title: Transplantation for Fanconi's anaemia: long-term follow-up of fifty patients transplanted from a sibling donor after low-dose cyclophosphamide and thoraco-abdominal irradiation for conditioning.
abstract: We describe the long-term follow-up of 50 Fanconi's anaemia patients who were transplanted from a related donor with a median follow-up of >6 years. The survival estimate was 74.4% at 54 months and 58.5% at 100 months. All patients were conditioned with low-dose cyclophosphamide and thoraco-abdominal irradiation. Acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) of grade II or more developed in 26 patients and chronic GvHD developed in 30/43 (69.9%) patients. The survival of patients without chronic GvHD (n = 13) was 100%. In addition to chronic GvHD, 20 pre-transplant transfusions was shown to have an adverse impact on survival by multivariate analysis (relative risk = 7.08, P = 0.0003). Prospective follow-up of growth and endocrine function could be performed in 31 patients. Of 20 boys, six have already reached normal puberty within the expected time. Among the 11 girls, three were at the pubertal age at the time of analysis. Growth retardation was common, whereas late complications (e.g. peripheral hypothyroidism, cataract) were rare. However, the most important long-term complication was the occurrence of cancer in seven patients (8-year projected incidence 24%). Among the 32 survivors, 27 (84.5%) had a normal and four a moderately reduced performance status, and all achieved complete engraftment with donor cells. Therefore transplantation was able to cure these patients who remain at high risk for developing late complications. Clearly, a genetic predisposition and chronic GvHD could have led to the development of these cancers. However, we cannot completely rule out irradiation as a cofactor in the genesis of these cancers, and therefore no longer use irradiation for the conditioning of Fanconi's anaemia patients.
authors.affiliation: Service d'Hématologie-Greffe de Moelle and Unité de Recherche sur la Biologie des Cellules Souches, Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris, France.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Socié
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Devergie
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Girinski
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Piel
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ribaud
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Esperou
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Parquet
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Maarek
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Noguera
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Richard
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Brison
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gluckman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000477:Alkylating Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D016026:Bone Marrow Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003520:Cyclophosphamide / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005199:Fanconi Anemia / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006085:Graft Survival; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D019520:Living Donors; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate; D019172:Transplantation Conditioning / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000477:Alkylating Agents; D003520:Cyclophosphamide