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Histocompatibility and Donor Selection Issues

Are changes in HLA Ags responsible for leukemia relapse after HLA-matched allogeneic hematopoietic SCT?

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 50, pages 411–413 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) has been shown to be associated with leukemia relapse after haploidentical transplantation. Whether such changes are an important cause of relapse after HLA-matched transplantation remains unclear. We retrospectively HLA-typed leukemic blasts for 71 patients with AML/myelodysplastic syndrome obtained from stored samples, and the results were compared with those obtained at diagnosis and/or before the transplant. No LOH or any other changes in HLA Ag were found in any of the samples tested post transplant as compared with pretransplant specimens. One patient had LOH in HLA class I Ag (HLA-A,-B and -C); however, these changes were present in the pretransplant sample indicating that they occurred before the transplant. We concluded that, in contrast with haploidentical transplantation, HLA loss does not have a major role as a mechanism of relapse after allogeneic transplantation with a closely HLA-matched donor.

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Acknowledgements

This paper was supported in part by an MD Anderson Cancer Center Institutional Research Grant to SOC.

Author Contributions

AH collected data and wrote the paper; MAFV and KC contributed to study design, data collection and interpreted results; LMP and FA contributed to data collection and interpretation of results; SK performed the blast concentration; REC contributed with interpretation of the results and manuscript writing; SOC contributed with study design, data collection, interpretation of the results and manuscript writing. All authors critically reviewed and approved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA,

    A Hamdi, L M Poon, R E Champlin & S O Ciurea

  2. Department of Laboratory Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA,

    K Cao & F Aung

  3. Department of Leukemia, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    S Kornblau

  4. Department of Pathology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    M A Fernandez Vina

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  1. A Hamdi
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  2. K Cao
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  3. L M Poon
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  4. F Aung
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  6. M A Fernandez Vina
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  7. R E Champlin
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Correspondence to S O Ciurea.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

This study was presented at the 2013 BMT Tandem Meetings, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.

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Hamdi, A., Cao, K., Poon, L. et al. Are changes in HLA Ags responsible for leukemia relapse after HLA-matched allogeneic hematopoietic SCT?. Bone Marrow Transplant 50, 411–413 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2014.285

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2014.285

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