1. ¹Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
2. ²National Marrow Donor Program, Minneapolis, MN, USA
3. ³Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA
4. ⁴Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Canada
5. ⁵MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA
6. ⁶Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

Correspondence: Dr KK Ballen, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Cox 640, 100 Blossom Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA. E-mail: kballen@partners.org

Received 18 June 2004; Accepted 13 December 2004; Published online 21 February 2005.

Abstract

The outcome of patients with multiple myeloma treated with standard therapy is disappointing, with a historical median survival of 3 years. Although high-dose therapy with autologous stem cell transplant has improved treatment outcomes, cure is unlikely. Allogeneic transplant provides a tumor-free graft and a graft-versus-myeloma effect. However, only a minority of patients has a compatible sibling donor. Unrelated hematopoietic stem cell transplant is another option. We analyzed the outcome of patients who received an unrelated bone marrow transplant facilitated by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). Between 1989 and 2000, 71 patients received a myeloablative unrelated transplant for multiple myeloma; 70 patients consented for this analysis. The median recipient age was 44 years. A total of 31% of patients had received a prior autologous transplant. In all, 91% of patients engrafted. The 3-year cumulative incidence estimate of relapse was 3410%. The incidence of Grade II–IV GVHD was 47%. The Kaplan–Meier estimate for overall survival at 5 years was 97%. The 100-day treatment-related mortality was 42%. In multivariate analysis, only a male donor was a significant predictor for survival. Better strategies are needed to treat patients with multiple myeloma, perhaps by using less-toxic, nonmyeloablative conditioning regimens.