Marrow transplantation for leukemia.

Marrow transplantation for selected patients with leukemia, as for patients with severe combined immunologic deficiency or severe aplastic anemia, has now become an accepted clinical procedure. For patients with acute leukemia who have relapsed after achieving a remission of chemotherapy, marrow grafting from an identical twin or an HLA-identical sibling has now been demonstrated to produce median remissions as long as or longer than any reported for combination chemotherapy. In contrast to chemotherapy, marrow transplantation offers the possibility of cure for a small but significant fraction of these patients. Marrow transplantation for patients with ANL in first remission has now resulted in median survivals much longer than any reported with chemotherapy. Although it now appears that more than 50% of these patients can be cured with marrow transplantation, a much longer follow-up is indicated since some patients who achieve a complete remission with combination chemotherapy are now living for a long time, and some of these patients (less than 20%) may also be cured. Current intensive research with new modalities such as interferon, Acyclovir, Cyclosporin A, and monoclonal antibodies can reasonably be expected to improve the overall results of marrow transplantation.