Matched unrelated donor transplants – State of the art in the 21st century

Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is the therapy of choice in many haematological malignant and non-malignant diseases by using human leucocyte antigen (HLA)-matched siblings as stem cell source but only one third of the patients will have HLA-matched siblings. Hence, physicians rely on the availability of matched unrelated donors (URD). The possibility of finding a matched URD is now more than 70% due continuous expansion of URD registries around the world. The use of URD in adult patients is steadily increasing and in the last 8 years, has superseded the numbers of matched sibling donor transplants and has become the most commonly used stem cell source.
Source: Seminars in Hematology - Category: Hematology Authors: Source Type: research