[Donor leukocyte transfusion as treatment for relapsed chronic myelogenous leukemia after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation].

Three patients with relapse (two molecular and one cytogenetic relapse) after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) were treated with donor leukocyte transfusion (DLT). Two had complete molecular remission, which persisted 16 and 20 months after treatment. The performance status of all patients was 90-100%. Mild chronic GVHD was observed in one patient as a side effect of DLT. One patient with cytogenetic relapse required three infusions to attain molecular remission and this suggests the importance of cell numbers to infuse in DLT. Positive anti-nuclear antibody was observed in the effective cases and elevation of IgE in all cases after DLT. These abnormal laboratory findings may suggest a relationship between GVHD and GVL. DLT may be effective therapy for patients with CML who relapse after BMT. Further controlled studies are necessary to determine the optimal number of cells to infuse, interval and frequency of DLT.