Haema 2013; 4(3):253-262
by Spiridon Hondropoulos1, Alexandros Spiridonidis2
1Haematologist
2Associate Professor of Hematology, Hematology Division, Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, University Hospital of Patras, Rio, Patras, Greece
Abstract
Acute leukemias are devastating hematological malignancies that occur in all age groups. Despite the progress in understanding the pathophysiology of the disease and the improvement in supportive care, a large proportion of patients who initially respond to therapy, relapse shortly after. The therapeutic options for consolidating the response to initial chemotherapy are three: intensification of chemotherapy, autologous and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In this review we discuss the existing data regarding the use of autologous stem cell transplantation in the setting of acute leukemias.