Marrow transplantation from donors other than HLA identical siblings

Abstract

As of 31 December 1979, 39 patients in Seattle have received marrow grafts from donors other than HLA genotypically identical siblings. Sixteen transplants were between siblings, 21 from a parent to a child, one from a paternal uncle, and one from an unrelated donor. Ten patients had aplastic anemia and 29 had a hematological malignancy. As of 1 February 1980, only one of the ten patients transplanted for aplastic anemia is currently alive (greater than 1048 days) with a normal marrow and without graft-versus-host disease. This surviving patient was untransfused and received marrow from an HLA phenotypically identical mother. There were five episodes of graft rejection among the ten aplastic patients. Among the 29 patients transplanted for hematological malignancy, 12 (42%) are surviving from greater than 64 to greater than 995 days. Twelve of 29 patients were transplanted while in remission and eight (75%) are alive from greater than 148 to greater than 790 days. The two most frequent causes of death were relapse of leukemia and interstitial pneumonia. Only two patients died from complications clearly related to graft-versus-host disease. Five of the surviving patients were phenotypically identical with their donor for HLA, while seven were incompatible for some HLA determinants. One patient--donor pair was incompatible for HLA-D and DR as a result of HLA-B/D recombination, and six pairs were incompatible for HLA-A and/or B.