High-dose chemotherapy and APSCT as a potential cure for relapsing hemolysing AILD

Angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathy with dysproteinemia (or dysgammaglobulinemia) (AILD) is a lymphoproliferative disorder with cytogenetic and molecular abnormalities characteristic of malignant T-cell lymphoma (angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma - AITL). We report the clinical course of a 58-year-old male patient with unusually aggressive AILD, including severe hemolysis and Guillain-Barre syndrome, who entered complete remission after CHOP therapy, but had a full relapse after 2 months. At relapse, treatment with high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous peripheral stem cell transplantation (APSCT) with CD34 selected cells was shown to be successful. The patient is alive and disease-free 3 years after diagnosis and 32 months after APSCT. Considering the poor prognosis of the majority of patients with AILD, intensive treatment followed by APSCT, may be a subject for further studies. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.