Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for myelodysplastic syndrome: the past decade

Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is the only therapy with curative potential for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome. Many conditioning regimens have been developed that, along with the use of cord blood or HLA-haploidentical donors, allow doctors to offer HCT to a growing proportion of patients. New classification schemes identify more narrowly characterized risk groups, which may facilitate decisions with regard to HCT. Disease stage and cytogenetics remain the major determinants of HCT outcome. The use of peripheral blood progenitor cells may offer an advantage over marrow for engraftment and relapse prevention, but graft-versus-host disease remains a problem. The age of patients undergoing HCT has increased significantly over the past 25 years, and comorbid conditions are the major patient characteristic impacting transplant success. Recent studies show that drugs used in the non-HCT setting may be beneficial in the context of HCT.