Allogeneic transplantation for lymphoma: long-term outcome

In the last 20 years, allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT) has been increasingly applied in lymphoma patients, due to the shift towards reduced intensity and nonmyeloablative conditioning. This review reports on the most significant long-term results of allografted lymphoma patients coming from both prospective studies and retrospective analyses.

AlloSCT can cure 40-60% of aggressive B-cell lymphomas, but an unfavourable outcome has been observed in case of chemorefractory and active disease at the time of allografting. Indolent lymphoma displays the best outcome, and reduced-intensity alloSCT should be always considered in patients relapsing after an autologous SCT and in cases of chemorefractory disease. Most recent findings in Hodgkin's and T-cell lymphoma are also encouraging.

Although the nonrelapse mortality has been reduced and survival curves show a plateau, the analysis of the long-term outcome reveals that a significant proportion of patients still experiences disease relapse and delayed morbidity and mortality. At the best of our knowledge, the process of decision-making should be based on lymphoma subtype, chemosensitivity, disease status and patient comorbidities at the time of allografting. To answer some of the still open questions, physicians should try to improve the enrolment of patients in multicentre prospective clinical trials.