New Therapy for Advanced Stage Leukemia After Stem Cell Transplantation

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is one of the best, and sometimes the only, option for the treatment of leukemia, particularly for patients with advanced-stage leukemia. However, relapse rate was still very high for advanced-stage leukemia. It was found in our previous study that infusion of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF)-primed peripheral blood progenitor cells (GPBPC) instead of non-primed lymphocytes exhibited a comparative or stronger graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect and comparative or less incidence of GVHD, rarely being complicated with pancytopenia. When GPBPC infusion was combined with the use of short-term immunosuppressant for GVHD prophylaxis, the incidence of fatal GVHD complicated with GPBPCI was further reduced. Our primary data showed the GPBPCI combined with the use of short-term immunosuppressant was feasible in patients with advanced leukemia to prevent relapse after HLA-mismatched HSCT. The study hypothesis: Prevention of relapse using granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-primed peripheral blood progenitor cells following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in patients with advanced-stage acute leukemia can * reduce relapse rate * improve survival