Donor lymphocyte infusions for acute myeloid leukaemia

The success of donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) in treating chronic myeloid leukaemia that had recurred after allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation provided direct evidence for the existence of an immunologically mediated graft-vs-leukaemia effect and led to the development of non-myeloablative transplantation. For patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), DLI has been less effective, both as a result of its rapid growth kinetics and its decreased susceptibility to alloimmune-mediated effects. This chapter reviews the historical experience with DLI for AML, both as treatment for and prophylaxis of relapse. New approaches aimed at improving the efficacy of DLI are discussed, including administration of chemotherapy prior to DLI, use of immunomodulatory cytokines to bolster the cytotoxic effector response, priming of donor lymphocytes to recipient tumour antigens ex vivo, and infusions of alloreactive natural killer cells.

Key words: acute myeloid leukaemia, donor lymphocyte infusions, graft-vs-leukaemia effect