Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation as primary therapy of sporadic adult Burkitt lymphoma

High dose chemoradiotherapy and haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (SCT) is used as primary therapy for patients diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma (BL). Forty-three adults presented with sporadic BL in British Columbia between 1987 and 2003. Twenty patients had bone marrow involvement. Sixteen patients did not proceed to SCT because of chemorefractory disease (n = 9) or other reasons (n = 7). Twenty-seven patients proceeded to SCT and had a 3-year event-free survival of 51%. In conclusion, approximately 50% of patients with chemosensitive BL who undergo SCT can be cured; however, a significant number of patients will not proceed to SCT because of early resistance or recurrence.