Bone marrow transplantation in the treatment of sickle cell anemia

The possibility of using bone marrow transplantation to treat selected patients with sickle cell anemia has recently been raised by the effectiveness of this approach in an 8-year-old girl suffering from both acute myeloblastic leukemia and sickle cell anemia. The child's sickle cell anemia was converted to the donor's sickle cell trait and she remains in complete remission from her leukemia 22 months following transplantation. This paper considers the therapeutic implications of this child's progress and discusses the major immunological complications, particularly graft-vs.-host disease, which currently limit the more widespread use of marrow transplantation in the therapy of sickle cell anemia.