Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem-Cell Transplantation For Patients With Richter'S Syndrome:The Sfgm-Tc Experience

Introduction. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) has typically an indolent course but can undergo transformation into a more aggressive lymphoma (mainly of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma histology) that is called Richter's syndrome. While the advent of novel therapies targeting the BCR signaling or the BCL-2 protein is transforming the management of patients with CLL, these drugs failed to prevent the risk of RS that is estimated to be 0.5-1% per year. RS is associated with a very poor outcome and is thus becoming the main obstacle to long term CLL cure. Allogeneic stem-cells transplantation (allo-SCT) has been recommended as the treatment of choice in eligible patients with clonally related RS (Rossi Blood 2018) but previous experience is still limited to less than 50 cases. We here aimed to investigate the safety and efficacy of allo-SCT for patients with RS.