Randomized controlled trials of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for autoimmune diseases : the evolution from myeloablative to lymphoablative transplant regimens
Abstract
Hematologists/oncologists initiated the use of autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. (HSCT) as a treatment for severe autoimmune diseases beginning in the early 1990s. According to multicenter reports, this therapy has been plagued by a high rate of transplant-related mortality.
However, transplantrelated mortality from different individual centers varies widely. We will review and discuss how the differences in philosophy, rationale, and design of these protocols affect treatment-related mortality, and we will compare how these differences have influenced ongoing or soonto-be-opened randomized controlled trials of autologous HSCT for patients with autoimmune diseases.
In particular, we will emphasize the distinction between myeloablative and lymphoablative trials