Hematopoietic Stem Cell transplantation (HSCT) is the treatment of choice for patients with high-risk leukemia. In spite of this, relapse remains a major cause of death of these patients. Our objective was to analyze the outcomes of patients with acute leukemia submitted to hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in two Brazilian institutions. A retrospective study of 208 patients transplanted between 1990 and 2007 with a median age of 9 years (range: 1-18 years) was made. One hundred and nineteen patients had acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and 89 had acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Early disease was considered for CR1 and CR2 cases and advanced disease >CR3 and refractory and relapse disease. Ninety patients are alive between 258 and 6068 days after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (M: 1438 days). The overall survival (OS) was 45% (3 years) and event free survival (EFS) was 39% (3 years). Primary graft failure occurred in 14/195 patients (8%). There were no differences in the overall survival and event free survival between patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia, between sources of cells used or between those who developed acute or chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). When comparing transplants from related and unrelated donors, there was no difference in the overall survival. Patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia receiving the total body irradiation (TBI) conditioning regimen had better overall survival and event free survival (p<0.001). One hundred and eighteen patients died between 0 and 1654 days after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (M: 160 days). Transplantation-related-mortality (TRM) at D+100 was 16% and cumulative incidence of relapse was 40% (3 years). Patients with advanced disease had lower 3-year overall survival and event free survival (p<0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that disease status was the most significant factor associated with higher event free survival and overall survival . Our results show that children and adolescents transplanted with early disease can achieve considerable overall survival and also highlights the inefficacy of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for patients with advanced disease.
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Precursos cell lymphoblastic leukemia-lymphoma; Graft vs Host Disease; Bone marrow transplantation; Humans; Child, Preschool; Child; Adolescent
