Background: The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among cytomegalovirus (CMV) viremia, peripheral immune cells alternations, and leukemia prognosis.
Patients and methods: We studied 90 leukemia patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) from 2008 to 2015. Their complete clinical laboratory data were collected until 1 year after transplantation.
Results: All patients were serum CMV negative before allo-HSCT. After transplantation, the CMV reactivation group showed increased peripheral CD8⁺ T cells and decreased CD4⁺ T cells and B cells. However, CD8/CD4 ratio and B cells restored by control of CMV infection due to 2 months maximum course of ganciclovir treatment. CMV seropositivity was positively related to leukemia-free survival (LFS) of all recruited leukemia types.
Conclusion: In summary, CMV drives immune cell post-transplantation fluctuation, which also favors LFS of leukemia partly resulted from CD8⁺ T cells.
Keywords: cytomegalovirus, leukemia, allo-HSCT, CD8⁺ T cells, leukemia-free survival