A trial of low intensity stem cell transplant after chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukaemia and high risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MUNICH)

Cancer type:

Acute leukaemia

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)

Blood cancers

Leukaemia

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS)

Status:

Results

Phase:

Phase 2

This trial looked at having a reduced intensity stem cell transplant straight after chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndrome.

This trial was for people with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) or high risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) that hadn’t responded to treatment or came back after treatment.

More about this trial

Chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant are the usual treatments for AML and high risk MDS.

You have chemotherapy first to try and get rid of all the cancerous or abnormal cells. After you recover from chemotherapy you have a test to see how well it worked.

You might have a stem cell transplant if your test shows no sign (or nearly no sign) of cancer or abnormal cells. The transplant can be several weeks after chemotherapy. This means you are in hospital for chemotherapy and then again for the transplant.

Researchers have looked at giving the transplant 3 days after chemotherapy. They use lower doses of treatment than people usually have before a stem cell transplant. This is called a reduced intensity transplant. This would mean being in hospital only once.

The aims of this trial were to find:

how well having a stem cell transplant straight after chemotherapy worked for people with AML and high risk MDS that hadn’t responded to treatment or came back after treatment
how long they needed to stay in hospital
what the side effects were

Summary of results

The team found that a reduced intensity stem cell transplant straight after chemotherapy could help people with AML and high risk MDS that hadn’t responded to treatment or came back afterwards.

54 people took part in this phase 2 trial.

The average number of days they stayed in hospital was 36.

The team looked at the total number of people who were still alive at 1 year and 2 years after treatment. This is called overall survival.

They found this was:

23 people at year 1
16 people at year 2

The team also looked at the number of people whose disease hadn’t come back or who hadn’t died. This is event free survival.

They found this was:

20 people at year 1
12 people at year 2

The worst side effects were graft versus host disease (GVHD) and infection.

The trial team concluded a reduced intensity transplant could help people with AML or high risk MDS that didn’t respond to treatment or came back afterwards.

We have based this summary on information from the research team. As far as we are aware, the information they sent us has not been reviewed independently (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) or published in a medical journal yet. The figures we quote above were provided by the research team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.