High-dose chemotherapy without transfusion for Philadelphia chromosome negative B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in two Jehovah’s Witnesses patients: a feasible option in the age of hematopoietic growth factors

摘要

B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) can be cured in most children and in the majority of young adults with sufficiently intensive and myelosuppressive combination chemotherapy regimens [1]. Jehovahs Witnesses (JW) belong to an 8 million person worldwide church whose religious beliefs preclude the receipt of allogeneic blood and derived products [2,3]. While blood-saving procedures and autologous transfusion mitigate this issue in such cases as scheduled surgery [4], treatment of hematological cancers remains especially challenging [5]. We successfully treated two Philadelphia chromosomenegative B-ALL patients with a dose-dense chemotherapy regimen and hematopoietic growth factor (HGF) support.