Unrelated donor hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and sibling donor HCT yield comparable outcomes in patients with acquired severe aplastic anemia, according to research results presented at ASH. In all patients, the use of an unrelated donor as compared to a sibling donor did not lead to significantly different survival: Relative risk (RR): 1.2; p=0.4. Low-risk patients had five-year survival of 91% (sibling) and 81% (unrelated donor) (p=0.052). The lead researcher noted that these results warrant the activation of an unrelated donor search for all patients lacking an HLA-matched sibling, up to the age of 60.
Bacigalupo A, et al. BloodComparable Outcomes for Unrelated, Sibling HCT in Aplastic Anemia
Dec 2013