High-risk ALL was defined as having poor-risk cytogenetics CRT0066101 with either t(4:11), t(9;22),
t(8;14), hypodiploidy or near triploidy, or more than five cytogenetic abnormalities [11]. Of study subjects with acute leukemia, cytogenetic abnormalities were intermediate (n = 17, 44%) or poor (n = 22, 56%). Seven patients were primary refractory to induction chemotherapy. The other patients relapsed after conventional chemotherapy (n = 23) or the first or the second HCT (n = 9). The median number of blast cells in bone marrow (BM) was 26.0% (range; 0.2-100) before the start of chemotherapy for allo-HCT. Six patients had leukemic involvement of the central nervous system (CNS). Stem cell sources were related BM (n = 3, 7%), related peripheral blood (PB) (n = 13, 31%), unrelated BM (n = 20, 48%) and unrelated cord blood (CB) (n = 6, 14%). Standard serologic typing was used for human leukocyte antigen (HLA) -A, B and DRB1. Thirty-one pairs
were matched for HLA-A, B and DRB1 antigens. Three patients were mismatched for one HLA antigen (two at HLA-A, one at HLA-B), and seven were mismatched for two (two at HLA-A and B, five (all CB) at HLA-B and DRB1). The remaining one patient was mismatched for all three antigens (haploidentical). We classified H 89 purchase conditioning regimens into four categories. Standard BV-6 in vitro conditioning (n = 12) comprised a busulfan-based or total body irradiation (TBI)-based (12Gy) regimen. Busulfan was given as a total of 16
mg/kg orally or equivalent dose, 12.8 mg/kg intravenously (i.v.). Intensified conditioning (n = 9) consisted of additional cytoreductive chemotherapy in the three weeks before conditioning, followed by standard conditioning. Of the 21 patients receiving standard or intensified conditioning, 13 patients received the TBI-based regimen. Reduced-intensity conditioning (n = 21) comprised a fludarabine-based (n = 20) and cladribine-based regimen (n = 1). Fludarabine was given as 25-35 mg/m2 i.v. on five or six consecutive days. Of the 21 patients receiving reduced-intensity conditioning, 14 patients received cytoreductive chemotherapy in the three weeks before conditioning. Prophylaxis for acute GVHD was a calcineurin Histone demethylase inhibitor alone (n = 5), calcineurin inhibitor plus short-term methotrexate (n = 32), calcineurin inhibitor plus mycophenolate mofetil (n = 2), or none (n = 3). The calcineurin inhibitor included cyclosporine administered to 33 patients and tacrolimus to six patients. End points The absence of post-transplant remission in some patients biased the calculation of relapse rate, nonrelapse mortality (NRM) and leukemia-free survival (LFS). Therefore, we set five-year overall survival (OS) as the primary end point. OS was defined as time from the date of last transplantation to the date of death or last follow-up.