Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Transplantation. Nov 30, 2018; 8(7): 252-261
Published online Nov 30, 2018. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v8.i7.252
Graft vs host disease impacts overall survival post allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma
Moussab Damlaj, Mohammad Snnallah, Ayman Alhejazi, Samer Ghazi, Bader Alahmari, Ahmed Alaskar, Mohsen Al-Zahrani
Moussab Damlaj, Mohammad Snnallah, Ayman Alhejazi, Samer Ghazi, Bader Alahmari, Ahmed Alaskar, Mohsen Al-Zahrani, Division of Hematology and HCT, Department of Oncology, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia
Moussab Damlaj, Ayman Alhejazi, Ahmed Alaskar, Mohsen Al-Zahrani, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia
Author contributions: Damlaj M designed the study and analyzed data; Damlaj M, Ghazi S and Snnallah M collected data; all authors provided patients, wrote and reviewed the manuscript, and approved final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the institutional review board at King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC) - King Abdallah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC).
Informed consent statement: The institutional review board waived informed consent due to the retrospective study design without patient contact or intervention; thus representing minimal risk study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no relevant conflicts of interest relevant to the conduct of this study.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author to: Moussab Damlaj, FACP, FRCP (C), MD, Assistant Professor, Doctor, Division of Hematology and HCT, Department of Oncology, King Abdulaziz Medical City, P.O. Box 22490, Riyadh 11426, Saudi Arabia. damlajmo@ngha.med.sa
Telephone: +966-80-1111153395 Fax: +966-80-1111153364
Received: May 23, 2018
Peer-review started: May 25, 2018
First decision: June 9, 2018
Revised: September 7, 2018
Accepted: November 3, 2018
Article in press: November 3, 2018
Published online: November 30, 2018
Processing time: 205 Days and 10.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) is a potentially curative therapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (ALL/LBL) patients. We examined the outcome and prognostic factors of HCT for high risk ALL/LBL at our center. After due institutional review board approval, 69 patients were enrolled. After a median follow up of 15 mo (2-87.3), the 2-year overall survival (OS) was 62.8%. In a multivariable analysis; acute graft vs host disease (GVHD) and chronic GVHD predicted OS. In conclusion, allogeneic-HCT for ALL/LBL results in promising remissions in high risk disease and early referral for HCT to be considered for young and fit patients.