Graft versus leukemia effect after haploidentical HSCT in a MLL-negative infant AML with HLXB9/ETV6 rearrangement.

Recently published data show an extremely poor survival of infants with AML and HLXB9/ETV6 rearrangement which is the fusion, resulting from the translocation t(7;12)(q36;p13). None of the patients reported survived a period of 3 years, including four patients who have received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Herein, we report the clinical course of an 8-month-old patient with acute myeloid leukemia, M2 subtype and with a HLXB9/TEL rearrangement. The patient received a haploidentical HSCT in relapse situation without any prior re-induction. The patient became MRD-negative over a period of 53 days after HSCT. This case reinforces the potential benefit of a graft-versus-leukemia effect in the haploidentical setting even in chemoresistant myeloid leukemias with poor-prognosis molecular features. (c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.