Twenty-five years of peripheral blood stem cell transplantation

Peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) is the most common transplantation procedure performed in medicine. Its clinical introduction in 1986 replaced BM as a stem-cell source to approximately 100% in the autologous and to approximately 75% in the allogeneic transplantation setting. This historical overview provides a brief insight into the discovery of circulating hematopoietic stem cells in the early 1960s, the development of apheresis technology, the discovery of hematopoietic growth factors and small molecule CXCR4 antagonist for stem- cell mobilization, and in vivo experimental transplantation studies that eventually led to clinical PBSCT. Also mentioned are the controversies surrounding the engraftment potential of circulating stem cells before acceptance as a clinical modality. Clinical trials comparing the outcome of PBSCT with BM transplantation, registry data analyses, and the role of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) in promoting unrelated blood stem-cell donation are addressed.