Patient Eligibility for HCT

Patients under consideration for HCT require a thorough evaluation performed by a transplant physician. A comprehensive pre-transplant evaluation should:

• Determine the patient's health and performance status
• Assess the patient's disease status
• Guide the informed consent process
• Identify any psychosocial issues that would interfere with the transplant procedure/recovery [1]

Health and Performance Status

Well-established health and performance status criteria to assess patient eligibility for HCT include:

• Age
• Karnofsky performance score
• Left ventricular ejection fraction
• Pulmonary function test; forced vital capacity
• Diffusion capacity (DLCO)
• Kidney function
• Liver function
• Mental health [2,3]

Recent research has shown that age alone should not be a determinant for HCT eligibility. [4,5] Transplant physicians therefore generally do not set an upper age limit for transplant and instead assess HCT eligibility on other clinical factors such as presence of co-morbidities and geriatric/frailty assessments. [4,6]

HCT comorbidity index

For more than a decade, transplant physicians have been using the HCT comorbidity index (HCT-CI) to evaluate HCT candidates. The HCT-CI measures the prevalence and severity of comorbidities in 17 organs. It is useful in assessing the suitability of HCT for patients, and it can also provide valuable prognostic information after HCT. [7,8]

Assessing patient eligibility using an HCT-specific tool is important because research has shown that physical function and co-morbidities, and not chronological age alone, should be considered when determining eligibility for transplant. [9] Therefore, many older patients — once considered by many transplant centers to be ineligible due to chronologic age — may in fact now be candidates for HCT.

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has made available an online HCT-CI calculator.

Disease stage, previous treatments (chemotherapy/radiation), infectious disease, and transfusion history can also have a significant impact on HCT outcomes. Research shows that early referral is an important step that can affect survival.

Three hematopoietic cell sources are used in HCT: bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC), and umbilical cord blood. Each source in an allogeneic transplant can come from a related or unrelated donor or cord blood unit. Most autologous transplants use PBSC for ease of collection of the cells and a more rapid hematopoietic recovery.

Recent outcome studies have demonstrated that related and unrelated donor transplant outcomes are comparable in many patient populations. Therefore, lack of a related donor should not preclude referral for a transplant consultation. [10]

Currently, the chance of having a matched, available donor on the Be The Match Registry®, ranges from 29-79% depending on patient ethnic background. Because appropriate planning and early donor identification are critical for optimal outcomes, early referral for a transplant consultation is appropriate, even for patients who ultimately may never need HCT.

A psychosocial evaluation is important to assessing a patient's ability to undergo a transplant. The primary goal of the assessment is to manage any psychosocial issues that would interfere with the transplant procedure and the recovery phase. [1-3]

Due to the often lengthy recovery period, most transplant centers require a caregiver to advocate for the patient and to be available to assist the patient during and after transplant.

Transplant centers in our Network each have criteria for the kinds of transplants performed, and diseases and ages treated. Access individual U.S. transplant center information and outcomes.