Materials and Methods:
We describe a cohort of eight pediatric patients, which suffered from a primary refractory or relapsed acute leukemia and were treated with the salvage regimen of high dose melphalan and cytarabine. The patients were treated between the years 2015 and 2019 in the Children’s University Hospital Tübingen. All patients were previously treated by a standard of care chemotherapy prior to high dose melphalan and cytarabine. Response was evaluated by examination of bone marrow (BM) before and after application of melphalan and cytarabine. In case of response, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation was performed immediately afterwards. Additional supportive care was administered according to our institutional standards, including antibiotic, antifungal and antiviral prophylaxis.