SPONTANEOUS REGRESSION OF TUMORS RELAPSED FOLLOWING HIGH DOSE CHEMOTHERAPY AND AUTOLOGOUS STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION: A RELATIONSHIP WITH AN APLASTIC ANEMIA TYPE SYNDROME?
J. Lakota*, A. Vranovsky, M. Ladicka
BMT Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, National Cancer Institute, Bratislava, Slovakia
Abstract. 4 patients (1 with breast cancer, 1 with Hodgkin’s disease (HD), 1 with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and 1 with Ewing’s sarcoma) relapsed/progressed shortly after high dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation. They were concomitantly either bicytopenic or pancytopenic. These 4 patients achieved complete remissions of their tumors spontaneously without any further treatment. One hypothesis to explain this data is that their remissions may be related to the postulated anti-tumor effect of aplastic anemia like syndrome.
