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Acute Leukemias

Small number of HTLV-1-positive cells frequently remains during complete remission after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation that are heterogeneous in origin among cases with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma

Leukemia volume 21, pages 1212–1217 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) can provide long-term remission for patients with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) caused by human retrovirus, human T-lymphocyte virus (HTLV-1). To understand how HTLV-1-positive cells including ATLL cells were suppressed by allo-HSCT, we examined HTLV-1 provirus load and residual ATLL cells in peripheral blood of transplant recipients using PCR-based tests. We found that the copy number of HTLV-1 genome, called provirus, became very small in number after allo-HSCT; however, in most cases, provirus did not disappear even among long-term survivors. Tumor-specific PCR tests demonstrated that most of HTLV-1-positive cells that remained long after transplantation were not primary ATLL cells but donor-derived HTLV-1-positive cells. We also found a case having very low amount of residual disease in peripheral blood even long after transplantation. There was only one recipient in whom we failed to show the presence of HTLV-1 genome and antibody against HTLV-1 even with an extensive search, which strongly suggested the elimination of HTLV-1 after allo-HSCT. These results demonstrated that after allo-HSCT the small amount of residual HTLV-1-positive cells were heterogeneous in origin and that long-term disease control for ATLL could be obtained without the complete elimination of HTLV-1.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by grant from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Medicine Unit and Hematology, Atomic Bomb Disease Institute, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan

    R Yamasaki, Y Miyazaki, C Tsutsumi, T Fukushima, Y Inoue, E Matsuo, Y Imaizumi, D Imanishi, T Fujimoto, H Tsushima, T Hata, K Tsukasaki & M Tomonaga

  2. Department of Hematology, Sasebo Municipal General Hospital, Sasebo, Japan

    Y Moriuchi & J Taguchi

  3. National Hospital Organization, Nagasaki Medical Center, Ohmura, Japan

    S Yoshida

  4. Institute for Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan

    S Honda

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  1. R Yamasaki
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  16. K Tsukasaki
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  17. M Tomonaga
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Correspondence to Y Miyazaki.

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Yamasaki, R., Miyazaki, Y., Moriuchi, Y. et al. Small number of HTLV-1-positive cells frequently remains during complete remission after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation that are heterogeneous in origin among cases with adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma. Leukemia 21, 1212–1217 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2404678

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