12th Congress of the European Hematology ... - Haematologica

statistical analysis. Results. Seventy-seven patients (44%) had an
immunophenotypic score of 5, 67 patients (38%) scored 4 and 32
patients (18%) were diagnosed with a CLL score of 3. Sixty-seven
patients (38%) showed CD38 cellular expression in 30% B-lymphocytes
or more and 126 patients (72%) were found CD38 + if the cut-off was 7%.
All subgroups of CD38 + patients showed a significantly lower mean
immunophenotypic score at presentation than the respective CD38patients
(4.183±0.76 vs. 4.44±0.67, p: 0.043 for CD38 positivity ≥7%
and 4.015±0.83 vs. 4.37±0.80, p: 0.005 if the threshold for CD38 expression
was 30%). The CD38 cellular expression was negatively associated
with CD20 (rho:-0.172, p:0.024) and CD5 (rho:-0.294, p20%) apoptotic
rate and Group 2 (18/32) with low cell death. A few cell suspensions
did not show any spontaneous cell death. Cytofluorimetric analysis confirmed
that the observed cytotoxicity was due to apoptosis. CsA and
Dex increased cell death in both groups with a different timing by an
apoptotic mechanism that does not involve Bcl-2. In fact, while CsA
already induced apoptosis at 4 hrs of in vitro incubation, the activity of
Dex was more evident at 24 hrs. Furthermore, in Group 2, CsA-induced
apoptosis was significant higher than that observed with Dex both at 4
and 24 hrs. Conclusions. The data herein provided indicate that CsA has
a significant pro-apoptotic activity in B-CLL. Our observations might be
taken into account to consider new therapeutic strategies in B-CLL.
1353
TREATMENT OF RELAPSE AFTER ALLOGENEIC STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION IN CML
PATIENTS:IMATINIB ONLY VS IMATINIB&DLI
S. Civriz, S. Civriz Bozdag, E. Soydan, P. Topcuoglu, A. Ugur Bilgin,
S. Bakanay, H. Koc, M. Beksac, O. Ilhan, M. Ozcan, G. Gurman,
M. Arat
Ankara University School of medicine, ANKARA, Turkey
Background/Aim. Donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) is the gold standard
for relapse after alloHSCT. The role of single agent or combined
application of imatinib,which is highly effective for induction of molecular
remission in CML patients, in post alloHSCT relapse is still an open
question. Methods. In this single center study, we retrospectively analyzed
molecular response and graft functions of relapsed CML patients
after transplantation, who received imatinib only (n=10), Imatinib+DLI
(n=9). The median age of patients in the imatinib group (group 1) was
12 th Congress of the European Hematology Association
29 (range,19-54) , F/M:3/7. Nine patients were in CP1 and one was in
CP2 at the time of transplantation. In the combination group (group 2),
the median age was 41 years (20-54) , F/M:3/6. In group 2 the status of
patients at transplantation was CP1:4, AP: 3 and BP:1. Three patients
received reduced intensity and the remaining myeloablative conditioning.
Molecular remission (MR) was defined as; complete negativity of
RQ-PCR (