. Two patients died without engraftment. Three out of six patients engrafted are alive and well at the follow-up of 48, 63, and 81 months. Serum calcium, alkaline, and acid phosphatase levels normalized within 2 months. These patients have full bone marrow reconstitution. Serial radiologic studies revealed bone marrow remodelling and a new nonsclerotic bone formation. Vision improved dramatically in the youngest patient.

CONCLUSION

BMT offers cure to patients with malignant osteopetrosis with reconstitution of bone marrow and correction of metabolic disturbances. In our experience, reversibility in neurosensory deficit is possible when BMT is done at an early age.

Systemic amphotericin B versus fluconazole in the management of antibiotic resistant neutropenic fever--preliminary observations from a pilot, exploratory study

A pilot exploratory study was undertaken to collect preliminary information relating to safety and overall outcome in using intravenous fluconazole (FLUC) for managing antibiotic resistant neutropenic fever (ARNF), with the objective of assessing feasibility of performing a larger prospective controlled study. Patients who were neutropenic from treatment for leukaemia or bone marrow transplantation, received either fluconazole (FLUC) or amphotericin B (AB). Eight of 16 patients (50%) on FLUC and 21 of 25 patients (84%) on AB defervesced; the mean time to defervescence was 11.0 +/- 10.0 days for FLUC compared to 7.7 +/- 6.3 days for AB, and a similar proportion in each treatment group defervesced within 5 days (50% vs. 52%), respectively. Six of 16 patients (37.5%) on FLUC and three of 25 patients (12%) on AB developed overt invasive fungal disease, including pulmonary aspergillosis (FLUC 4 cases, AB 2 cases) and invasive candidiasis (FLUC 2 cases, AB 0 cases). The mean time to these events was 19.5 +/- 13.4 (FLUC) and 9.0 +/- 3.6 (AB) days. The fungal related mortality rates were higher in the FLUC group: five of 16 patients (31%) vs. two of 25 patients (18%) died respectively; the time to fungal death was 43.2 +/- 18.2 (FLUC) and 25.0 +/- 18.4 (AB) days. This tendency towards a more favourable outcome in patients on AB may have been due to absence of prior fluconazole prophylaxis in patients subsequently receiving IV FLUC. Analysis of a small subgroup of patients who had all received prior prophylaxis with clotrimazole only, indicated that a greater number of patients subsequently receiving IV FLUC died from fungal disease (5/16 vs.0/6, P = 0.09).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Successful combined surgical and medical treatment of fusarium infection after bone marrow transplantation

The usual management of opportunistic fusarium infection in the immunocompromized patient is with systemic antifungals, despite which little impact is made on the mortality which approaches 100%. We describe a case of fusarium infection of the foot in a bone marrow transplant recipient which was successfully managed with local wide excisional surgery and intravenous liposomal amphotericin B.

Controlled study of fluconazole in the prevention of fungal infections in neutropenic patients with haematological malignancies and bone marrow transplant recipients

The efficacy and safety of oral fluconazole versus a polyene regimen in preventing mycoses in neutropenic patients was compared. Patients with haematological malignancy or bone marrow transplantation received as antifungal prophylaxis either fluconazole 200 mg daily or a regimen consisting of clotrimazole trouches 10 mg twice daily with mycostatin, 500,000 I.U. four times daily, benadryl and cepacol mouthwash. Ninety patients at risk for fungus infection were evaluable. Four of 42 patients (9.5%; confidence interval 2%-23%) on fluconazole and 17 of 48 patients (35.4%; confidence interval 22%-52%) (p < 0.01) on the clotrimazole regimen developed a clinically significant fungal infection, including 3 (7.1%) and 11 (22.9%) patients respectively who had severe fungal infection, mainly pulmonary aspergillosis. Death directly due to a fungal infection within 100 days of the start of prophylaxis occurred in 2 of 42 patients (4.8%) and 9 of 48 patients (18.8%) respectively (p < 0.06). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the chance of survival on fluconazole was statistically greater than for the clotrimazole regimen (p < 0.04). A decrease of candidal colonisation of the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tracts occurred only in patients receiving fluconazole. No significant toxicity occurred. A 200 mg daily dose of fluconazole given to these patients thus appears to be well tolerated and to provide a protective effect against the development of fungal infection and death from severe fungal disease.

Morphologic immunophenotypic and cytogenetic patterns of adult acute myeloid leukemia in Saudi Arabia

During a 6-year period we received bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB) samples from 178 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). All patient BM, and occasionally, PB samples were characterized according to FAB criteria, and by immunophenotyping (IP) and cytogenetics (CG). This report summarizes the findings in the 125 patients who were older than 15 years. Their mean and median ages were 39.4 and 37.0 years. There were 8 (6.4%) M1, 27 (21.6%) M2, 15 (12.0%) M3, 49 (39.2%) M4, 14 (11.2%) M5A, 9 (7.2%) M5B and 2 (1.6%) M6. IP showed that HLA-DR was most strongly and frequently expressed by M1 blasts (53.5%, 86%) and least strongly and frequently expressed by M3 blasts (4.5%, 0%). HLA-DR was also relatively strongly expressed by M4, M5A, M5B (21.5%, 43%; 34.9%, 69%; and 19.2%, 56%, respectively). CD11b was uniformly weakly expressed by all FAB subgroups. CD13 was most strongly and frequently expressed by M4 (20%, 43%), and was relatively weakly and infrequently expressed by the other FAB subtypes (9.5%, 9.2%, 16.4%, 8.4%, 16.3%). CD14 was moderately expressed by M4 (15.2%, 25%) and M5B (14.0%, 22%) and M1 (7.0%, 40%). CD33 was most strongly expressed by M3 blasts (26.3% and 61%), and was most weakly expressed by M5B (10.6% and 22%). Fourteen (11.2%) patients had blasts that showed lymphoid antigens (5 T, 5 B, 5 CALLA) in addition to myeloid characteristics. Fifty-four (51.9%) of 104 patients tested had one or more karyotypic abnormalities, the most frequent of which was 8+. Only the t(15:17) was specific, and was seen in M3. Four patients with anomalous IP had trisomy 21, one of whom also had 11q-. We conclude that Saudi Arabian AML shows FAB patterns similar to patients in the West, and that M3 patients have a characteristic IP and cytogenetic pattern. Apart from this the MIC classification failed to reveal characteristic modes.

Morphological and immunological pattern of blastic transformation in chronic myeloid leukemia in Saudi Arabia: Study of 90 transformations among 248 patients

We examined the pattern of blastic transformation in 90 of 248 patients (36%) with chronic myeloid leukemia who were seen at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre between 1975 and 1988. The mean and median ages of all patients were 38.2 and 36.0 years, respectively. Four of the 90 transformants (4.4%) presented in blastic transformation, and 86 cases (95.5%) evolved from a well-defined chronic phase. Twenty-nine (32.2%) of the patients underwent lymphoid blastic transformation, while 28 (31.1%) were myeloid, seven (7.8%) were myelomonocytic, four (4.4%) were monocytic or erythroblastic, six (6.7%) were megakaryoblastic, ten (11.1%) were of mixed lineage, and two (2.2%) were unclassifiable. The lymphoid blast cells were uniformly common acute lymphocytic leukemia (i.e., Ia and CD10 positive), whereas the myeloid transformations were predominantly Ia negative. Mixed phenotype blasts were also predominantly Ia positive (i.e., 8 of 10), with varying positively for CD10 and myeloid/monocyctic markers. We conclude that blast crisis in chronic myeloid leukemia occurs in Saudi patients in a pattern similar to that seen in patients elsewhere, and that surface Ia antigen positivity in lymphoblast cells is a reliable marker for differentiating lymphoid from nonlymphoid crisis, in which the Ia antigen is not usually demonstrable.

Hodgkin's disease in an adult with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

A 53 year old woman with common acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) developed Hodgkin's disease 20 months after the initial diagnosis of ALL. This is by far the oldest case of Hodgkin's disease complicating ALL. The unusual presentation and the aetiology of Hodgkin's disease in ALL are discussed.

Cyclosporin A for the treatment of graft-versus-host disease in man

Cyclosporin A was given to five patients with acute leukaemia in whom graft-versus-host disease (G.V.H.D.) had developed after bone-marrow transplantation from sibling donors. In all instances the acute erythematous skin reaction of G.V.H.D. resolved within two days, but four of the five patients died. Cyclosporin A in high doses produced anorexia, nausea, and a reversible rise in blood-urea. The four patients who died all had liver damage, but the histological changes varied. Cyclosporin A modifies the acute skin reaction of G.V.H.D. In the management of liver and gut G.V.H.D., and in prophylaxis of G.V.H.D., its role needs to be determined.