Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for myelodysplastic syndrome: current status

Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) offers potentially curative therapy for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). However, as the majority of patients with MDS is in the 7th or 8th decade of life, only few of these patients were transplanted following high-dose conditioning regimens. The development of reduced-intensity conditioning has allowed to apply HCT also to older patients and those with clinically relevant comorbid conditions. Dependent upon disease status and the type of clonal chromosomal abnormalities present at the time of HCT, some 25-75% of patients will be cured of their disease and survive long term. Recent results with HLA-matched unrelated donors are comparable to those with HLA genotypically identical siblings. The increasing use of cord blood and HLA-haploidentical donors is expected to make HCT available to a growing number of patients. However, post-transplant relapse and graft-versus-host disease remain problems requiring further instigations.