Use of partially mismatched related donors extends access to allogeneic marrow transplant

Most patients requiring allogeneic bone marrow transplant (allo-BMT) do not have an HLA-matched sibling donor. A phenotypically matched unrelated donor graft has been made available for approximately 50% of Caucasians and less than 10% of ethnic and racial minorities in need. However, almost all patients have a readily available partially mismatched related donor (PMRD). We summarize our experience with 72 patients who ranged from 1 to 50 years of age (median, 16 years) and who were recipients of a PMRD allo-BMT from haploidentical family members following conditioning therapy using total body irradiation (TBI) and multiagent, high-dose chemotherapy. T-cell depletion and post-BMT immunosuppression were combined for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prophylaxis. The probability of engraftment was 0.88 at 32 days. Six of 10 patients who failed to engraft achieved engraftment after secondary transplant. Grade II to IV acute GVHD was seen in 9 of 58 (16%) evaluable patients; extensive chronic GVHD was seen in 4 of 48 (8%) evaluable patients. There was a statistically significant difference in 2-year survival probability between low-risk and high-risk patients (0.55 v 0.27, P = .048). Prognostic factors that affected outcomes in multivariate analysis were (1) a lower TBI dose and 3-antigen rejection mismatch decreased stable engraftment (P = .005 and P = .002, respectively); (2) a higher T-cell dose increased acute GVHD (P = .058); (3) a higher TBI dose increased chronic GVHD (P = .016); and (4) a high-risk disease category increased treatment failure from relapse or death (P = .037). A PMRD transplant can be performed with acceptable rates of graft failure and GVHD. Using sequential immunomodulation, the disease status at the time of transplant is the only prognostic factor significantly associated with long-term successful outcome after PMRD allo-BMT. When allogeneic rather than autologous BMT is indicated, progression in disease status before transplant can be avoided using a PMRD with equal inclusion of all ethnic or racial groups.