Luis F. Porrata, M.D.

Recently, I discovered that early lymphocyte recovery after autologous stem cell transplantation predicts superior survival of patients suffering from acute myelogenous leukemia, metastatic breast cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and mulitple myeloma. This observation suggests that an immune mediated graft-versus-tumor mechanism, similar to that in allogeneic stem cell transplantation, operates in the autologous setting. My research interest is on unraveling the mechanism underlying the improved survival related to early lymphocyte recovery following autologous stem cell transplantation; thus, translating into clinical immunotherapeutic treatments to enhance survival after autologous stem cell transplantation.