Autologous bone marrow transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia using monoclonal antibody-purged bone marrow

We report our experience from a clinical trial of autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) in the treatment of 30 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) using monoclonal antibody (MoAb) and complement-treated bone marrow. All patients were in complete remission (CR) at the time of transplant: 6 patients were in first CR, 18 in second CR, and 6 in third CR. The median age of all patients was 42 years (range 11 to 57 years). For marrow ablation, 28 patients were treated with cyclophosphamide and total body irradiation. One patient was treated with busulfan and cyclophosphamide and one was treated with busulfan and VP-16. Each patient was then transfused with autologous bone marrow that had been harvested previously and treated with two MoAbs, PM-81 and AML-2–23, and rabbit complement. Median time to recovery of neutrophils (500/microL) was 30 days, and platelets (20,000/microL) was 45 days. Median time for initial erythrocyte engraftment, assessed by a flow cytometric reticulocyte assay, was 13 days. Median overall and relapse-free survival of first CR patients was at least 17.4 months post-ABMT and the 2- and 3-year actuarial overall and relapse-free survival was 67% (+/- 19%). Median survival for the 24 patients in second or third CR was 6.8 months post-ABMT and 9.3 months since CR; however, six patients survived disease-free from 16 to 61 months post-ABMT. For the second and third CR group it was observed that six patients (5 of the 6 survivors) showed “inversions,” when their post-ABMT remission lasted longer than any previous one. Actuarial 2- and 3-year disease-free and overall survival of patients in second and third CR was 25% (+/- 9%) and 18% (+/- 9%), and 29% (+/- 9%) and 23% (+/- 9%), respectively. ABMT avoids the problems of graft- versus-host disease and of finding suitable donors for allogeneic marrow transplantation.