No impact of NOD2/CARD15 on outcome after SCT

Recent studies have pointed towards an association between certain single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the NOD2/CARD15 gene, and negative outcome of Allo-SCT. In this study, 198 patients and their corresponding donors were analyzed retrospectively for the occurrence of NOD2/CARD15 mutations to evaluate the impact on clinical results after Allo-SCT. In all, 7.6% of the patients and 11% of the donors were heterozygous for one of three SNPs 8, 12 or 13. Contrary to earlier findings, we found no significant impact on incidence of acute GVHD or TRM following Allo-SCT. These differences in results could be due to a lower mutation frequency in the studied population and/or a lower overall incidence of severe GVHD. On the basis of these findings we conclude that a consideration to NOD2/CARD15 mutation status is not pertinent when selecting a donor for Allo-SCT at our centre.