Long-term Outcomes Among Older Patients Following Nonmyeloablative Conditioning and Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for Advanced Hematologic Malignancies

Abstract

Increasing age has been historically implicated in higher mortality after high-dose allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) for patients with hematologic malignancies.¹ Such transplants are preceded by intense, cytotoxic conditioning regimens aimed at reducing tumor burden. The risk of organ toxicities has limited the use of high-dose regimens to younger patients in good medical condition. Therefore, age cutoffs of 55 to 60 years have been in place for decades for high-dose HCT. This excluded the vast majority of patients from allogeneic HCT, given that median ages of patients at diagnoses of most hematologic malignancies range from 65 to 70 years.^2,3