title: The changing scene of allogeneic stem cell transplantation for chronic myeloid leukemia--a report from the German Registry covering the period from 1998 to 2004.
abstract: Due to the recent changes in the indication to allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), we retrospectively analyzed 1,716 patients with different CML stages who received an allograft from related (n = 767) or unrelated donors (n = 938) within the German Registry of Stem Cell Transplantation (DRST) from 1998 to 2004. Myeloablative conditioning was performed in 724/871 cases (83%), dose-reduced conditioning in 147/871 (17%). Annual transplantations were decreasing from 357 to 98 (28%) in the period of study, but the proportion of advanced cases was increasing from 32% (112/346) to 53% (50/94) of all SCTs. Stage of disease, intervals from diagnosis, and patients' age were independent prognostic parameters, while peripheral stem cells and unrelated transplantation seemed equal to bone marrow/related transplantation. This study demonstrates that allo-SCT still has an important role in advanced CML, which emphasizes the need for optimized transplantation strategies for these high-risk patients.
authors.affiliation: Interdisziplinäre Klinik für Stammzelltransplantation, Universitäres Cancer Center Hamburg (UCCH), Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. u.bacher@uke.de
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bacher
authors.forename: Evgeny
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Klyuchnikov
authors.forename: Tatjana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zabelina
authors.forename: Hellmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ottinger
authors.forename: Dietrich W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Beelen
authors.forename: Hubert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schrezenmeier
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ehninger
authors.forename: Carlheinz
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.forename: Meinolf
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suttorp
authors.forename: Hans-Jochem
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kolb
authors.forename: Nicolaus
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kröger
authors.forename: Axel R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Zander