ABSTRACT
Bone marrow transplantation is now a widely performed therapeutic modality and is often the therapy of choice for a number of congenital and acquired diseases. Autologous Bone Marrow (ABM) purging using lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells is an exciting biologic modality that has been considered. The effectiveness of ABM purging by LAK cells has not been critically assessed, even at the experimental level. Pilot studies, however, using tumor cell lines and biologically relevant detection systems have demonstrated a potential role for such a modality. Considerable experience has been accumulated regarding the optimal quantitative and qualitative generation of LAK effector cells with antitumor activity. The challenges for autologous marrow purging include, determining an optimal level of purging for reducing target cell contamination to a clinically subthreshold level while maintaining adequate marrow regeneration and detecting tumor cell contamination in marrow, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
