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Acute Leukemias - Republican Scientific Medical Library

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a 16.8 · Results of Stem Cell Transplantation in LBL 209<br />

patients. Therefore MedRad still has a role in adult LBL.<br />

Since an irradiation dose of 24 Gy may not be sufficient<br />

in the new GMALL protocol for T-LBL, patients receive<br />

prophylactic MedRad at a dose of 36 Gy similar to the<br />

dose included in NHL protocols for local irradiation. Irradiation<br />

is delivered after induction therapy without<br />

parallel chemotherapy in order to reduce hematotoxicity.<br />

On the other hand, MedRad leads to delays of systemic<br />

chemotherapy and since hematopoietic tissue is<br />

involved, toxicity of subsequent chemotherapy cycles<br />

may be increased. Due to this dilemma the optimal<br />

strategy remains to be defined.<br />

16.7 Prognostic Factors<br />

One important issue in adult LBL is the identification of<br />

prognostic factors in order to define indications for SCT<br />

in first CR. A variety of risk factors for relapse have been<br />

described in single studies such as higher age (>30–<br />

40 years) [12, 14, 15, 30, 42], increased LDH (either<br />

above normal or above 2´ normal) [11, 12, 14, 15, 21,<br />

23], CNS [12, 18, 23, 30], bone marrow [12, 23, 24, 42,<br />

43] or extranodal involvement [21], stage IV disease<br />

[12, 15, 23, 42, 43], presence of B-symptoms [14], or decreased<br />

hemoglobin [14]. The majority of them are indicators<br />

for advanced disease or large tumor mass. Partial<br />

or late response was also associated with a poorer<br />

outcome [11, 14, 30].<br />

Both recent larger trials with intensive chemotherapy<br />

hardly identified prognostic factors in adult LBL.<br />

In the GMALL series on T-LBL, the only significant<br />

prognostic factor for survival was elevated LDH. No<br />

single risk factor for relapse risk could be identified.<br />

Particularly the stage of disease and age did not have<br />

a prognostic impact [11]. In the MDACC series only<br />

CNS involvement at diagnosis was significantly associated<br />

with poorer outcome [18]. Similarly no prognostic<br />

factors were identified in the largest series in<br />

childhood T-LBL. Neither age, stage, LDH, nor immunophenotype<br />

appeared to have an impact on DFS<br />

[7]. The decreased relevance of single prognostic<br />

factors may therefore be a consequence of more effective<br />

chemotherapy in adult as well as in childhood<br />

LBL.<br />

A convincing prognostic model has not yet been<br />

defined for adult LBL. New prognostic factors are required<br />

to define indications for SCT in CR1. The better<br />

characterization of biologic markers, e.g., immuno-<br />

phenotype of T-LBL, may contribute to this aim. Rational<br />

assessment of individual treatment response<br />

and relapse risk may be based on evaluation of minimal<br />

residual disease from bone marrow or peripheral<br />

blood. Furthermore, analysis of gene expression profiles,<br />

as recently published for T-ALL [44] and T-LBL<br />

[4], may help to identify new prognostic markers in<br />

T-LBL.<br />

16.8 Results of Stem Cell Transplantation<br />

in LBL<br />

SCT was included to a different extent in published studies<br />

and sometimes restricted to high risk LBL patients<br />

(Table 16.4).<br />

16.8.1 Autologous SCT<br />

The majority of studies evaluated the role of autologous<br />

(auto) SCT with a weighted mean for DFS of 61 (31–77)%<br />

[13–16, 45–47, 49, 50]. One prospective study was based<br />

on treatment with two sequential high-dose induction<br />

courses (without HDAC or HDMTX) followed by BEAM<br />

and autologous SCT. Thirteen patients with LBL were<br />

included and the CR rate was 73%. At 5 years the survival<br />

was 46% and the DFS 40%, which is inferior to chemotherapy<br />

studies. Surprisingly, results with this regimen<br />

were significantly better in Burkitt’s lymphoma<br />

[52].<br />

This favorable result for auto SCT in de novo and<br />

advanced disease may be at least partly due to selection<br />

mechanism, e.g., part of the patients reaching auto SCT<br />

after intensive front-line therapy may have been already<br />

cured by chemotherapy and the few patients reaching<br />

auto SCT after relapse of LBL may represent those few<br />

with chemosensitive disease at relapse.<br />

16.8.2 Allogeneic SCT<br />

Less experience exists with allogeneic (allo) SCT in LBL<br />

[16, 45, 50] with a mean DFS of 74 (59–91%) in a few<br />

small series (Table 16.4). In a survey of the European<br />

Bone Marrow Transplantation Registry (EBMTR), the<br />

survival of 222 LBL patients with allo SCT in first remission<br />

or advanced disease was 38% with a considerable<br />

rate of transplant related mortality (TRM) (31%). In this

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