DONOR-CELL LEUKEMIA AFTER BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION FOR SEVERE APLASTIC-ANEMIA

ACUTE leukemia after bone marrow transplantation for severe aplastic anemia is a rare event.1,2 In previous reports, such leukemia has been shown to originate in host cells.2 We report the development of acute monoblastic leukemia in donor cells nine months after transplantation in a patient with aplastic anemia. We used cytogenetic analysis and a novel application of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to show that the leukemia was of donor-cell origin. The donor was hematologically normal at the time of transplantation and has remained so to the time of this writing 18 months later. Case Report A 19-year-old man presented. © 1991, Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.