Recent trends in allogeneic bone marrow transplantation

The indications and results of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation are well known by the analyses of European and International registries. In acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia in first complete remission (CR), the disease-free survival (DFS) is 45%, with a risk of relapse (RR) of 15%; in ALL in first CR the DFS is 60% with a RR of 15%; in ALL in second CR the DFS in 40%, with a RR of 30%; in CML in chronic phase the DFS is 60%, with a RR of 20%. These results have to be adjusted with other risk factors such as age, sex mismatch, disease status, CMV serology, and GVH. The use of donors different from a genotypically matched related donor is currently under investigation. Mismatched related transplants give disappointing results except in the case of one HLA mismatch. Unrelated HLA matched donor panels have been recently established in various countries with 200 transplants performed with a DFS of approximately 40%. Current research tries to reduce the risk of relapse by intensifying the conditioning or using the GVL effect of allogeneic T cells, to reduce GVH by the use of monoclonal antibodies and to improve the engraftment by the use of growth factors.