Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Case Report
  • Published:

Hemophagocytic syndrome: a rare complication of allogeneic nonmyeloablative hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Abstract

We report two cases of patients with malignant lymphoma who presented with early onset of hemophagocytic syndrome after nonmyeloablative allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation. Fever and skin eruption developed early after transplantation, and neurological symptoms preceded cytopenia and worsened progressively. Activated macrophages with hemophagocytosis were found in bone marrow of the two patients at day 15 and 56, respectively. The fact that no obvious infectious agents associated with hemophagocytic syndrome were detected, and that serum soluble interleukin-2 receptor concentrations were elevated in the early phase after transplantation, reflecting the activation of donor-derived T cells, suggests that this complication resulted from an alloimmune response.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. McSweeney PA, Niederwieser D, Shizuru JA et al. Hematopoietic cell transplantation in older patients with hematologic malignancies: replacing high-dose cytotoxic therapy with graft-versus-tumor effects Blood 2001 97: 3390 3400

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Slavin S, Nagler A, Naparstek E et al. Nonmyeloablative stem cell transplantation and cell therapy as an alternative to conventional bone marrow transplantation with lethal cytoreduction for the treatment of malignant and nonmalignant hematologic diseases Blood 1998 91: 756 763

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Khouri IF, Keating M, Korbling M et al. Transplant-lite: induction of graft-versus-malignancy using fludarabine-based nonablative chemotherapy and allogeneic blood progenitor-cell transplantation as treatment for lymphoid malignancies J Clin Oncol 1998 16: 2817 2824

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Thiede C, Florek M, Bornhäuser M et al. Rapid quantification of mixed chimerism using multiplex amplification of short tandem repeat markers and fluorescence detection Bone Marrow Transplant 1999 23: 1055 1060

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Tsuda H . Hemophagocytic syndrome in children and adults Int J Hematol 1997 65: 215 226

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Henter JI, Elinder G . Cerebromeningeal haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis Lancet 1992 339: 104 107

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Levy J, Wodell RA, August CS, Bayever E . Adenovirus-related hemophagocytic syndrome after bone marrow transplantation Bone Marrow Transplant 1990 6: 349 352

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Nagafuji K, Eto T, Hayashi S et al. Fatal cytomegalovirus interstitial pneumonia following autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation Bone Marrow Transplant 1998 21: 301 303

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Sato M, Matsushima T, Takada S et al. Fulminant, CMV-associated, haemophagocytic syndrome following unrelated bone marrow transplantation Bone Marrow Transplant 1998 22: 1219 1222

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Ishikawa J, Maeda T, Miyazaki T et al. Early onset of hemophagocytic syndrome following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation Int J Hematol 2000 72: 243 246

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Henter JI, Elinder G, Soder O et al. Hypercytokinemia in familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis Blood 1991 78: 2918 2922

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Abe, Y., Choi, I., Hara, K. et al. Hemophagocytic syndrome: a rare complication of allogeneic nonmyeloablative hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 29, 799–801 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1703554

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1703554

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links