Donor Availability and Clinical Trials for Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation
- Thomas Büchner, MD buechnr@uni-muenster.deDepartment of Hematology and OncologyUniversity of MünsterMünster, Germany
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- HLA ANTIGENS
- LEUKEMIA, MYELOID, ACUTE
- STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION
- SURVIVAL
- TISSUE DONORS
- TRANSPLANTATION, HOMOLOGOUS
To the Editor: As emphasized by Dr Koreth and colleagues,1 the assessment of allogeneic stem cell transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia in first complete remission requires controlled prospective clinical trials. In their meta-analysis, the authors evaluated trials in which treatment assignment was based on the presence or absence of an HLA-matched donor. Although the authors recognized the inclusion of patients having no siblings as a source of bias,2 they did not select their group for analysis accordingly.
Of the patients in their meta-analysis, 91% were from published trials of donor vs no-donor analyses, in which patients without siblings were included in the no-donor group. Reliable data on the relative value of allogeneic stem cell transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia in the past requires re-evaluation of donor vs no-donor comparisons focused on documented tissue-typed patients and their siblings.
Concerns about the equivalence of related and unrelated donors should no …
