Hematopoietic cell transplantation for telomere biology diseases: A retrospective single-center cohort study

• Background: Telomere biology diseases (TBD) result from defective telomere maintenance, leading to bone marrow failure. The only curative treatment for aplastic anemia related to TBD is a hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT). Although reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) regimens decrease transplant-related mortality, non-hematological phenotypes represent a major challenge and are associated with poor long-term follow-up outcomes.Objective: To describe the outcome of TBD patients transplanted for marrow failure.Study Design: This is a retrospective, single-center study describing the outcomes of 32 consecutive transplants on 29 patients between 1993 and 2019.Results: The median age at transplantation was 14 years (range, 3-30 years). Most patients received a RIC regimen (n = 28) and bone marrow (BM) from an unrelated donor (n = 16). Four patients received a haploidentical transplant. Chimerism was available for 27 patients with a median time to neutrophil recovery of 20 days (13-36 days). Primary graft failure occurred in one patient, whereas second graft failure occurred in two. Acute GVHD grade II-IV and moderate to severe chronic GVHD occurred in 22% of patients at risk. Fourteen patients were alive after HCT at the last follow-up (median, 6 years; 1.4-19 years). The 5-year overall survival was better after matched sibling donor (MSD) transplantation compared to other hematopoietic stem cell sources (88.9% vs. 47.7%; p = .05; CI = 95%). Overall, 15 patients died after HCT, most of them (n = 11) after the first year of transplant, due to non-hematological disease progression or complication of chronic GVHD.Conclusions: Hematopoietic cell transplantation is a potentially curative treatment option for TBD, nonetheless the poor outcome reflects the progression of non-hematologic disease manifestations, which should be considered when transplantation is indicated.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Hematologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Hematology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

dyskeratosis congenita

hematopoietic cell transplant

telomere biology

disease

telomeres

bone-marrow-transplantation

versus-host-disease

dyskeratosis-congenita

mixed chimerism

failure

length

cyclophosphamide

complications

mutations

regimen

Hematology

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