, for the GOELAMS (Groupe Ouest-Est des Leucé mies Aiguë s et Maladies du Sang) GroupVarious transplantation strategies have been designed to improve the poor prognosis of adult (ages 15 to 60 years) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The GOELAL02 trial evaluated the impact of early allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (alloBMT) or delayed unpurged autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) for patients who had no human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched sibling donor or who were older than 50 years. Inclusion criteria included at least one of the following: age older than 35 years; non-T-ALL; leukocytosis greater than 30 ؋ 10 9 /L; t(9;22), t(4;11), or t(1; 19); or failure to achieve complete remission (CR) after one induction course. Among 198 patients, the median age was 33 years. The CR rate was 80% with vincristine, idarubicine, L-asparaginase, and randomized intravenous injection or oral steroids (P ‫؍‬ nonsignificant [ns]). AlloBMT was performed after 2 consolidation courses while ASCT was delayed after 1 additional reinduction. Intensified conditioning regimen before transplantation included etoposide, cyclophosphamide, and total body irradiation (TBI). Median follow-up was 5.1 years. The median overall survival (OS) was 29 months, with a 6-year OS of 41%. On an intent-to-treat analysis for patients younger than 50 years, alloBMT significantly improved the 6-year OS (75% versus 40% after ASCT; P ‫؍‬ .0027). Randomized interferon-␣ maintenance had no effect on relapse or survival after ASCT. In conclusion, the outcome of adult ALL is better after early alloBMT than after delayed ASCT. (Blood. 2004; 104:3028-3037)

Allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) has emerged as an alternative to bone marrow transplantation. PBSCT can be associated with a higher incidence of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD). In this study, we investigated whether there was a correlation between the composition of PBSC grafts (CD34+ and CD3+ cells) and hematological recovery, GVHD, relapse, and relapse-free survival (RFS) after myeloablative HLA-identical sibling PBSCT. The evolution of 100 acute or chronic leukemia patients was analyzed. Neither hematological recovery, acute or cGVHD, nor relapse, was significantly associated with CD3+ cell dose. Increasing CD34+ stem cells was associated with faster neutrophil (P ¼ 0.03) and platelet (P ¼ 0.007) recovery. Moreover, 47 of the 78 patients evaluable for cGVHD (60%; 95% CI, 49-71%) developed extensive cGVHD. The probability of extensive cGVHD at 4 years was 34% (95% CI, 21-47%) in patients receiving a 'low' CD34+ cell dose (o8.3 Â 10 6 /kg), as compared to 62% (95% CI, 48-76%) in patients receiving a 'high' CD34+ cell dose (48.3 Â 10 6 /kg) (P ¼ 0.01). At a median follow-up of 59 months, this has not translated into a difference in relapse. In patients evaluable for cGVHD, RFS was significantly higher in patients receiving a 'low' CD34+ cell dose as compared to those receiving a 'high' CD34+ cell dose (P ¼ 0.04). This difference was mainly because of a significantly higher cGVHD-associated mortality (P ¼ 0.01). Efforts to accelerate engraftment by increasing CD34+ cell dose must be counterbalanced with the risk of detrimental cGVHD.

Summary:To assess the place of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in the advanced stage of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), we retrospectively analyzed 379 consecutive patients who underwent allogeneic HSCT for advanced AML. The median follow-up of the entire cohort was 7.5 years. Sixty-nine patients (18%) were transplanted with primary resistant disease. Three hundred and ten (82%) were relapsed patients, 94 (30%) of whom were in untreated relapse, 67 (22%) in refractory relapse and 149 (48%) in 2nd or 3rd complete remission at time of transplantation. The 5-year probabilities of overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and transplant-related mortality (TRM) were 22 ؎ 4% 20 ؎ 4%, 45 ؎ 6%, respectively. In multivariate analysis, we demonstrated the favorable impact on OS, DFS and TRM of two factors over which we have no control (age Ͻ15 years, complete remission achievement) and three factors over which we have some control (female donor, acute and chronic graftversus-host disease). The results of this study suggest that the graft-versus-leukemia effect is important in advanced AML and that new HSCT modalities are needed for some patients with this indication. Bone Marrow Transplantation (2000) 26, 1157-1163. Keywords: allogeneic; HSCT; advanced; AML The outcome of treatment in younger patients with de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has improved substantially over the past decade. Complete remission (CR) rates range from 60% to 80% with long-term survival in about 50% of

Dexamethasone alone increases life expectancy in patients with relapsed multiple myeloma (MM); however, no large randomized study has compared dexamethasone and dexamethasone-based regimens with standard melphalanprednisone in newly diagnosed MM patients ineligible for high-dose therapy. In the Intergroupe Francophone du My-é lome (IFM) 95-01 trial, 488 patients aged 65 to 75 years were randomized between 4 regimens of treatment: melphalan-prednisone, dexamethasone alone, melphalandexamethasone, and dexamethasoneinterferon alpha. Response rates at 6 months (except for complete response) were significantly higher among patients receiving melphalan-dexamethasone, and progression-free survival was significantly better among patients receiving melphalan (P < .001, for both comparisons), but there was no difference in overall survival between the 4 treatment groups. Moreover, the morbidity associated with dexamethasone-based regimens was significantly higher than with melphalan-prednisone, especially for severe pyogenic infections in the melphalandexamethasone arm and hemorrhage, severe diabetes, and gastrointestinal and

The blastic variant (BV) form of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is considered to be a very aggressive subtype of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). In order to determine its clinico-biological features and response to therapy we studied 33 patients (17%) out of 187 suffering from MCL who were diagnosed with a BV of MCL. Blastic variant was diagnosed according to histopathological patterns, immunophenotyping, and bcl1 gene rearrangement and/or cyclin D1 overexpression. Three patients initially diagnosed with large cell NHL were classified as BV. Patients received front-line therapy including CHOP-like regimen or CVP (n = 29), or chlorambucil (n = 4) and CHOP or ESAP as second-line therapy. High-dose intensification with stem cell transplantation (SCT) was performed in 11 cases (autoSCT, n = 8; alloSCT, n = 3). All but two patients were in complete remission (CR) at the time of transplant (CR1, n = 5; CR2, n = 4). Clinical and biological characteristics did not differ from those of the common form of MCL. The median age was 62 years (29-80), with a sex ratio (M/F) of 2.6:1. Of the 33 patients, 66% had extranodal site involvement, 85% had an Ann Arbor stage IV, and 82% had peripheral lymphadenopathy. Circulating lymphomatous cells were seen in 48% of cases. Twelve patients (36%) entered a CR1 with a median duration of 11 months. Fifteen patients (46%) failed to respond and rapidly died of progressive disease. Second-line therapy led to a 26% (6/23) CR2 rate. Nine patients relapsed after high-dose therapy. Twenty-two of the 33 patients (66%) died of refractory or progressive disease. Median overall survival (OS) time was 14.5 months for the 33 BV patients as compared to 53 months for the 154 patients with a common form of MCL, P Ͻ0.0001. In the univariate analysis, OS was influenced by age, extranodal site involvement, circulating lymphomatous cells, and international prognosis index (IPI). In the multivariate analysis, only IPI affected OS: patients with IPI у2 had 8 months median OS as compared to 36 months median OS for patients with IPI Ͻ2, P = 0.003. Blastic variant is one of the worst forms of NHL. An improved recognition of BV of MCL is required, particularly in high-grade CD5 + NHL using immunophenotyping and bcl1 molecular study. Standard therapy using anthracycline or even high-dose intensification produce poor results and an alternative treatment should be proposed to such patients. Leukemia (2001) 15, 1785-1791.