1. ¹Department of Hematology/Oncology, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, Korea
2. ²Department of Hematology/Oncology, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea
3. ³Department of Hematology/Oncology, Sungkyunkwan University, School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
4. ⁴Department of Hematology/Oncology, Chonnam National University Hospital, Gwangju, Korea

Correspondence: Dr SK Sohn, Department of Hematology/Oncology, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Hematology/Oncology, 50 Semduck 2-Ga, Jung-Gu, Daegu, 700-721, Republic of Korea. E-mail: sksohn@knu.ac.kr

Received 11 August 2004; Accepted 27 October 2004; Published online 17 January 2005.

Abstract

Few studies have addressed the incidence of graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) or survival after ABO-incompatible allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT). We analyzed the clinical outcome of ABO incompatibility after allogeneic PBSCT. A total of 89 consecutive adult patients with hematological diseases including 49 ABO-identical, 20 major, 15 minor, and five bidirectional ABO-incompatible transplants were enrolled from four medical centers in Korea. No significant difference in engraftment times, graft failure, or transfusion requirements between groups was noted. A clinical diagnosis of severe immune hemolysis or pure red cell aplasia was not made for any patient after transplantation. The incidence of acute or chronic GVHD did not statistically differ between groups. With a median follow-up duration of 13 months (range, 0.5–61 months), the 3-year overall survival estimates for the ABO-identical, major/bidirectional, and minor group were 44.6.09.0, 43.111.6, and 43.813.5%, respectively (P=0.8652), while the 3-year disease-free survival estimates were 33.87.6, 39.911.4, and 45.713.1%, respectively (P=0.8546). We observed that time to neutrophil, platelet, and red blood cell engraftment, transfusion requirements, incidence of acute or chronic GVHD, relapse, and survival were not influenced by ABO incompatibility after allogeneic PBSCT from HLA-matched sibling donors.