Info

Types of Allo HSCT

based on donor/recipient matching of major HLA antigens on Chr. 6 (4 principal genes for serotyping: HLA-A, -B, -C, & -DR; each w/ 2 alleles ∴ 8 major Ag)

HLA-compatible

  • Matched related (MRD, sibling 8/8 major Ag match):
    • lowest GVHD; preferred donor
  • Matched unrelated (MUD):
    • ↑ risk of GVHD; ∴ matching of 10 HLA alleles (DQ also) to ↓ risk; chance of match correlates w/ ethnicity (NEJM 2014;371:339)
  • Mismatched related (eg, 1/8 Ag mismatch):
    • ↑ available donor pool, but ↑ GVHD, rejection; ∴ need additional immunosuppression
  • Haploidentical:
    • typically, between parents and young children or sibs (“half” match); early post-tx cyclophosphamide reduces GVH by destroying proliferating alloreactive T-cells
  • Umbilical cord blood:
    • HSC processed at birth & stored. Yields lower cell number. Need 2 cords per adult. Neonatal immune cells: HLA-mismatch tolerated better, ↓ GVHD, slow immune reconstitution → ↑ late viral infections (Blood 2010;116:4693).

Graft-vs.-host disease (GVHD)

undesirable side effect of allo HSCT allogeneic T cells view host cells as foreign; ↑ incid. w/ mismatch or unrelated donors

Graft-vs.-tumor (GVT)

desired effect in allo-SCT; graft T cells attack host tumor cells