Blood product support in patients undergoing chemotherapy and autologous or allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for haematological malignancies.

Three groups of patients with leukaemia and myelodysplasia were assessed with regard to the blood product support they required during their period of bone marrow hypoplasia following treatment. One group received myelo-ablative remission-induction chemotherapy followed by appropriate consolidation therapy (two courses in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia and one or two intensification courses in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia); whilst the other two had 'conditioning' with chemotherapy and radiotherapy prior to autologous bone marrow transplantation (auto-BMT) or T cell depleted allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo-BMT). There was no statistically significant difference in blood product requirements between the three groups. However, platelet requirements during remission-induction chemotherapy alone were significantly less than for allo-BMT or auto-BMT. Platelet requirements for patients undergoing auto-BMT were also significantly higher than for patients receiving consolidation chemotherapy; and were required for a longer period than for patients receiving allogeneic-BMT. There was no difference in blood product support between ABO matched and mismatched transplants within the allogeneic group, but the presence of graft versus host disease and/or cytomegalovirus infection did significantly increase the requirements for blood product support.