Chemotherapy Found as Effective as Bone Marrow Transplants

Bone marrow transplants are no more effective than conventional chemotherapy in increasing the survival rate of children suffering from acute myeloid leukemia, according to researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan. A multi-center team randomly gave standard chemotherapy to 117 children and bone marrow treatments to 115 others in the hopes of curing their leukemia, which is caused by cancerous white blood cells.

The team reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that the survival rate among the children in the transplant group was no higher after three years than among those who received chemotherapy alone.