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Sixty as the new forty: considerations on older related stem cell donors

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 52, pages 15–19 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

The era of reduced-intensity allogeneic stem cell transplantation, with its emphasis on older patients, has created new challenges in the management of what is now an older related stem cell donor population. These donors are now on average no less than 10 years older than in the mid-1990s. Donors over 70 years of age are no longer isolated or exceptional cases. They may still be considered eligible for donation but many of them, based on the older age and their medical history, may no longer fully qualify as ‘healthy’ or ‘normal’. The older the donor, the more likely that hematologic abnormalities, comorbidities and treated malignancies will complicate the picture. Assessing the risk-benefit ratio for both donor and recipient can now be more challenging than ever.

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Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Dr Michael Pulsipher and Deidre Kiefer (National Marrow Donor Program) for sharing data and insight on the RDSafe Study (NCT00948636). I am grateful to Dr Marcelo Pasquini for his assistance in securing data from the CIBMTR. I am also indebted to Charles Martinez for his help in querying our institutional donor database and preparing the figure outlining these data.

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  1. Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    P Anderlini

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Anderlini, P. Sixty as the new forty: considerations on older related stem cell donors. Bone Marrow Transplant 52, 15–19 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2016.201

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