Acute leukemia in Jehovah's Witnesses: a challenge for hematologists.

Abstract

With the aim of demonstrating the possibility of treating acute leukemia in Jehovah's Witnesses by protocols which include a marrow transplantation procedure without need of transfusions, we report our experience on 5 patients. Three patients had acute lymphocytic leukemia and two acute myeloid leukemia, two received autologous bone marrow transplants and one bone marrow transplantation without transfusions. One died because of anemia during induction. Our conclusion is that acute leukemia in Jehovah's Witnesses can be treated with protocols employed in transfused patients.