Over 700 Chinese patients with acute myeloid leukemia undergo Microtransplantation treatment

May 30 2015

According to Dr. Huisheng Ai's team, founder of Microtransplantation regimen mainly for Acute Myeloid Leukemia, over 700 patients have undergone this therapy since its emergence in 2002. Based at MST International Clinic for Leukemia in the 307th Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army in Beijing, about 40 hematology centers covering all main hospitals in 32 provinces of mainland China have adopted Microtransplantation regimen.

Microtransplantation regimen of reduced-intensity chemotherapy plus granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) mobilized human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-mismatched allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell infusion was developed by Dr Huisheng Ai, Guo Mei, etc. intending to overcome the intolerable severe reactions of high-dose chemotherapy and graft-versus-host diseas (GVHD), as well as the challenge to find HLA-matched donors for conventional transplant. It was firstly practiced in 2002, and later named as Microtransplantation in 2006.

Clinical reports on microtransplantation in 2011 on Blood and 2012 on Journal of Clinical Oncology showed promising results in terms of much higher leukemia-free and overall survival probabilities and lower toxicity as there were no GVHD and few severe infections. Moreover, as HLA-matched stem cells are unnecessary, donor availability is extremely extended. The positive results have been verified by healthcare centers in American, Italy and Spain by far. For older acute myeloid leukemia patients who can't tolerate risks of conventional transplant or your patients who can't find matched donors, Microtransplantation has become their first choice.

Led by Dr. Huisheng Ai and his medical team, further multicenter collaborative study on safety and efficacy of Microtransplantation to treat elderly acute myeloid leukemia has started since 2013 in 9 authoritative blood institutes from China, Duke University and Keck School of Medicine-University of Southern California in United States, University of Sydney in Australia and University of Montreal in Canada.