Antileukemic Effect of Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease

ALLOGENEIC marrow transplantation is being used with increasing frequency in the treatment of acute leukemia.1 2 3 4 Recurrent leukemia is an uncommon cause of therapeutic failure in patients with acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia who receive transplants while the disease is in first remission,1 , 3 , 4 but recurrence is a major cause of failure in patients with acute nonlymphoblastic leukemia or acute lymphoblastic leukemia who receive transplants with the disease in relapse or in a second or subsequent remission. 2 , 3 , 5 Attempts to decrease the rate of leukemic relapse with more vigorous chemoradiotherapy conditioning regimens have generally been unsuccessful.2 , 6 , 7 However, we previously reported that the rate of leukemic . . .