A comparison of busulphan versus total body irradiation combined with cyclophosphamide as conditioning for autograft or allograft bone marrow transplantation in patients with acute leukaemia

We retrospectively compared the outcome in patients in the EBMT database transplanted for acute leukaemia from January 1987 to January 1994 who received busulphan and cyclophosphamide (BU/CY) as a pretransplant regimen versus those who received cyclophosphamide and total-body irradiation (CY-TBI). The patients were matched for type of transplant (autologous bone marrow transplantation (ABMT) versus allogenic (BMT)), diagnosis (acute lymphoblast leukaemia (ALL) ora cute myeloid leukaemia (AML)), status (early first complete remission, CR-1) versus intermediate (second or later remission, first relapse)), age, FAB classification for AML, prevention of graft-versus-host disease and year of transplantation. BU/CY and CY/TBI as pretransplant regimens gave similar results in all situations, except ABMT for ALL intermediate stages with more than 2 years from diagnosis to transplantation, where a lower RI and a higher LFS were associated with CY/TBI. (author)