Antonio Pierini, Associate Professor at the Complex Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Department of the University and Hospital of Perugia, was invited to present at the 66th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology, recently held in San Diego. He spoke on the debated and significant topic of "Prevention of Leukemia Relapse After Bone Marrow Transplantation."

Pierini shared with the international scientific community the most innovative aspects of the transplantation platform in use at the Bone Marrow Transplant Center in Perugia, highlighting the extraordinary results achieved. He emphasized that 75% of patients with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia, who were transplanted from partially matched family donors, have been cured. This success rate is notably higher than that observed in European and North American centers, where the cure rate is around 50%.

"The other winning factor," Pierini continued, "is the use of helical radiotherapy equipment, employed by the Oncology Radiotherapy Department under Professor Cynthia Aristei’s direction, to treat patients immediately before the transplant. This helps facilitate engraftment and contributes to the destruction of residual leukemia cells."

Thanks to this technology, it is possible to irradiate all bones with a reduced radiation dose, causing less damage to healthy organs and tissues and lowering the overall toxicity of the transplant procedure. This allows the life-saving transplant procedure to be extended even to patients aged 60-70 years.