New guidelines expand access to BMT for severe aplastic anemia patients
Doctors now have new guidelines around bone marrow transplants (BMT) for Severe Aplastic Anemia (SAA).
AgeN/A
Number of ParticipantsN/A
Research GoalIncrease Access
Doctors now have new guidelines around bone marrow transplants (BMT) for Severe Aplastic Anemia (SAA). With SAA, your bone marrow doesn't make enough blood cells. An allogeneic BMT gives you healthy blood-making cells from a donor. These cells help your bone marrow make healthy blood cells again.
In the past, doctors didn't usually consider BMT for patients over 40 years old. A group of doctors and SAA experts wanted to rethink how doctors treat SAA. They reviewed studies published through December 2023.
Results
The group suggested new guidelines, including:
- If you're over 40 years old and otherwise healthy, you should be considered for BMT as a first treatment.
- If you don't have a matching donor in your family, doctors should look for other donor options instead of using medicines that suppress your immune system. These options could be a matched unrelated donor or haploidentical (half-matched) related donor.
- Doctors should use bone marrow instead of other sources like peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) or cord blood.
- To prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), doctors should use medicines like calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) and methotrexate or post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy).
Impact
- These guidelines can help more people get a BMT to potentially cure their SAA, especially older adults.
- A new guide for doctors helps with decision-making around BMT for SAA.
- SAA needs more research in:
- Medicines to prevent GVHD
- Choosing the best donor
- Post-transplant care