Adoptive immunotherapy of acute leukemia: experimental and clinical results.

Abstract

Summary The theoretical principle of treatment of acute leukemia by adoptive immunotherapy is to permit allogenic, immunologically competent cells to act against the host9s leukemic cells and the basic leukemogenic factors present in the host. Such an effect may be obtained by a graft of allogenic hematopoietic cells following total-body irradiation. If the patient is able to survive the secondary syndrome that is induced by the homograft, an eradication of the leukemia may well be obtained. It has been demonstrated that this mode of therapy is effective in the treatment of spontaneous, transplanted, and viral leukemias in mice. Clinical trials of adoptive immunotherapy of acute leukemia in man are described. The results show that it is possible to obtain a sustained graft of hematopoietic cells and that such a graft has a distinct value as an anti-leukemic agent.