It appears that more than half the patients treated with the stem cell treatment (52.1%) achieved complete remission, the authors report, compared with 21.4% of patients treated with the interferon (IFN-alpha) treatments, and one or more rounds of consolidation chemotherapy.

Appearantly, after a median follow-up of 4.2 years, significantly more patients had relapsed in the interferon group (60.3%) than in the stem cell treatment group (27.2%), based on the report.

In the stem cell treatment group, progression-free survival was 79.1% after 2 years and 64.7% after 5 years, whereas with in the interferon group, 52.7% and 33.3%, respectively. Patients who achieved complete remission had better progression-free survival after both treatments.

Read