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
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout


Similar content being viewed by others
References
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
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
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
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
Tsuda H . Hemophagocytic syndrome in children and adults Int J Hematol 1997 65: 215 226
Henter JI, Elinder G . Cerebromeningeal haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis Lancet 1992 339: 104 107
Levy J, Wodell RA, August CS, Bayever E . Adenovirus-related hemophagocytic syndrome after bone marrow transplantation Bone Marrow Transplant 1990 6: 349 352
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
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
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
Henter JI, Elinder G, Soder O et al. Hypercytokinemia in familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis Blood 1991 78: 2918 2922
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights 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
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1703554
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation from mismatched unrelated donors associated with low CD34 and CD3 cell counts in the graft
Bone Marrow Transplantation (2022)
-
Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) following allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT)—time to reappraise with modern diagnostic and treatment strategies?
Bone Marrow Transplantation (2020)
-
My jamais vu in post allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant: a review on secondary hemophagocytosis in adults
Bone Marrow Transplantation (2020)
-
Adalimumab for treatment of hemophagocytic syndrome following unrelated bone marrow transplantation in a boy with Behcet’s disease and secondary myelodysplastic syndrome
Bone Marrow Transplantation (2018)
-
Increase of bone marrow macrophages and CD8+ T lymphocytes predict graft failure after allogeneic bone marrow or cord blood transplantation
Bone Marrow Transplantation (2017)