Microtransplantation Less Aggressive Treatment for Elderly Patients with Acute Myleoid Leukemia

BEIJING, April 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Microtransplantation is an advanced technology to treat malignant hematological diseases and tumors by infusing patients with processed unmatched HLA stem cells based on chemotherapy or targeted therapy to achieve GVT (graft-versus-tumor) and RVT (recipient-versus-tumor) by microchimerism, making it a less aggressive approach as a leukemia treatment.

In treating AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia) patients, especially the elderly patients, the outcome still remains unsatisfactory with 3% to 8% of elderly AML patients (over 60 years old) having a 5-year survival rate compared with up to 50% of younger AML patients.

The most common cause that contributed to the rather low survival rate of elderly AML patients is due to poor body condition. As the unsatisfactory treatment effect remains, microtransplantation has been developed rapidly in recent years, showing a promisingly better treatment option for elderly AML patients. This treatment is currently and only available at MST Leukemia Clinic, Beijing, China.

What is microtransplantation used for?

Application of microtransplantation has currently been applied to various leukemia patients, especially elderly AML patients without an HLA matching donor. However, studies have also been expanded to patients with MM (multiple myeloma), MDS (myelodysplastic syndromes), NHL (non-Hodgkin's lymphoma), SAA (severe aplastic anemia) and CML (chronic myelogenous leukemia).

Is microtransplantation safe?

The result of microtransplantation is evident on Blood and Journal of Clinical Oncology, the 6-year LFS (leukemia-free survival) and OS (overall survival) rates of low-risk group were 84.4% and 89.5%, respectively, which were similar to the rates in the intermediate-risk group (59.2 and 65.2%, respectively). No GVHD (graft-versus-host disease) was observed.

What to expect when receiving microtransplantation for elderly AML patients?

Unlike conventional stem cell transplantation, the purpose of microtransplantation is to achieve microchimerism, a process to allow the donor's peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) to be "planted" in the recipient's body in a very small amount. Such a phenomenon of engraftment that resulted in graft versus leukemia has marked another milestone of medical development in the cancer field. However, in order to ensure microchimerism persists long term, it would normally require a longer treatment period of three or four separate cycles in nine to twelve months.

How microtransplantation helps build a better life?

No HLA match donor required

Microtransplantation is a less aggressive treatment method, it is developed specifically to treat AML patients without an HLA match donor. Normally, an HLA match is ranked from 1 to 10,10 being the perfect match while 1 being a totally incomplete match. For microtransplantation, loci below 7 works better.

No graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) till present

GVHD is a systemic disease resulting from transplantation; it is one of the main causes of death. For conventional transplantation, such as bone marrow transplantation, myeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplantation and nonmyeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplantation, GVHD after transplantation cannot be avoided. However, microtransplantation solves the problem. AML Patients after microtransplantation have not had GVHD problems till present.  

No immunosuppressive drugs required

The side effects of immunosuppressive drugs could really affect quality of life; the elderly would have greater risk of severe side effects than younger patients. However, patients will not require any immunosuppressive drugs throughout the whole and after microtransplantation treatment as there is no GVHD effect. Thus receivers can enjoy better life quality after microtransplantation.

Higher efficacy and OS (overall survival)

According to the studies on Blood and Journal of Clinical Oncology, in terms of treating elderly AML patients, 2-year DFS (disease free survival) of microtransplantation reaches 40%, 20% higher than internationally recognized 2-year DFS. For treating standard-risk and low-risk young AML patients, the 6-year DFS of microtransplantation is 76.4%, and the OS (overall survival) is 82.1%.

SOURCE MST Leukemia Clinic