Allo-HSCT for acute leukemia of ambiguous lineage in adults: the comparison between standard conditioning and intensified conditioning regimens

Knowledge concerning the clinical and biological characteristics of acute leukemia of ambiguous lineage (ALAL) is limited so that there has been a lack of uniformity in treatment. In this report, we retrospectively investigated the effect of intensified conditioning on adult ALAL undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). A total of 59 patients with ALAL (male in 37 cases and female in 22 cases) were consecutively enrolled in the data analyses. Twenty-four patients received the standard conditioning (total body irradiation (TBI)?+?cyclophosphamide (CY) or busulfan?+?CY protocol) and 35 received the intensified conditioning (TBI?+?CY?+?etoposide or fludarabine?+?cytarabine plus TBI?+?CY?+?etoposide protocol). Five-year transplant-related mortality was 17.6?±?9.6 % and 25.5?±?8.0 %, the 5-year overall survival (OS) post-transplantation was 23.8?±?8.9 % and 64.0?±?8.4 %, disease-free survival was 16.7?±?7.6 % and 55.8?±?9.4 %, the 5-year cumulative incidence of relapse was 80.8?±?8.5 % and 28.8?±?9.9 %, respectively, in the standard and the intensified group (P?=?0.380, P?=?0.029, P?=?0.005, and P?