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Peripheral blood (PB) and bone marrow (BM) from unrelated donors can serve as a graft source for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Currently, PB is most commonly used in roughly 80% of adult recipients. Determining the long-term impact of graft source on outcomes would inform this decision. Data collected by the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research from 5200 adult recipients of a first HCT from an 8/8 or 7/8 HLA antigen-matched unrelated donor for treatment of acute leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, or myelodysplastic syndrome between 2001 and 2011 were analyzed to determine the impact of graft source on graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) relapse-free survival (GRFS), defined as freedom from grade III/IV acute GVHD, chronic GVHD requiring immunosuppressive therapy, relapse, and death, and overall survival. GRFS at 2 years was superior in BM recipients compared with PB recipients (16%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 14% to 18% versus 10%; 95% CI, 8% to 11%; P <.0001) in the 8/8 HLA-matched cohort and 7/8 HLA-matched cohort (11%; 95% CI, 8% to 14% versus 5%; 95% CI, 4% to 7%; P = .001). With 8/8 HLA-matched unrelated donors, overall survival at 5 years was superior in recipients of BM (43%; 95% CI, 40% to 46% versus 38%; 95% CI, 36% to 40%; P = .014). The inferior 5-year survival in the PB cohort was attributable to a higher frequency of deaths while in remission compared with the BM cohort. For recipients of 7/8 HLA-matched grafts, survival at 5 years was similar in BM recipients and PB recipients (32% versus 29%; P = .329). BM grafts are associated with improved long-term GRFS and overall survival in recipients of matched unrelated donor HCT and should be considered the unrelated allograft of choice, when available, for adults with acute leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, and myelodysplastic syndrome., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Approximately 20,000 hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) procedures are performed in the United States annually. With advances in transplantation technology and supportive care practices, HCT has become safer, and patient survival continues to improve over time. Indications for HCT continue to evolve as research refines the role for HCT in established indications and identifies emerging indications where HCT may be beneficial. The American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT) established a multiple-stakeholder task force consisting of transplant experts, payer representatives, and a patient advocate to provide guidance on "routine" indications for HCT. This white paper presents the recommendations from the task force. Indications for HCT were categorized as follows: (1) Standard of care, where indication for HCT is well defined and supported by evidence; (2) Standard of care, clinical evidence available, where large clinical trials and observational studies are not available but HCT has been shown to be effective therapy; (3) Standard of care, rare indication, for rare diseases where HCT has demonstrated effectiveness but large clinical trials and observational studies are not feasible; (4) Developmental, for diseases where preclinical and/or early phase clinical studies show HCT to be a promising treatment option; and (5) Not generally recommended, where available evidence does not support the routine use of HCT. The ASBMT will periodically review these guidelines and will update them as new evidence becomes available., (Copyright © 2015 American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Controversy surrounds the question of whether clinical trial participants have better outcomes than comparable patients who are not treated on a trial. We explored this question using a recent large, randomized, multicenter study comparing peripheral blood (PB) with bone marrow transplantation from unrelated donors, conducted by the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN). We compared characteristics and outcomes of study participants (n = 494) and nonparticipants (n = 1384) who appeared eligible and received similar treatment without enrolling on the BMT CTN trial at participating centers during the study time period. Data were obtained from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. Outcomes were compared between the 2 groups using Cox proportional hazards regression models. No significant differences in age, sex, disease distribution, race/ethnicity, HLA matching, comorbidities, and interval from diagnosis to hematopoietic cell transplantation were seen between the participants and nonparticipants. Nonparticipants were more likely to have lower performance status, lower risk disease, and older donors, and to receive myeloablative conditioning and antithymocyte globulin. Nonparticipants were also more likely to receive PB grafts, the intervention tested in the trial (66% versus 50%, P < .001). Overall survival, transplantation-related mortality, and incidences of acute or chronic graft-versus-host disease were comparable between the 2 groups though relapse was higher (hazard ratio, 1.22; 95% confidence interval, 1.02 to 1.46; P = .028) in nonparticipants. Despite differences in certain baseline characteristics, survival was comparable between study participants and nonparticipants. The results of the BMT CTN trial appear generalizable to the population of trial-eligible patients., (Copyright © 2015 American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Although transplant practices have changed over the last decades, no information is available on trends in incidence and outcome of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) over time. This study used the central database of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) to describe time trends for cGVHD incidence, nonrelapse mortality, and risk factors for cGVHD. The 12-year period was divided into 3 intervals, 1995 to 1999, 2000 to 2003, and 2004 to 2007, and included 26,563 patients with acute leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia, and myelodysplastic syndrome. Multivariate analysis showed an increased incidence of cGVHD in more recent years (odds ratio = 1.19, P < .0001), and this trend was still seen when adjusting for donor type, graft type, or conditioning intensity. In patients with cGVHD, nonrelapse mortality has decreased over time, but at 5 years there were no significant differences among different time periods. Risk factors for cGVHD were in line with previous studies. This is the first comprehensive characterization of the trends in cGVHD incidence and underscores the mounting need for addressing this major late complication of transplantation in future research., (Copyright © 2015 American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. All rights reserved.)

We describe outcomes after human leukocyte antigen-matched sibling bone marrow transplantation (BMT) for 179 patients with β-thalassemia major. The median age at transplantation was 7 years and the median follow-up was 6 years. The distribution of Pesaro risk class I, II, and III categories was 2%, 42%, and 36%, respectively. The day 30 cumulative incidence of neutrophil recovery and day 100 platelet recovery were 90% and 86%, respectively. Seventeen patients had graft failure, which was fatal in 11. Six of 9 patients with graft failure are alive after a second transplantation. The day 100 probability of acute graft-versus-host disease and 5-year probability of chronic graft-versus-host disease was 38% and 13%, respectively. The 5-year probabilities of overall- and disease-free survival were 91% and 88%, respectively, for patients with Pesaro risk class II, and 64% and 62%, respectively, for Pesaro risk class III. In multivariate analysis, mortality risks were higher in patients 7 years of age and older and those with hepatomegaly before BMT. The leading causes of death were interstitial pneumonitis (n = 7), hemorrhage (n = 8), and veno-occlusive disease (n = 6). Proceeding to BMT in children younger than 7 years before development of end-organ damage, particularly in the liver, should improve results after BMT for β-thalassemia major.

We analyzed the outcome of 692 patients with severe aplastic anemia (SAA) receiving transplants from HLA-matched siblings. A total of 134 grafts were peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) grafts, and 558 were bone marrow (BM) grafts. Rates of hematopoietic recovery and grades 2 to 4 chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) were similar after PBPC and BM transplantations regardless of age at transplantation. In patients older than 20 years, chronic GVHD and overall mortality rates were similar after PBPC and BM transplantations. In patients younger than 20 years, rates of chronic GVHD (relative risk [RR] 2.82; P = .002) and overall mortality (RR 2.04; P = .024) were higher after transplantation of PBPCs than after transplantation of BM. In younger patients, the 5-year probabilities of overall survival were 73% and 85% after PBPC and BM transplantations, respectively. Corresponding probabilities for older patients were 52% and 64%. These data indicate that BM grafts are preferred to PBPC grafts in young patients undergoing HLA-matched sibling donor transplantation for SAA.

The addition of antithymocyte globulin (ATG) to a regimen of high-dose cyclophosphamide has been advocated to enhance engraftment after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) for severe aplastic anemia (SAA). In a prospective clinical trial, 134 patients were randomly assigned to receive cyclophosphamide alone or in combination with ATG. All patients received T-cell-replete bone marrow from an HLA-matched sibling. With a median follow-up of 6 years, the 5-year probabilities of survival were 74% for the cyclophosphamide alone group and 80% for the cyclophosphamide plus ATG group (P = .44). Graft failure and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) rates were similar in both groups. With the survival rates achieved, this study is not adequately powered to detect significant differences between the 2 treatment groups. In conclusion, the results of allogeneic BMT for SAA have improved over time related to advances in supportive care. The addition of ATG to the preparative regimen did not significantly improve the outcome.

Most acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients lack human leucocyte antigen-identical sibling donors for transplantation. Autotransplants and unrelated donor (URD) transplants are therapeutic options. To compare autologous versus URD transplantation for AML in first (CR1) or second complete remission (CR2), we studied the outcomes of 668 autotransplants were compared with 476 URD transplants reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research. Proportional hazards regression adjusted for differences in prognostic variables. In multivariate analyses transplant-related mortality (TRM) was significantly higher and relapse lower with URD transplantation. Adjusted 3-year survival probabilities were: in CR1 57 (53-61)% with autotransplants and 44 (37-51)% URD (P = 0.002), in CR2 46 (39-53)% and 33 (28-38)% respectively (P = 0.006). Adjusted 3-year leukaemia-free survival (LFS) probabilities were: CR1 53 (48-57)% with autotransplants and 43 (36-50)% with URD (P = 0.021), CR2 39 (32-46)% and 33 (27-38)% respectively (P = 0.169). Both autologous and URD transplantation produced prolonged LFS. High TRM offsets the superior antileukaemia effect of URD transplantation. This retrospective, observational database study showed that autotransplantation, in general, offered higher 3-year survival for AML patients in CR1 and CR2. Cytogenetics, however, were known in only two-thirds of patients and treatment bias cannot be eliminated.

Patients with Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) who are unresponsive to or intolerant of corticosteroids, experience treatment failure with other treatments, develop additional cytopenias or clonal disease, or opt for curative therapy are often treated with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. We studied the transplantation outcomes of 61 DBA patients whose data were reported to the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry between 1984 and 2000. The median age was 7 years (range, 1-32 years). Among 55 patients with available transfusion information, 35 (64%) had received > or =20 units of blood before transplantation. Most patients (67%) received their bone marrow grafts from an HLA-matched related donor. The median time to neutrophil recovery was 17 days (range, 10-119 days) and to platelet recovery was 23 days (range, 9-119 days). Five patients did not achieve neutrophil engraftment. The 100-day mortality was 18% (95% confidence interval, 10%-29%). Grade II to IV acute graft-versus-host disease occurred in 28% (range, 17%-39%) and chronic graft-versus-host disease in 26% (range, 15%-39%). The 3-year probability of overall survival was 64% (range, 50%-74%). In univariate analysis, a Karnofsky score > or =90 and transplantation from an HLA-identical sibling donor were associated with better survival. These data suggest that allogeneic bone marrow transplantation is effective for the treatment of DBA. Transplantation before deterioration of the performance status and from an HLA-identical sibling donor may improve survival.

We report the case of a 59-year-old woman with Durie-Salmon stage IIIB IgGkappa multiple myeloma (MM), who presented 83 days after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) with multiple subcutaneous plasmacytomas. These lesions were confined exclusively to sites where the patient had sustained local trauma. The patient had no pre-transplant history of extramedullary disease and no evidence of plasma cells in the peripheral blood at any time throughout the course of her disease. This case represents the first report of refractory MM presenting as multiple subcutaneous plasmacytomas with specific tropism to sites of previous trauma. Selection of tumor cell subclones with unique chemokine receptor expression profiles that may explain this clinical observation is discussed., (Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the only curative therapy for myelodysplasia (MDS). To identify factors influencing transplantation outcome, we studied 452 recipients of HLA-identical sibling transplants for MDS from 1989 to 1997, reported to the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry. Patients with treatment-related MDS or unclassified MDS were excluded. Median age was 38 years (range, 2-64 years). Sixty percent had refractory anemia with excess blasts (n = 136) or with excess blasts in transformation (n = 136). Conditioning regimens included total body irradiation in 199 (44%) cases. Marrow was T-cell depleted for 58 (13%) transplants. Cumulative incidences of neutrophil engraftment, grades II-IV acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), and chronic GVHD were 91% (95% confidence interval [CI], 88%-93%), 36% (95% CI, 31%-40%), and 39% (95% CI, 33%-44%), respectively. Three-year transplantation-related mortality (TRM), relapse, disease-free survival, and overall survival rates were 37% (95% CI, 32%-42%), 23% (95% CI, 19%-27%), 40% (95% CI, 36%-45%), and 42% (95% CI, 37%-47%), respectively. Multivariate analyses showed that young age and platelet counts higher than 100 x 10(9)/L at transplantation were associated with lower TRM and higher disease-free and overall survival rates. Relapse incidence was higher in patients with high percentages of blasts in the marrow at transplantation or presentation, with high International Prognostic Scoring System scores at diagnosis, and with T-cell-depleted transplants. These findings indicate that transplantation from an HLA-identical sibling offers the possibility of long-term, disease-free survival to patients with MDS. Best candidates are younger patients with a low percentage of blasts and preserved platelet counts.

We report outcomes after myeloablative haematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) from human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-matched sibling donors in 67 patients with sickle cell disease transplanted between 1989 and 2002. The most common indications for transplantation were stroke and recurrent vaso-occlusive crisis in 38% and 37% of patients respectively. The median age at transplantation was 10 years and 67% of patients had received >10 red blood cell transfusions before HCT. Twenty-seven percent of patients had a poor performance score at transplantation. Ninety-four percent received busulfan and cyclophosphamide-containing conditioning regimens and bone marrow was the predominant source of donor cells. Most patients achieved haematopoietic recovery and no deaths occurred during the early post-transplant period. Rates of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease were 10% and 22% respectively. Sixty-four of 67 patients are alive with 5-year probabilities of disease-free and overall survival of 85% and 97% respectively. Nine patients had graft failure with recovery of sickle erythropoiesis, eight of who had recurrent sickle-related events. This report confirms and extends earlier reports that HCT from HLA-matched related donors offers a very high survival rate, with few transplant-related complications and the elimination of sickle-related complications in the majority of patients who undergo this therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a clinical study that determines the risk factors for bronchiolitis obliterans by using data from the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry in the U.S. It provides information on the percentage of patients having diagnosis based on pulmonary function tests, computed tomography scans of chest, or a combination of both clinical tests.

Little is known about the experiences of individuals donating peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) or marrow for a second time. To study this, unrelated donors making a second donation through the National Marrow Donor Program between 2004 and 2013 were evaluated. Experiences of second-time donors giving marrow (n = 118: first donation was PBSC in 76 and marrow in 42) were compared with those making only 1 marrow donation (n = 5829). Experiences of second-time donors giving PBSCs (n = 602) (first donation was PBSCs in 362; marrow in 240) were compared to first-time PBSC donors (n = 16,095). For donors giving a second PBSC or marrow donation there were no significant differences in maximum skeletal pain, maximum symptoms measured by an established modified toxicity criteria, and recovery time compared with those who donated only once. Notably, the yield of marrow nucleated cells and PBSC CD34 + cells with second donations was less. As previously noted with single first-time donations, female (PBSCs and marrow) and obese donors (PBSCs) had higher skeletal pain and/or toxicity with a second donation. PBSC donors who experienced high levels of pain or toxicity with the first donation also experienced high levels of these symptoms with their second donation and slower recovery times. In conclusion, for most donors second donation experiences were similar to first donation experiences, but CD34 + yields were less. Knowledge of the donor's first experience and stem cell yields may help centers decide whether second donations are appropriate and institute measures to improve donor experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are limited data to guide the choice of high-dose therapy (HDT) regimen before autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (AHCT) for patients with Hodgkin (HL) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). We studied 4917 patients (NHL, n = 3905; HL, n = 1012) who underwent AHCT from 1995 to 2008 using the most common HDT platforms: carmustine (BCNU), etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan (BEAM) (n = 1730); cyclophosphamide, BCNU, and etoposide (CBV) (n = 1853); busulfan and cyclophosphamide (BuCy) (n = 789); and total body irradiation (TBI)–containing treatment (n = 545). CBV was divided into CBV high and CBV low based on BCNU dose. We analyzed the impact of regimen on development of idiopathic pulmonary syndrome (IPS), transplantation-related mortality (TRM), and progression-free and overall survival. The 1-year incidence of IPS was 3% to 6% and was highest in recipients of CBV high (hazard ratio [HR], 1.9) and TBI (HR, 2.0) compared with BEAM. One-year TRM was 4% to 8%, respectively, and was similar between regimens. Among patients with NHL, there was a significant interaction between histology, HDT regimen, and outcome. Compared with BEAM, CBV low (HR, .63) was associated with lower mortality in follicular lymphoma ( P < .001), and CBV high (HR, 1.44) was associated with higher mortality in diffuse large B cell lymphoma ( P = .001). For patients with HL, CBV high (HR, 1.54), CBV low (HR, 1.53), BuCy (HR, 1.77), and TBI (HR, 3.39) were associated with higher mortality compared with BEAM ( P < .001). The impact of specific AHCT regimen on post-transplantation survival is different depending on histology; therefore, further studies are required to define the best regimen for specific diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]