Treatment of stage IV neuroblastoma with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in children

Objective At present there is no effective therapeutic approach for stage Ⅳ neuroblastoma.We report our experience with allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation as a means of treating this disorder in one child.Methods A 7-year-old boy with stage Ⅳ neuroblastoma received allogenetc hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.The donor was his mother who was haploid HLA-matched to the patient.Conditioning regimen consisted of fludarabin and melphalan.Stem cells were collected from peripheral blood and bone marrow of the donor.Results The patient achieved hematopoietic reconstruction and was converted to full donor chimerism according to short tandem repeat sequencepolymerase chain reaction detection.The patient′s neutrophil count recovered to more than 0.5×109/L 10 days after transplantation.The patient′s platelet count recovered to more than 20×109/L 11 days after transplantation.Acute graft versus host disease occurred 8 days after transplantation and was improved after treatment.The patient survived in a 210-day-follow-up.Conclusions Haploid HLA-matched allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from parent donor was an alternative,safe and effective treatment for children with stage IV neuroblastoma.