Transplantation of non-purified autologous bone marrow in patients with AML in first remission.

Four patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) were treated with high-dose cyclophosphamide and total body irradiation followed by reinfusion of a portion of their own bone marrow collected during remission. This procedure was applied when the patients were in complete remission. They did not receive further maintenance chemotherapy after grafting. The use of bone marrow for grafting that had been pre-exposed to high-dose chemotherapy for remission induction did not preclude good hematologic regeneration. All patients showed stable remissions that lasted for 64+, 21, 40+, and 19+ months, respectively. Death in the second patient was due to a medullary relapse of the leukemia. Autologous bone marrow transplantation in patients with AML in remission may permit lasting remissions, even when applied without additional chemotherapy and attempts to purify the marrow of neoplastic cells.