Report from the Chinese Bone Marrow Transplant Registry with special regard to autologous transplant.

OBJECTIVE: To study the current status of autotransplantation in the People's Republic of China and facilitate national and international exchange of relevant experiences.

METHODS: On the basis of the materials collected from the member units around our country, various statistical methods, such as Kaplan-Meier and chi 2 tests, were used to estimate the probabilities of leukemia free survival (LFS).

RESULTS: Up to July 31, 1996, a total of 1213 cases of stem cell transplantation (SCT) were performed in 61 medical units in the People's Republic of China, and 22 of the units are able to perform both allogeneic SCT (Allo-SCT) and autologous-SCT (ASCT). The remaining 41 units had the capacity only to perform autologous-SCT. There were 772 cases of autologous SCT performed. The three year probabilities of leukemia free survival for acute mylogeneous leukemia complete remission (AML-CR1) and acute lymphocyte leukemia complete remission (ALL-CR1) recipients were 56% and 42.8%, respectively. The three year probabilities of relapse were 44.8% and 47%, respectively. Among the patients with acute leukemia who attained CR1 within 40 days of diagnosis and who subsequently underwent autotransplantation within three to six months, the three year probabilities of LFS for acute mylogenous leukemia (AML) and acute lymphocyte leukemia (ALL) were 72% and 50%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: Patients who attained complete remission (CR1) within 40 days after diagnosis and underwent subsequent autologous-SCT within three to six months of CR1 enjoyed a significantly increased LFS.