Outcomes Better in Recent Hematopoietic Cell Recipients

Study compares results after allogeneic transplants during periods in the mid-1990s, 2000s

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Patients receiving allogeneic hematopoietic-cell transplants during a period in the mid-2000s had a variety of improved outcomes compared to patients during a period 10 years earlier, according to research published in the Nov. 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Ted A. Gooley, Ph.D., of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and colleagues analyzed data from 1,418 patients who received their first allogeneic transplants from 1993 through 1997 and 1,148 who received their transplants from 2003 through 2007.

The researchers found that, during the later period, patients had a 52 percent decrease in mortality not preceded by relapse, overall, and a 60 percent decrease at day 200. The later patients also had a 21 percent lower rate of relapse or progression of a malignant condition as well as 41 percent lower overall mortality. The later patients were also less likely to have severe graft-versus-host disease; viral, bacterial, or fungal diseases; and liver, lung, and kidney damage.

"Overall, progress in allogeneic transplantation for hematologic cancers has been remarkable over the past 40 years, with many long-term survivors. However, mortality remains undesirably high, and it is hoped that this rate of death will be reduced as more selectively targeted therapies become available. Research on transplantation with the use of umbilical-cord blood or cellular therapy without long-term engraftment is under way in attempts to improve overall outcomes," writes the author of an accompanying editorial.

Several co-authors disclosed financial relationships with pharmaceutical companies.

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