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A graft-versus-colonic cancer effect of allogeneic stem cell transplantation

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 28, pages 1161–1166 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

Allogeneic stem cell transplantation (ASCT) has proved to have an important immune-mediated anti-tumour effect in patients with haematologic malignancies. There is also evidence of such an effect in patients with malignant tumours. We studied this effect of ASCT in a patient with colorectal cancer. A 77-year-old man having a primarily resected colonic cancer with disseminated lymph node involvement received ASCT from his HLA-identical sibling as the only treatment. Mixed haematopoietic chimerism was monitored using PCR-amplification of variable number tandem repeats and tumour size, assessed by repeated CT scans. Recipient leucocytes were gradually replaced by donor cells for 1 month. Continuous resolution of lymph node metastases was seen together with clinical graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The patient died of pneumonia and cardiac insufficiency 4 months after transplantation. At autopsy, most of the metastases were necrotic, with few remaining tumour cells. Clinical and histopathological postmortem results showed a graft-versus-colorectal cancer effect.

Bone Marrow Transplantation (2001) 28, 1161–1166.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the staff at the Centre for Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation for competent and compassionate care of the patient, and Inger Hammarberg for preparation of this manuscript. This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Cancer Society (0070-B99–13XAC), the Children's Cancer Foundation (1997/073), the Swedish Medical Research Council (K2000–06X-05971–20A), the Tobias Foundation and the FRF Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Karolinska Institutet at Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    H Zetterquist & A Thörne

  2. Centre for Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation and Department of Clinical Immunology, Karolinska Institutet at Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    P Hentschke, J Mattsson, M Uzunel, J Aschan & O Ringdén

  3. Department of Pathology, Karolinska Institutet at Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    A Wernerson & N Papadogiannakis

  4. Department of Radiology, Karolinska Institutet at Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    J Martola & N Albiin

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  1. H Zetterquist
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Zetterquist, H., Hentschke, P., Thörne, A. et al. A graft-versus-colonic cancer effect of allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 28, 1161–1166 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1703287

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1703287

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