Hematopoietic stem cell apheresis in the context of a related allogeneic transplant for acute myeloid leukemia: an unexpected outcome, medical emergency and ethical issue

摘要

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is recognized as a life-saving procedure for patients with severe hematologic malignancies and is being increasingly performed in specialized centers around the world.In autologous HSCT, hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) are mobilized into the blood of patients, usually using chemotherapy and/or granulocyte colony-stimulating factors (G-CSF), in order to be collected (apheresis technique) and subsequently managed by a processing laboratory for cryopreservation. Stem cells are later thawed and reinfused into the patient after the conditioning regimen (intensive chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy), to allow the immune reconstitution.