Hello Marlene and Birgitta, Thanks for keeping us up to date. The original study abstract and editorial from Dr. Appelbaum are available at
www.nejm.org which is in the most current issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. One comment in the editorial which might apply to potential older BMT candidates who would get a reduced intensity regimen is "instead of being the default choice for most unrelated donor transplants, mobilized peripheral-blood stem cells should be used in only the minority of patients for whom the benefits outweigh the risks. These include patients in need of rapid engraftment, such as those with life-threatening infections, and patients at high risk for graft rejection, including those undergoing reduced intensity conditioning without prior exposure to intensive chemotherapy." This study looked at leukemia patients as well as MDS patients and only at unrelated donors transplants. I guess the recommendation for sibling donors would still be peripheral stem cells?? Can any of our transplant survivors out there tell us whether they received stem cells or bone marrow? Thanks tytd