For hematopoietic progenitor cells (blood stem cells able to repopulate the bone) ‘enough’ to refer to the donor pre-treatment to multiply the presence of these units in their blood and then extract and implant in a patient with leukemia or other haematological malignancies.

As explained by Dr. Javier Lopez, a hematologist at the Hospital Ramón y Cajal de Madrid, the peripheral blood has an advantage over bone marrow, which is that “offers a faster recovery,” because it takes less time to ‘catch’. So, now usually opt for this technique to treat patients with advanced leukemia, to ensure that your bone marrow recover quickly. While in patients with less advanced disease, is chosen by the bone marrow, which takes a few more days at work in exchange for offering a better safety profile.

In order to clarify the differences between the two methods in the long term, the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (from Germany led by Dr. Birte Freidrichs) has compared the evolution of 329 patients with various types of leukemia treated both transplants across Europe between 1995 and 1999.

After a median follow-up 10 years (the most extensive to date), the researchers found no difference in the prognosis of survival with bone marrow or peripheral blood (donated by both brothers supported.) In fact, they add, although patients treated with this technique were more complications of rejection (the so-called graft versus host disease), this problem did not result in more deaths.

In patients with acute leukemia, there was a trend of survival better (although not statistically significant) in bone marrow transplant with peripheral blood. Only in chronic myeloid leukemia were more positive results with peripheral blood. “These findings suggest that there is a subgroup of patients who may benefit even bone marrow transplantation.”

“After a decade of monitoring, increased incidence of graft-versus-host disease did not result in a greater number of deaths, nor affected the overall health of patients, nor their social integration, complete these European hematologists . In his view, the results do not allow to conclude for themselves that it is time to return to bone marrow transplants for certain indications, but that this technique can not be parked entirely at the moment.

A new molecular tool could become a therapeutic option for acute myeloid leukemia.

According to a study published in the latest issue of Cell Stem Cell, preclinical studies conducted by a team from Children Cancer Institute Australia have demonstrated that CD123 molecule is over expressed in leukemia stem cells, whereas its expression in healthy cells is normal.

This molecule is part of the interleukin-3 receptor, a protein that interacts with a growth factor linked to survival and cell proliferation.

The creation of a monoclonal antibody that binds to CD 123 for attempting to interfere selectively in the survival of leukemia stem cells is the main innovation offered by the work coordinated by Richard Lock.

When tumor stem cells were transplanted into mice treated with the antibody, known as 7G3, cytokine signaling in cancer cells was blocked.

In addition, 7G3 inhibited the migration of leukemia stem cells in the marrow and activated the innate immune system of animals to destroy diseased cells.