Intensified Conditioning For Children Undergoing Bmt For First Bone Marrow Relapse Of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.

BMT remains the treatment of choice for early BM relapse of childhood ALL. We reasoned that further intensification of cytoreductive therapy pre-BMT may further improve survival amongst those with the highest risk of treatment failure, early BM relapse (BFM groups S3/4) and high level MRD pre-BMT. A cohort of 32 patients transplanted at a single institution (1996–1999) provided an historical control. 8 high risk patients transplanted 1999–2000 received additional fludarabine cytoreduction therapy at the time of transplant (FLA group). MRD analysis and time to relapse were used in a subsequent cohort of 22 patients (BMT 2000–2002) to allocate those at highest risk of treatment failure to receive a further cytoreductive block, FLX, pre-BMT.