Destroying leukaemia stem cell habitats

Stem cell transplantation for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

Early results of autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) suggested a significant proportion of patients remained disease-free for years, raising the possibility of cure. More recent studies have shown no evidence of a plateau in the survival curves indicating that, at best, ASCT may only prolong disease-free survival. Problems remain over progenitor ce...

Destroying Civilization, Destroying Nature

Successful treatment of primary plasma cell leukaemia by allogeneic stem cell transplantation from haploidentical sibling.

Primary plasma cell leukaemia (PCL) is a rare, aggressive neoplasm of plasma cell dyscrasia. Conventional chemotherapy is usually ineffective, with an overall survival of only 8 months. Here, we describe a 42-year-old man with primary PCL, who was successfully treated with haploidentical (2-HLA loci mismatched) haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT). To overcome the human leukocyte ant...

Stem cell transplantation for chronic myeloid leukaemia: the role of infused marrow cell dose.

INTRODUCTION Allogeneic stem cell transplantation is a potentially curative option for patients with CML. The optimal donor is an HLA-identical sibling but transplants using unrelated volunteers can also be successful. The factors influencing survival after allogeneic SCT for CML are reasonably well defined. Recently however, the Seattle group have emphasised the influence of a high marrow cell...

The cancer stem cell model: B cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia breaks the mould

The cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis postulates that tumours are arranged in a developmental hierarchy reflecting heterogeneity on the cellular level. Within a given tumour, only a subset of cells have the capacity to self-renew, give rise to more differentiated progeny and maintain the tumour long-term (Nguyen et al, 2012). The model implies that cancer therapy must eliminate all CSCs in orde...