Blood, 1 March 2003, Vol. 101, No. 5, pp. 1713-1714
CLINICAL OBSERVATIONS, INTERVENTIONS, AND THERAPEUTIC TRIALS
Brief report
Successful treatment of juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia
relapsing after stem cell transplantation using donor
lymphocyte infusion
Austen Worth,
Kanchana Rao,
David Webb,
Judith Chessells,
Jane Passmore, and
Paul Veys
From the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children,
London, United Kingdom.
Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) is a rare
pediatric malignancy. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation
(SCT) is the only curative approach. However, relapse after
SCT remains the major cause of treatment failure. Unlike most other
pediatric malignancies, JMML may be susceptible to a
graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effect, although, unlike chronic myeloid
leukemia, reports of response to donor lymphocyte infusions (DLIs)
remain scanty. This is the first report that describes the successful
treatment of relapsed JMML with DLI in the absence of further
chemotherapy and provides definite proof of a GVL effect in JMML.
